If you are looking for a story to sink in to that will fill you with nostalgia, feul your imagination, and inspire you, then you need to get “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” in your hands.

Neil Gaiman masterfully welcomes us to a world that has always been at the edge of our reality. In this whimsical tale, he takes us on a journey to a world that was always there, that we have probably visited before without recalling.

The voyage begins with the unnamed narrator returning to his childhood home for a funeral. He is drawn to the house at the end of the lane, the Hempstock's farm. He recalls Lettie Hempstock, the most remarkable girl, as well as a strange, frightening past he experienced as a young boy with Lettie and family.

Each character is full of life and completely independent of their behaviors. What's so remarkable is that when the children are face-to-face with terror, they do not rely on adults to rescue them. Despite being so young, Lettie confronts monsters with the bravery of a lion. Wise beyond her years, she works with her mother and grandmother to find solutions. She doesn't expect them to swoop in and save her.

The narrator on the other hand, is one who prefers to live in the world of books and doesn't care nearly as much for the immediate world he lived in. When he is exposed to an entirely new world, he faces supernatural foes, despite how afraid he is.

The themes of the book are just as powerful as the characters. The narrator forces us to address the relationship between the innocent and the authoritative. The world is compiled of different rules and roles. To become an authoritative figure, one must first know them all and play correctly. Lettie didn't even hit puberty and is able to command different creatures and bend the shape of the world she sees to suit her ambitions.

In contrast, the narrator is an innocent being with limited knowledge of the world parallel to his own. This innocence has its advantages and shortcomings. It allows him to absorb all that he is learning, but he isn't able to necessarily apply it, even as into adulthood.

All things considered, Gaiman brings the fantasy realm to ours and forces us to question the stability of the reality we know. What if our reality is just as fragile as the one portrayed in the book? Can an entire ocean fit in to a bucket? Do monsters come out of our dreams to haunt us? Of course, these are questions that a child is best equipped to answer, as they have yet to be weighed down by our restrictions and grasp of reality.

Before reading this one, you think you know what the story is about, but Gaiman will assure that it is about something new entirely. When reading this tale, challenge yourself to think and think outside of your comfort zone and enjoy the adventure!