A man has just returned to his hometown for a funeral many years after he hasn’t been back for many years, and he is suddenly overwhelmed by memories from his childhood, particularly about the house at the end of the lane and the strange family that lived there. It was the home of an eleven year old girl named Lettie Hempstock, her mother, and her grandmother. Lettie swore that the duck pond at the back of the house was actually an ocean, and at first the boy didn’t believe her. In fact, he didn’t believe in a lot of things until the opal miner that was renting the spare room in his family’s home decided to drive their car to the end of the road and commit suicide in it. It was then that the seven year old narrator first encountered Lettie and her odd family when they invited him to stay in their warm farmhouse while his father talked with the police. The Hempstock family has an uncanny knowledge of just about everything, and the boy is quite sure that all of them are older than they seem, much older. Lettie’s grandmother says she has been alive since the birth of the moon, and for some reason the boy thinks she is right. Lettie’s mother can see things that she shouldn’t be able to, and Lettie is just as mysterious. The boy doesn’t know how mysterious until Lettie takes him on a path to take care of something she says is causing trouble for their small town and pulls him into a completely different world with terrifying creatures that can bring good as well as great harm.
I picked this book up because I love Neil Gaiman’s books.
I finished this book because it was so enchanting!
I’d give this book to any fan of magic and of other worlds that often clash with our own.
Rating: ***** It was amazing!
Want to read it? Click here to place the book on hold!
Review by Serina, college student