Audiobook Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Duration: 5 hrs, 48 mins
Publisher: Harper Audio
Read: June 29-July 1, 2013
Source: Digital copy from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
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.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Review:

Oh, Neil Gaiman. I want to love his books in their entirety, but I have yet to do so. Still, they're creepy and beautifully-written, words seemingly selected with precision and artistry. In a lot of ways, The Ocean at the End of the Lane reads like his children's books, rather than an adult novel, but it would probably have scarred my childhood self something fierce.

Why Did I Read This Book?
Neil Gaiman. Hey, I may not have loved all of his books, but I have liked them all thus far, and they're all interesting. Where he tends to fall a bit flat for me is generally characterization, but I've found that his books are all just the slightest bit stronger for me in audio, because it's such a wildly different reading experience, at least for me, allowing me to appreciate the gorgeous flow of his prose and the delightful lilt of his accent.

What's the Story Here?
A middle-aged man returns home for a funeral, and, beset by a sense of something missing, he travels down the lane to the house where, in his seventh year, he befriended the strangest girl. Lettie Hempstock she was called, and she was four years older than him, quite ancient really. When he arrives at the farm, Lettie's not there, but her mother gives him tea and memories arise in him. The older man appears only in the framing chapters, while all the rest consists of the experiences of his seven year old self, as his involvement with the Hempstocks opens him up to a magical and scary world.

How are the Characters?
They seemed fairly well done on the whole, though I still lacked the emotional connection that really makes me care about a fictional character's fate. Gaiman's characters are interesting, but sort of lack that dimension that makes them fully real in my heart. The boy, who I don't think is ever given a name, is a surprisingly weak figure, more a special visitor to the stars, the Hempstocks. He seems a very ordinary boy, not a hero in any way, and I wouldn't say he really becomes one. In all, I'm not really sure what I was to get out of his journey, but it was certainly fascinating.

And the Horror?
The reason this is being marketed to adults rather than teens is perhaps how creepy it is. Books don't scare me, so I won't say I was ever frightened, really, but some of the scenes are haunting. Like Gaiman's Coraline, he delves into the terror of when your family is NOT your family. There's little that would be more completely worldshakingly scary than your dad suddenly not acting like your dad or loving you anymore. There's also an evil nanny and people-eating creatures. It's the macabre sort of story Neil Gaiman is so good at composing.

How was the Narration?
Yet again, I'm glad I went for the audio, since Neil Gaiman's always a delight to listen to, even if that does make me sound like a creep. His voice is soothing and well-suited to the sort of dreamy, dark fairy tales he generally writes. Besides, who knows what emphasis to place on words and sentences better than the author. Also, he sang a couple of times, which was fun.

Sum It Up with a GIF:

Rating: 3.5/5