Neil Gaiman is quite brilliant. I don't always like his work, but it is always weird and thought provoking and magical. This one, I really like. It comes close to being a children's fantasy tale, but I would never read it to kids. I think he's captured the horror and weirdness of being too young to understand fully what is happening in the adult world around you, just accepting things as they are at face value because you don't have the skills to interpret them. And then blended it up beautifully with some truly wild and imaginative fantasy. So good!