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My review from August 2016:

I don't know what to think about this. At times, I was like 'yes, this is a good book' but I think my overall opinion of this book is... meh.
Having read and enjoyed some of Neil Gaiman's other works, I know that he is a good writer.
There's just something about this book though. I liked the fantasy and dream elements. I also thought that the Hempstocks were very enigmatic and interesting characters. But, sometimes it felt like Gaiman was trying too hard to make it a fairy tale for adults and occasionally there was a lot of description of things that didn't really need that much description.
I feel bad because I've heard good things about this book so maybe I should have given it a higher rating. I'll keep this book on my Kindle to perhaps return to at a later date and revise my opinion of it. For now, 3 stars will do

Since Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors I had already read this book when it first came out, but when I saw that it was this months group read I imidiatly knew I wanted ro read it again. So here's my review:
Although this was the second time that I read this I wasn't affected any less by the turn of events in this story.

It's been a couple of years since I have read it for the first time but I still remembered some scenes very vividly. Naturally I was now looking out for those horrible moments in the book that had once left me with nightmares. I was surprised that, altough I did not dream badly after reading, the moments caught me off-guard nevertheless. Ah, they just made me feel so unsettled all over again... I loved it.
And the main character to be a 7-year-old works so wunderfully in a way, that you really feel just as helpless and frustrated as a child while reading.

Unfortunatly I wasn't as much excited about the second part of the book as I had been for the first 100 pages but I just accepted it to be the necessary bridge to an astonishing endling, which I had forgotten completely about until I got there. And yes, this must be a sign, I am sure of it...;)

I listened to the audio book; it was fantastic. The author narrates the book, and you can tell that he is a true story-teller at heart. I’m not generally a proponent of fantasy, so this was outside of my norm, but I would definitely recommend it!

My favorite quote, “Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.��

I’d definitely say the book was “meh��. In my full review I gave it 3 stars, mostly because I feel like it hinted at interesting things and then didn’t really follow through with most of them. And I found the ending dissatisfying.

I’ve read a handful of Neil Gaiman books, and I’ve decided that while his writing is good and his worlds/settings are great, a lot of his main characters fall flat*, and that was definitely the case here. It was also the case in Stardust and Neverwhere, not just this book. I can’t even remember the main character’s name in this one, just that he was a little boy. I do remember the side characters�� names, which makes sense because I thought they were way more interesting, but also makes me wonder if I would have liked the book better if it had been from Lettie’s POV?

Overall a 3/5 and honestly a pretty forgettable (no pun intended) book, definitely not one of Gaiman’s best IMO. Not something I’ll read again and I’m glad I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it.

*the exception to this rule being Good Omens, but I’m beginning to think that may have had something to do with Terry Pratchett’s involvement.

This book was introduced to me through this group. I don’t think I would have ever given it a read otherwise. I would like to start by saying it was a comfortable read and I finished it in a day with my work schedule.

Honestly, the book started well and I felt it to be really promising. It is a dark fantasy genre so I was expecting a lot of things. But after 60% of the book was over, it kind of lost its charm and started falling flat. The most disappointing thing - I expected so much more from the ending but was nothing like that.

I am pretty sure that I would forget about this book very soon. I have read much better ones. I so wanted to give this at least a 4 stars but unfortunately for me, it was a very average read.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A bit weird of a start, I didn’t know if I wanted to continue. I didn’t understand what was happening and I didn’t feel like the writing style was that special or good that I could just read this book for its writing style. I’m glad I continued though, because I really enjoyed the story once I started to understand it a bit more (view spoiler)[ after the encounter with the monster in the forest behind Lettie’s house. (hide spoiler)]

I really loved Lettie as a character and the unconditional love between grandmother, mother and Lettie. Though she was sometimes vague, she always tried to explain what was going on. She feels like a very calm and self-reassured character. She also keeps her promises which I find very important. On the other hand, I found Ursula very hateful. She was very tricky and I really felt that the main character couldn’t go anywhere, because she always would be there.

All with all I will give this book a 3/5. Not great, not bad. It was enjoyable once I got into the book, I got to love and hate characters, but the beginning was though.

I listened to the audiobook and rated it 5 stars. My rating might've been slightly different if I read the book myself because I think Neil Gaiman as the narrator added to the whole feeling of the story for me. Here's my review:

The audiobook had me mesmerized the entire time and I finished it in one day. I loved that Neil Gaiman narrated it and I feel that it added to the whole experience. I felt like I was listening to a fairytale. It made me feel like a kid again when my dad would read bedtime stories to me!

