Sorry, I just didn't like this book. I love Gaiman's imagery, and I recently read Stardust, which The Ocean at the End of the Lane is not. Now, I don't mind when authors expand their repertoires a little. (I just compared Naomi Novik's Temeraire series to Uprooted.) But I honestly think Gaiman got a little lazy here. The novel is short, but I think it would have benefited from more exposition. I understand its told from the perspective of a seven-year-old boy's memories. But doesn't age give way to wisdom? Its like Gaiman pooled random childhood events into this book: a love of books, lack of friends, financial troubles, bad babysitters, and turned it into a trippy fable.

Recommended if you liked Coraline and other such stories.

Quotes:
Books were safer than other people anyway. (page 9)

"Nobody actually 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 anybody." (Lettie, page 112)