The Ocean At the End of the Lane (Review)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is as the name suggests, an ocean. It is not entirely vast with 178 pages but its depth like Lettie's ocean cannot be measured in the first glance. It offers theories and ideas that are left for open interpretation. Is this a horror story? Maybe. Is it Magical? Maybe. Does it follow magicians? Maybe. The answer to any of your questions regarding this book is a pure simple, Maybe. You may understand it, you may not. There's no right or wrong way to interpret this book. And there lies the beauty of this story.

We follow the proceedings of the story through the eyes of our unnamed main character who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that took place forty years back when he visits the house down the lane. The narrator narrates the strange events that start to take place when he was seven, starting with the death of an opal miner who lived as a tenant in his house. 

One of the beauties of Neil Gaiman's writing is how the dialogues, decisions, and thoughts of the narrator are written keeping in mind that our MC is, in fact, a seven-year-old boy. The intertwining of our present day MC's thoughts and seven-year-old MC's thoughts was cleverly executed. 

Another interesting aspect of the story is how Neil Gaiman connects adult life and a child's life. Many quotes such as:

"Adults follow paths, children explore." 

 and

"She was the adult world with all its secrets and its foolish casual cruelty." 

show the variations in the world of a child and an adult. Subtly but not so subtly even the supposed horror aspects of this story draws a direct connection to the real world and the true horrors that exist within it. 

The characters are not meant to be your best buddies but they deliver punches wherever required, especially the Hempstocks. All the Hempstock ladies although clad with their cloak and dagger persona manage to form a bond with the reader. At the end of the book, you may still not have an answer as to who they are and what is the truth or what to believe but it doesn't necessarily make you uncomfortable with not knowing the complete truth. 

Just like Old Mrs. Hempstock said, "Different people remember things differently and you'll not get any two people to remember anything the same, whether they were there or not." Which, in simpler terms goes to say that the truth is different for everybody.

As I said, this story is a huge shiny blinding MAYBE but that is the beauty of it and for that Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane was a 4.5 star read for me. 

Next up:- Norse Mythology by....you guessed it, Neil Gaiman!

With that, I leave you to your devices.
Introvert Out.