I’ve never been a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s work, but my dad loved this book and gave me his copy to read a while back. Since I decided that this is the year I’m going to read and return all the books that have been loaned to me over the years, I decided it was time to read this one. Also, it was probably the shortest book I could find on my shelf and I needed something short and light after Ducks, Newburyport.
I really liked this one. Most of the time when I finish reading a Gaiman book I’m left feeling very “meh” and detached from the characters, but I didn’t find that to be the case here. Maybe it was because the main character (who is never named) is a kid who’s in danger, but can’t convince his parents of the danger, and I always like to puzzle out impossible circumstances like that when I read and try to figure out how I would get out of it.
The kid does manage to recruit some help from adults who believe him and get him out of danger, but he’s also kind of responsible for the danger. A neighbor of his, Lettie, takes him into another dimension and makes him promise not to let go of her hand while she binds an interdimensional being, but he does let go of her hand, just for a moment. That’s the only opportunity the monster needs to burrow into his foot from the ground and use him as a doorway between worlds.
The monster takes the form of a new nanny/housekeeper who’s hired by the kid’s parents when his mom goes back to work to earn some money for the family, which has fallen on hard times. She’s there to look after the kids and cook and clean, but she basically imprisons the MC, who knows better than to eat anything she’s made. I don’t think anyone in the book ever explicitly says one should never eat food from an interdimensional being, but the kid just seems to know it instinctively.
The book gets its title from the house at the end of the lane, which has a pond behind it, but Lettie always calls it an ocean.
Lettie looks to be about eleven, just a couple years older than the narrator, but the narrator soon figures out she is ancient. Her grandmother talks about being around before the moon existed and Lettie refers to things that happened in the Middle Ages as though it were just a few years ago.
It’s Lettie and her mom and grandma who eventually banish the interdimensional being for good, but everything comes with a cost.
The story is told from the perspective of the grownup narrator as he finds himself visiting the house at the end of the lane (and the “ocean” behind it) without even realizing where he’s going. It’s not until he sits by the “ocean” that he reminisces about all the fantastic events, and it becomes clear he forgot all about them until he returned, and that he has returned to the “ocean” before this, but has no memory of doing so.
I think I liked this book because it had a nice, tight plot and just the right amount of magic. Or maybe I liked it because, despite the fact that the narrator is male, almost all the other characters (and certainly the most powerful characters) are female, and that hasn’t necessarily been the case in the other Gaiman books I’ve read.