Book 120: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Book 120: The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Author: Neil Gaiman, 2013.
Genre: Fantasy. Horror.
Other Details: ebook. 246 pages
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond this world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defence is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
This was my third read of this beautiful fantasy as once more it was a reading group selection and as it is quite short I decided to refresh my memory. Certainly it is a novel that I feel repays re-reading and it continued to enchant as well as to chill in parts as Gaiman taps into childhood fears that resonate into adulthood.
It generated plenty of discussion in the reading group. Again there were a couple of members who stated they are anti-fantasy and did not enjoy. Still another member previously not into the genre was inspired to read more of Neil Gaiman's work.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.