Week 8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

WEEK 8: MYTHIC FICTION AND CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY

For this week, I choose to read Neil Gaiman's "The Ocean at The End of The Lane". I bought this book about a year ago, while waiting at an airport, but I never got to read it until the end. I think part of the reason was the beginning/opening that felt kind of slow.

After reading it again, I guess it's not that the beginning is slow. Maybe I was just impatient, haha. When the narrator returns to his childhood memory, for some reason, I couldn't really understand his personality, but not really? I understand that he loves his kitten, Fluffy. I understand his feeling about burnt toast, and his old bedroom... But his narration feels kind of monotone for me. In contrast to Lettie, Lettie feels more alive. Midway through, I start to feel more comfortable reading his narration style. The part when he pulls out the worm from his foot was intense, it scared me.

The story overall is so weird and unpredictable. I don't know what will happen next and it's hard to stop once I got to the middle of the story. The characters are also interesting. And then, as I was reading, I realized that the book gave me the same feeling as Laika Studio's films, like Coraline. And then I just remembered that Coraline was also written by Neil Gaiman. Now it all makes sense.

I enjoyed the book and now I hope to see it being made into a film one day. Another Neil Gaiman/Laika film would be fun to watch!

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