Log #1

The Ocean at the End of the Lane was written by Neil Gaiman, who is New York Times bestselling author. Upon getting a glimpse of this book at the library, I was totally attracted by its mysterious cover. In addition, its title was the other incentive for me to check it out what this book looks like. “Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured beneath the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good.” extracted from the prologue, the short saying makes many thoughts and feelings flow into my mind, and makes me touched a lot. Therefore, I decided to choose it as my first English novel in this semester.

        This book was written in the tone of the first person, so there is no mention of the main role’s name. Readers just only know that he was a 7-year-old boy. In the first two chapters, it talks about that the boy usually lived in books more than he lived anywhere else and that the change of his family economic situation. His family was not affluent anymore; as a consequence, his parents told him that they need to make sacrifices, and that what he would be sacrificing was his bed room, a little room at the top of the stairs. Even if the boy loved his room very much, he could not but move to his little sister’s room. In one of the plots, it described that how fiercely they argued for any different habits. For example, his younger sister liked to close the door during bed time, while the boy tending to make it stay open. Finally, the argument was solved by their mom writing a chart that hung on the back of the door, showing that alternate nights were his or his sister’s. I am impressed. This plot makes me recall my childhood, getting through with my older brother. When we are all children, we always fought for anything, little from grabbing the remote of the television to the serious thing like blame each other about breaking the bowls. Their interaction strikes a chord with me, making me thinking of my aged-old memories with my older brother.

        In the third and fourth chapter, with a crime as a touch paper, the boy started an incredible adventure. After his father’s van stolen and abandoned, with the corpses of a couple, there were series of strange and horror things happened to the boy and others in that village. Because of this accident, the boy met a girl, Lettie Hampstock, whose family had a big farm called Hampstock Farm. The Hampstock looked not like normal family; they seemly knew the information behind the crime.

        The following chapters, it would open an unexpected journey between the boy and Lettie. I can’t wait to know what is going on next about this story!