TBR Tuesday: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

PAGES: 246

RELEASE DATE: 18^th June 2013

PUBLISHER: Headline

EDITION: Kindle edition

SHELF LIFE: around four months-ish

OTHER TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

American Gods; Neverwhere; The Graveyard Book; Sandman; Stardust; Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett); Fortunately, the Milk; Anasi Boys and quite a few more...

SYNOPSIS

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac – as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly’s wings, as dangerous as a knife in the dark – from storytelling genius Neil Gaiman.

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 claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

VERDICT

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is kind of odd, isn’t it? Of all of the wonderful, exalting things I heard about this novel, no one told me it was so strange!

Neil Gaiman seems to be good about breaking down the boxes of genres, and he does it spectacularly with this novel. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the story of a little boy, told by an adult, including fairytale and magical realism, ideas about adulthood and childhood and yet it’s so literary that it’s every genre and none at all. I really do love that it can’t be firmly placed in a box.

The fairytale element was the one that came across the most strongly for me. We had a villain worthy of Disney and childhood horrors Cinderella could relate to, which I actually found quite surprising. I didn’t expect the fear and the ‘enemy’ to have such a strong and concrete presence in the narrator’s story. And you may be wondering why I’m referring to the narrator as the narrator, well, he doesn’t have a name... It really frustrates me when author do that and it’s one of the major reasons why I’m yet to give Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca a go! Drives me mad it does.

 I did love the Hempstocks though. In fact, I would have loved to read a whole novel about the three Hempstock ladies. I love the dynamic between the three generations, their ambiguous heritage and their strange brand of magic and witchcraft. Lettie, her mum and her grandmother are fantastic characters with depth and history and charm. Though I loved and sympathised with the narrator’s bookish ways, I think I would have preferred to read the story from Lettie’s point of view.

So there you go. I appreciated Neil Gaiman’s crazy imagination, storytelling skills and the whimsy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I just don’t think it was for me.

SHOULD IT HAVE STAYED ON THE SHELF?

I’m glad I read it because I felt left out that I hadn’t, but I don’t think I’d recommend it. I could have quite easily left it on my Kindle and not read it. After feeling ambivalent about three Neil Gaiman books, I officially give up on trying to become a fan of his – we just don’t click!

Sophie

LGBT April: The Sky Always Hears Me, Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Pages: 290

Publisher: Llewellyn Publications

Release Date: 1^st September 2009

Edition: e-book, purchased

Other Titles by this Author: Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in a hick town in Nebraska. College is two years away. Her mom was  killed in a car accident when she was three, her dad drinks, and her stepmom is a non-entity. Her boyfriend Derek is boring and her co-worker Rob has a very cute butt that she can’t stop staring at. Then there’s the kiss she shared with her classmate Tessa...

But when Morgan discovers that the one person in the world who she trusts the most has kept a devastating secret from her, Morgan must redefine her life and herself.

The Sky Always Hears Me was really not what I expected it to be, and I’m sure that’s a good thing either.

I found Morgan incredibly irritating. My dislike of her built throughout the novel. She’s selfish, arrogant and childish – basically a sixteen year old girl struggling with her life, but I can handle that, if there’s something about the personality of the protagonist for me to hold onto and I didn’t find that with Morgan. She had difficult relationships with her friends, her dad, her stepmum and her boyfriend, but I really loved that she had a genuine connection with her little brother. He’s a really interesting character and their interactions and the brother/sister vibe between them isn’t your usual YA violent hatred job.

The Sky Always Hears Me is very different to the rest of the LGBT books I’ve read this month in the way that the characters deal with their sexuality. It was vague and searching and there wasn’t a LGBT relationship that had a sense of concreteness that Morgan could explore properly. It was slightly disappointing, though I did like that the novel explored the issue from a different angle to usual.

The difference in angle of the novel was also reflected in the style. The Sky Always Hears Me is rather literary and philosophical, exploring the idea of fortunes and Morgan making them up and leaving them all over the place. It reminded me a little of the way poetry was shared by the main character in Jandy Nelson’s The Sky is Everywhere, but not as effectively. There was more of a whiny and attention seeking quality to it which took away from fortunes that were witty and amusing and could have been a really interesting element of the novel.

