I've mentioned this book in videos a bit:
The More I Think About It
June Reading Wrap-Up
Creep Reads

Reviewing a Gaiman book is always quite the effort. I started this book and had to quickly put it down but then the second time I picked it up, I couldn't help but just gobble it up, sacrificing sleep just so I wouldn't have to break the spell this book cast.

I find myself in a familiar place here, now on my fourth Gaiman book. There is always something so lovely and otherworldly about his writing, but also something that seems to hold you at arm's length. I was thoroughly engrossed. I cringed and I felt and I hoped and I held my breath, but at the end of the day, there is an aloofness to the way that Gaiman tells his stories. Everything just IS and it doesn't bother to tell you why or to explain it to you or to properly introduce or thoroughly conclude. That is very much true of this book. On the one hand, it left me with so many left over feelings once I was done. Even now, I'm sifting through the scenes and the imagery and the feelings. On the other hand, it's difficult to tell you what this story actually was. It's all a bit beyond my grasp.

More than a full story, this is a limited series of events, focused on larger meanings and, really, feelings. I almost immediately felt so sad while I read this because of the feeling that permeates it of lost childhood, loss of innocence, the way we are adults. I think of this book and I feel it-- the flapping gray creature of getting what you want and the capability of a father to drown his son and the shadowy voices that try to get you to give in and lose hope. It all felt so significant and weighty.

And at the end the big question is posed, but never answered. Old Mrs Hempstock says you can't pass or fail at being a person and yet Lettie comes out to see if it was worth it.

Honestly, this was a four star read when I finished it last night and today it feels more like a five star read. And perhaps in a year, I'll still be trying to pick it all apart, finding new little treasures within the storytelling. I know I want to revisit this again and I know that it's the kind of thing that probably isn't for everyone. I loved it though. And I hope to always be the kind of adult that is honest about how I look on the inside-- rather childlike after all.