I am easily swayed by what my fellow Goodreads group members read. I get daily updates of what my “book friends” want to read and what they have finished reading. When I see that at least two people have read a book, I become curious about it and often put it on my “to read” list. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is one of those books.
After I read the first ten pages, I wanted to know if I knew any other books that Gaiman had written so I would have a sense of the book. Coraline is a story I’m familiar with. This knowledge was helpful in approaching this book; I knew it would have a twisted sense of reality, frightening themes, childhood fears, family abominations,and magical beings. This story was all of that.
This is a dark and twisty tale of a boy’s struggle with an opportunistic other-worldly being and how a nearby family of witches (goddesses? creators?) saved him. I think there was a morality tale somewhere in Coraline (I saw the movie rather than read the book) but I saw no such lessons in this book. It was more of a “bad things happen” and that’s just the way it is.
It was a short book, engaging and kept me up until I could finish to the end.
