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I haven't read Neil Gaiman in a while, and what I had forgotten is how I feel when I'm reading or have just finished one of his books.
Somehow, he manages to make you drift back into childhood, when everything was magical and adults were confusing and strange and life was endless and boundless and full of possibilities. He makes you think that maybe, just maybe you also had a sliver of magic in your childhood by pulling you into his universe and sprinkling fairy dust onto all your own memories.
Somehow, he manages to make you drift back into childhood, when everything was magical and adults were confusing and strange and life was endless and boundless and full of possibilities. He makes you think that maybe, just maybe you also had a sliver of magic in your childhood by pulling you into his universe and sprinkling fairy dust onto all your own memories.
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Oh my. What can I even say about this book that has not already been said. It was a beautiful story, I was completely sucked in and so sad that it is over. But this is a Neil Gaiman book, so that was to be expected.
A weird and oddly scary book tinged with magic and the unknown. I enjoyed the characters of the little boy and the Hempstock family but to say this story gave me the creeps is an understatement. Unnerving and wonderfully imaginative. I especially enjoyed the parts where the boy's "remembering" flipped so effortlessly. Written quite thoughtfully.
I read this in 2 days because I couldn't put it down ~ the first 90 pages had my heart pounding. This is the closest to "scary" that I like to get. Alth ...more
I read this in 2 days because I couldn't put it down ~ the first 90 pages had my heart pounding. This is the closest to "scary" that I like to get. Alth ...more
What a magical, whimsical book.
The inevitable tragedy and blessing of forgetting. Distinct events weaving together until they're mere sensoric blobs of memories. Memories changing, transforming over time as they get (mis)remembered by you and others. Memories flooding back to you with certain tangible triggers. How the fantasy of youth and the magic in the childhood perspective fades as you get older. And that adults are also just grasping at straws to get by and do their best (most of the time ...more
The inevitable tragedy and blessing of forgetting. Distinct events weaving together until they're mere sensoric blobs of memories. Memories changing, transforming over time as they get (mis)remembered by you and others. Memories flooding back to you with certain tangible triggers. How the fantasy of youth and the magic in the childhood perspective fades as you get older. And that adults are also just grasping at straws to get by and do their best (most of the time ...more
Ocean at the End of the Lane is that exquisite dream that is vivid when you wake but fades throughout the day until you are left with the memory of a memory of swimming in some primal ocean surrounded by constellations of light and electricity, blanketed in comfort. Written with the persuasive nostalgia of memoir and the terrifying beauty of an archetypal dream, Ocean made me forget I was reading a novel (and a fantasy at that) and believe I was reading a deeply personal story about Neil Gaiman'
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I read this after seeing it on so many best of 2013 lists. I expected it to be about a man looking back on his childhood. I never expected it to be fantasy. Very surprised and found myself unable to put it down. I still don't completely get all of it, but I am not a fantasy reader. I may have to read it again to really digest the metaphorical nature of it. Darn, wish I was in a book club to talk this one through.
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loved it, every bit of it, even the acknowledgment. It made remember how it was when simple things had magical powers, when the world was bigger i could see glimpses from other realities. I felt seven. I was terrified of Ursula. Wow.
It's Gaiman - what more can you say? I obviously loved the book but it is more than that. The Ocean at the End of the Lane takes you to another world full of magic and wonder. A world that at times scares you to death and at others makes you never want to leave. I listened to the audiobook and read when I was not able to listen. I don't know if this made a difference to how it affected me, but the language often felt like someone was reading me a bedtime story or lulling me with a lullaby, not i
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He recalls the perspective of childhood better than I can.
Feb 06, 2013
Sarah
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Feb 07, 2013
frogfairie
marked it as to-read
Jun 19, 2013
Lina
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Jul 17, 2013
Pat St.
marked it as to-read
Sep 16, 2013
Sarah
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Aug 19, 2015
Mirliz
marked it as to-read