I've read a few of Neil Gaiman's books and I have more on my TBR, but The Ocean at the End of the Lane is my favorite so far! He is an fantastic author and brings magical worlds to life. This is definitely a book I will reread and I don't usually reread books!

I really did love this book.

Neil is one of my favourite authors and once I started I finished that day.

Ursula is easy to hate & the feeling of helplessness as a child at the hands of adults was well illustrated & at times frightful.

I gave it 5 stars, I would absolutely recommend as an easy weekend day read.

One of my very favorite books by my favorite author. Words can't express how much I love this book. Beautifully written. Like stepping into a dream. <3

Couldn't put it down, literally one sitting in the garden even with a headache! Only tried Gaiman once and really struggled with it so was quite wary about this one - here is my review... So I read this in one sitting even though I was not at all intending to. Absolutely addictive and I'm obsessed with the Hempstocks and the whole world, like I could drink the whole pong if it was filled with info about them.

Also I cried at the beginning, WHY WOULD NO ONE COME TO YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY WHYYYYY

Although I don't think he would have enjoyed it at all but still. I <3 Hempstock ladies

I loved it and gave it five stars. My review: /review/show...

3 stars out of 5.
/review/show...

Nostalgia’s a funny thing. It can leave some memories as vague blobs in our minds, or sharpen them into moments of striking clarity. It changes some things, and makes others permanent and inviolate. It can be a source of comfort, as well as terror.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is much in that vein. The nameless protagonist has many qualities of its author, Neil Gaiman. Implied to have Jewish ancestry; grew up in a small Sussex town; an insatiable reader; in adulthood, has a creative job that keeps him away from the English countryside. Briefly returning for a family member’s funeral, he finds himself on a childhood friend’s farm, and reminisces about a particular episode of his childhood.

After a lodger in the family home commits suicide, a dark force begins to act within the village. Coming across a family of strange rustics nearby, he makes fast friends with their daughter, Lettie Hempstock. Though a short excursion into a dark realm not of this earth, they confront the unusual creature, but it escapes into our world, and promises to wreak more havoc.

Reading it, as a Gaiman fan, a lot of the story reads like Neil Gaiman’s Greatest Hits. The creature confronted by the hero and Lettie, taking the form of an attractive woman to conceal the form of a ghastly monster, evokes the Beldame, or “Other Mother�� from 2005’s Coraline . Lettie Hempstock reminds me of a few headstrong young women in other Gaiman works, mainly Door, from 1996’s Neverwhere , and a slightly more ordinary Hempstock, Elizabeth, from 2008’s The Graveyard Book . Other members of the Hempstock farm, implied to be powerful, ageless beings, evoke the Endless, from the long-running Sandman comics. The cosmology and alternate worlds explored by the characters reminds me of 2000’s American Gods and its 2005 sequel, Anansi Boys . The rural south-England setting reminds me of Lower Tadfield, in a very early work, 1982’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch . (Though it’s in Oxfordshire, a little more Midlands than Sussex, but still.)

Not that this is a bad thing, of course. This could be a good first read for a newcomer to Gaiman, as it’s not quite as sprawling or complex as some of his other works. Though after reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, that reader will quickly want to move up to one of those larger works.

The story is rather light, especially because, unlike much of Gaiman’s stories, it’s told in a flashback, and not in the moment. This is important for the tone it wants to set: it wants to be a story about reminiscence, and it achieves this effect masterfully. Aspects of its narration speak richly to the spirit of nostalgia: light on detail in some places, thick with it in others, often about the most benign things: certain furniture, locations, or food he ate. We all could certainly relate to these kinds of things taking a privileged place in our memories.

Even with its lightness, there’s a buried mythology, fleshed-out and perhaps existing in the fluctuations of Sussex, if you know where to look. Along with nostalgia, this is a story about age, things as old as time itself, forces that have stirred in the land, longer than any feet have trod on it. Our main character touched the infinite, and through him, we have touched it as well. Other of Gaiman’s works, especially American Gods, have let us grip the infinite and give it a shake, but sometimes, readers don’t want that. Even experienced readers, if they want something less popcultural than Neverwhere, less humorous than Good Omens, less child-focused than Coraline or The Graveyard Book, will find much to appreciate in The Ocean at the End of the Lane.