Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

My local library has a tower shelf of books each with green three-leaf clover stickers labelled "Lucky Day." These books are available for just a few weeks without the possibility of renewal. The Lucky Day books are thus labelled because of their popularity and/or recent date of publication. Today I, for lack of a better-fitting exclamation, scored majorly.

The most recent book by Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, was available for checkout! I began reading it in the car to my brother - skipping over the morbid parts, of course - and had even my mother enrapt in the story before we returned home.

The novel follows a middle-aged man back into his childhood to the small Sussex town where he met Lettie Hempstock and her family. Unbelievable events occur as a result of their friendship and leaves the not-so-young man to pull them from the depths of his memory years later.

It is not a coming-of-age tale, but the fantastical journey that Gaiman spins is likely to change any young reader it encounters - even those young of heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book (considering I read it over the course of 7 hours, it is obvious) and I recommend it to all those in need of trust, courage, and consolation.