Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
By Neil Gaiman

Published By: Headline
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Date Read: March 4, 2023
Genre: Adult – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 255

From Goodreads:
From New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling writer Neil Gaiman, comes a novel of memory, magic and survival, about the power of stories and the darkness inside each of us.
A special Christmas edition of the Sunday Times bestseller.

WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2013 BOOK OF THE YEAR

Dive into a magical novel of memory and the adventure of childhood, from one of the brightest, most brilliant writers of our generation.

It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive. There is primal horror here, and menace unleashed – within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it.

His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac – as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark.

Edit (2025): Please note that this book was read and reviewed before the allegations came out regarding Neil Gaiman’s behaviour. Kayleigh does not accept nor support this behaviour and so none of his books will be featured further on this blog, nor are in the possession of Kayleigh’s literary collection. This review is being kept online for transparency of previous reading.

“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.”

While I have been aware of Neil Gaiman’s work for quite a while (I mean, who hasn’t?), before picking up The Ocean At the End of the Lane I hadn’t actually read any of his work. I have a lot of friends who absolutely love his work, and after getting tickets to go and see the stage adaptation of this book, I thought it was the perfect time to dive into his work, and read the book before going to see the adaptation.

The Ocean At The End of the Lane is in a word… weird! It’s such a fantastical yet bizarre storyline and while I found the writing style very simplistic and easy to read and fall into, I didn’t have a clue what was going on for the vast majority of this book. I do think this is just his style, as after speaking to some bookish friends a lot of them say they have felt the same with this book and some of his other works. That didn’t stop me enjoying it, this book is very enjoyable, it’s just so very bizarre.

Although the writing style is very easy to find yourself getting lost in it, and while I did enjoy the book while I was reading it, I was so confused as to what was going on that when I had put the book down, I didn’t really have much motivation to pick it back up. I really had to force myself to pick it up and read it. It’s a very emotional and sad storyline, but it was just a little too strange for my linking. The fact that I had no motivation to pick it up, and had to force myself to do so has definitely lowered the rating on this book.

I don’t know if I will be picking up any other books by Neil Gaiman. I love him as a person, and I love what he is doing for the fantasy genre… but I just think his books are not for me. I like to know what the heck is happening in my books, and if his others are going to be just as confusing as this one, then I don’t think that I’ll enjoy them very much. I’m glad I picked this one up and gave it a go though.

“I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.”