Book of the Week: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren't.”

I never know how to start writing about the books I truly love - the ones that infiltrate the corners of my mind and stay there for days, weeks, months after I've finished them.

I can try to tell you what The Ocean at the End of the Lane is about...at least, I can tell you what it made me think about. This is a book about childhood, memory and loss. How would we live, if we knew what was lurking behind the thin veneer of reality? Would we make different choices if we understood the sacrifices that had been made on our behalf? Is it really easier to forget, to not know these things, than it is to walk through the world with the weight of them on our backs?

This is one of those novels where upon finishing it, I immediately had to start it over again because the ending made me see the beginning in a whole new light. It is poignant and heartbreaking, and fantastically eerie in the way only a Neil Gaiman book can be. There were times when I felt like I was reading a very dark Studio Ghibli film, and I mean that in the best possible way. Plus kittens. KITTENS NEIL REALLY?? Come on.

Anyway. That's all I'll say for now. Read this book.

I'm going to start trying to do this book of the week thing. Is it even a thing? Eh...it is now. I'm making it one. Even if I'm not actually able to finish a book a week (highly likely) I've read a lot of books in my life so I have some serious catching up to do. Book of the Week may be a book I'm currently reading or a book I just finished, or it might be something I read years ago. Whatever strikes my fancy. We'll see where this goes.