I was  rather disappointed by The Sky Always Hears Me and I’m sad to say that it’s my least favourite book of LGBT month so far, but it is an interesting read to see the subject from a lower, more hidden angle.

Sophie

Letterbox Love #44

Letterbox Love all of the lovely, lovely books I’ve gotten in the post, bought and everything else. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated. Hosted by Narratively Speaking.

I'm away in Bath this weekend (YAY!) so this my book haul as of Thursday evening. I plan to buy quite a few while I'm in Bath so expect a big 'un, and anything else that arrives Saturday, next week. Happy Easter!

For review:

Playlist for a Broken Heart, Cathy Hopkins (paperback)

When Paige’s parents announce that they’re moving it seems as if her world is falling apart.

Forced to leave her old friends behind, Paige feels totally alone, then an old mix CD in a charity shop catches her eye and she starts to think again. The songs speak of love, longing and heartbreak, and capture everything Paige seems to be feeling. Whoever made the playlist sees the world just as she does, maybe they’re meant to be together...

Paige’s quest to find the boy who put the music together leads her on an unexpected journey of self-discovery, but is she destined to ever find him? And if she does, will he be everything she dreamed he would be?

I loved Love at Second Sight so I’m really looking forward to this. Thanks S&S!

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, Maya Van Wagenen (paperback)

A true story

When Maya Van Wagenen finds a 1950s guide to popularity she embarks on a unique social experiment: for one school year she follows the advice of its author, teen model Betty Cornell.

From hair-dos and girdles to pearls and posture, Maya does whatever Betty says – no matter how difficult or embarrassing.

She’s determined to see her experiment through, for better or worse. Does it work? You decide.

A touchingly honest and candidly hysterical memoir from one of TIME’s most influential teens of 2013.

I think this has such a cool premise – I’m intrigued! Thanks Penguin!

Bought:

Shadowplay, Laura Lam (e-book)

The circus lies behind Micah Grey in dust and ashes.

He and the white clown, Drystan, take refuge with the once-great magician, Jasper Maske. When Maske agrees to teach them his trade, his embittered rival challenges them to a duel which could decide all of their fates. People also hunt both Micah and the person he was before the circus – the runaway daughter of a noble family. And Micah discovers there is magic and power in the world, far beyond card tricks and illusions he’s perfecting...

A tale of phantom wings, a clockwork hand, and the delicate unfurling of new love, Shadowplay continues Micah Grey’s extraordinary journey.

I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed Pantomime. Really looking forward to reading more of Micah’s story.

Zom-B Circus, Darren Shan (e-novella)

Could you survive a plague of zombies?

What would you sacrifice to stay alive?

Who would you try to save?

For one human, judgment day is coming...

Yay, more Zom-B!

Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor (hardback)

It began with

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE

It continued with

DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT

It ends with

DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael’s brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And perhaps, for themselves.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz...something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimera, and seraphim will fight, strive, love and die in an epic theatre that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

AT LAST. Gods, it sounds epic...

Nantucket Blue, Leila Howland (paperback)

For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.

Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t.

When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-coloured tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.

But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on – most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits – that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.

A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

I refused to buy this in hardback because it’s so skinny, but I’ve had the PB pre-ordered for forever. Hope it likes up to my expectations!

Sophie

UKYA Day: Why I Love UKYA

There are many reasons why UKYA is the best thing ever. And in honour of the Project UKYA April Extravaganza held by Lucy, here are my top reasons why UKYA is awesome:

- The community we’re a part of is incredible. The support, enthusiasm, and friendship between readers, bloggers, publishers and authors aren’t one I’ve noticed in any other book-fandom-type-place.

- The authors of UKYA aren’t afraid to tackle anything and everything they feel they need to.

- UKYA has the freshest, quirkiest and strongest humour of them all.

- We aren’t afraid to champion UKYA to the death!

Make sure to take part in the upcoming UKYA chats, check out the Project UKYA blog and keep involved with community!

Sophie