The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Enigmatic
Pure
Timeless

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman2014
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys. This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...
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Reviews

Photo of momo-reads
momo-reads@momo-reads
4 stars
May 4, 2023

Engrossing story from an author I am generally on the fence about. Like a fairy tale in a sense- not neat and tidy and plenty of things dont make sense but that is the way it is supposed to be.

Photo of Frederik De Bosschere
Frederik De Bosschere@freddy
4 stars
Mar 16, 2023

Classic Gaiman in all the best ways.

Photo of Kayla Sitton
Kayla Sitton@kaylabrooke
4.5 stars
Feb 28, 2023

god i love neil gaiman

Photo of nikki
nikki@n_still_life
5 stars
Feb 24, 2023

i had a feeling that neil gaiman gets me... what with sandmad and coraline but this one. i couldn't have imagined just how deeply this would resonate with me. childhood is hard, and mostly a dream, i agree. it's so much. i feel so understood. i feel so seen. thank you @ neil.

+6
Photo of dija
dija@dija
3 stars
Jan 23, 2023

This book was weird, like really weird, but good weird.

Photo of Anna Ureta
Anna Ureta@akiikomori
3 stars
Jan 23, 2023
Photo of Sean gillespie
Sean gillespie @seanieg
2 stars
Jan 17, 2023
Photo of Kvn K
Kvn K@humdrum
4 stars
Jan 12, 2023
Photo of Chris G
Chris G@encima
4 stars
Dec 2, 2022
Photo of Herman Steuernagel
Herman Steuernagel@hermansteuernagel
5 stars
Nov 3, 2022
Photo of Inesa
Inesa@porcelainwords
3 stars
Oct 22, 2022
Photo of Omaar Hosam
Omaar Hosam@omaar
5 stars
Sep 21, 2022
Photo of Kerstin Cherry
Kerstin Cherry@kcherry
4 stars
Sep 14, 2022
Photo of Dave G
Dave G@dgulli
5 stars
Sep 10, 2022
Photo of Noha Abdelaziz
Noha Abdelaziz@nouhashawqi
3 stars
Aug 31, 2022

Highlights

Photo of nikki
nikki@n_still_life

“And did I pass?"
The face of the old woman on my right was unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, "You don't pass or fail at a being a person, dear.”

cries

Photo of nikki
nikki@n_still_life

“Nothing’s ever the same,” she said. “Be it a second later or a hundred years. It’s always churning and roiling. And people change as much as oceans.”

Photo of nikki
nikki@n_still_life

once I dreamed I kept a perfect little bed and breakfast by the seaside, and to everyone who came to stay with me I would say, in that tongue, “Be whole,” and they would become whole, not be broken people, not any longer, because I had spoken the language of shaping.

chapter 3. this is book feels like a lovely daydream

Photo of nikki
nikki@n_still_life

“I remember my own childhood vividly … I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn’t let adults know I knew. It would scare them.”

- Maurice Sendak, in conversation with Art Spiegelman, The New Yorker, 27 September 1993

the epigraph <3