The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I don't usually read stories like this, and I think I found out why: I do not believe anything that happened in this book. I liked it, I loved how it was written, how it made me feel nostalgic for experiences I never even had, but I distanced myself from really getting into the story by not believing it.

All I kept thinking the entire time was that this entire story took place inside a boy's imagination, or at least everything that went inside supernatural territory. I feel like a lot of traumatic things happened to this kid in a relatively short time (Seeing a dead body, catching his father cheating, his father becoming abusive for a while after, his one friend either leaving or dying, and basically blaming himself for all of it) and that this was his way to cope with all of it. Maybe that was the point, and we are supposed to look for the meanings behind all of it, but it kept me from being really immersed in all of it.

The first half of the book I really loved. It had most of the nostalgia and it felt very atmospheric. Ideal for reading on a rainy day. The second half of the book really ramped up the “strange occurrences” and that's where it lost me a little bit.

A very unique read! This was the first time I had to change the book I read before bedtime because this one gave me some very strange dreams. Especially the first half feels very unnerving and so it didn't quite work as a relaxing read.
I think this type of magical realism is not my particular genre, but I still took enjoyment out of figuring out what had actually happened to this kid.