Title: The Ocean at the End of the LaneAuthor: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 181
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Books
Source: School Library
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Summary: Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
Rating: 3.5
Review: This book was so beautiful. The the cute love story kind of beautiful but the deep thoughtful, wonderfully written beautiful.This book is very unlike most of the other book I've read but it was very worth the read. The story was creative, different and very entertaining as you follow The main character through his adventures with Lettie. It's weird but that made me love it all the more.
This is a very hard book to describe, not because I would spoil it or because it's a bad book but because description would not do it enough justice. The writing is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read. I do not have the writing skill to compare.
The characters were all so different and beautiful in there own way. It was truly marvelous how he explained all the characters. I just would have liked to learn more about Lettie and the Hempstocks because they're very mysterious. it is told from a first person point of view so we only know as much as the main character knows but I wish we could still find out more. There is a whole story to the Hempstocks we just don't know what that story is.
I don't know what else to say. usually I can say many things about books but this book doesn't need tons of explanation this book speaks for itself. I recommend that you read it so you understand what i mean but it was beautiful and I wanted to absorb every word.
Favourite Quotes:
“Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”
“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.”
“Books were safer than other people anyway.”
“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.”
“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”
“Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”
“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.”
“Books were safer than other people anyway.”
“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.”
“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”
DFTBA
-Janussa
I really loved this book. It's so unique and magical! I'm glad you liked it too! And you're definitely right - this is a hard book to describe! It's best to just pick it up and try it! :)
ReplyDeleteI am going to read this book soon! I've heard a lot of positive reviews on this book so I have high hopes for this book. Neil Gaiman is my favourite author too so I hope he doesn't disappoint.
ReplyDeleteUnderCover Critique