“The Ocean At the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman

Ordinarily I love Neil Gaiman’s books, but I was only mildly entertained by this adult fantasy story about a fifty-something narrator who travels to his hometown of Sussex, England to deliver a eulogy, and ends up recalling his childhood supernatural encounters with the neighboring Hempstock family who included a crone, a housewife, and an 11-year-old girl named Letty.  When the bookish lad became friends with Letty Hempstock, who is part of an immortal clan, and whose pond is really an ocean, he becomes enmeshed in a nightmarish series of events, and though at times the story yields sweetness and thoughtful insights, at other times it turns stark, harrowing, and disturbing.