The Ocean at the End of the Lane
It's not often that I rush out to buy a book the day it's released.
For the most part I'm content to wait until the paperback to comes out.
But I've been eagerly awaiting Neil Gaiman's new book since I heard him
read the first chapter at the Fall for the Book Festival last year. So I
ran out to pick it up on my lunch hour the day it came out, and read
the entire thing that evening when I got home from work.
My only real complaint about The Ocean at the End of the Lane is that it wasn't long enough. Not that the story felt rushed or anything. The book was exactly the right length for the story within. But after waiting so long for a new novel from Gaiman, I was a little disappointed to have finished it in a single evening.
That said, the book was fantastic. One of the scarier stories I can remember reading for a while. Unlike Coraline, which deals with the fear of your parents being replaced, this book's main character sees his parents betray him. In one of the scarier scenes in the book, the protagonist's father attempts to drown him in a bathroom, and there are hints that this isn't entirely at the behest of the malevolent force that's been unleashed.
The protagonist is helped along by his neighbor, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. In fact, it's more that he witnesses their attempts to bind the force that's wreaking havoc in his neighborhood, occasionally getting in their way. Lettie's story of sacrifice reminded me of an entirely different Gaiman character - the youngest of the Endless in his Sandman series. Although the two stories have very little to do with each other, the characters could very well be one and the same, from a certain point of view.
Gaiman had originally planned to call this book Lettie Hempstock's Ocean, but was convinced to change it by his publisher. I really wish he'd kept the original name. It fits the book a lot better, and cuts closer to the heart of the story, even if it is harder to remember. It's probably how I'll think of the book in the future.
My only real complaint about The Ocean at the End of the Lane is that it wasn't long enough. Not that the story felt rushed or anything. The book was exactly the right length for the story within. But after waiting so long for a new novel from Gaiman, I was a little disappointed to have finished it in a single evening.
That said, the book was fantastic. One of the scarier stories I can remember reading for a while. Unlike Coraline, which deals with the fear of your parents being replaced, this book's main character sees his parents betray him. In one of the scarier scenes in the book, the protagonist's father attempts to drown him in a bathroom, and there are hints that this isn't entirely at the behest of the malevolent force that's been unleashed.
The protagonist is helped along by his neighbor, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. In fact, it's more that he witnesses their attempts to bind the force that's wreaking havoc in his neighborhood, occasionally getting in their way. Lettie's story of sacrifice reminded me of an entirely different Gaiman character - the youngest of the Endless in his Sandman series. Although the two stories have very little to do with each other, the characters could very well be one and the same, from a certain point of view.
Gaiman had originally planned to call this book Lettie Hempstock's Ocean, but was convinced to change it by his publisher. I really wish he'd kept the original name. It fits the book a lot better, and cuts closer to the heart of the story, even if it is harder to remember. It's probably how I'll think of the book in the future.
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