I will be completely honest, I expected to love this book. I have read every Gaiman novel for adults, every picture book, every middle grade and teen chapter book, and as many comics as I could get my hands on. I have seen movies written by him and based on his works. I am what you would call a fangirl. What I didn't anticipate were the reasons I loved this book. It is, in this humble bookseller's opinion, his best and most literary work to date. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a Gaiman book for non-Gaiman readers. It reads as though a favored short story got away from him, to the best possible result. Because it is Neil Gaiman, you can rest assured that all of the fantastical and unbelievable events really do occur, but you can't help feeling that maybe, just maybe, it's all a way for our 7-year-old narrator to explain the dark events occurring in his world. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is definitely the scariest Gaiman novel I've read, and it's a must read for any fan of slightly twisted literature. - Heather