The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a powerful story - about childhood, about memory, about being human. It's a beautiful book, in its own right - a story told through the eyes of a child, that managed to capture the essence of childhood so perfectly well, that I find it surprising that it was written by an adult.

The main character was simple - he is a young child, after all - but, to me, that was part of the beauty of it. As simple as the character was, he was actually relatable. How he saw the world around him, how he saw the adults of his life, all brought back memories of my own childhood, making me remember how I saw the world around me and my parents - and, in a way, how I still see them.

The other characters were interesting, mystical, and yet, very real. In many passages, I saw my grandmother in Lettie's grandmother, while in others, she was something else entirely. I saw in the protagonist's parents my own parents' struggles and hardships, how they tried their best, but were sometimes influenced by anger and emotion and all their own flaws.

While the setting of the book is very mystical, with multiple dimensions, universes and beings, it felt somehow very real. A lot is left to be explained, that is for sure, but our own universe is filled with unexplained mysteries and unanswered questions. What the protagonist knows is what we know, and a child definitely doesn't know that many facts.

The book was real. It felt very real, and it spoke to me deeply. Memory is something so very precious to me, and this book definitely sparked memories of my childhood - happy and sad ones. A book that manages to speak so close to the heart is a book worth reading.

“Nothing's ever the same," she said. "Be it a second later or a hundred years. It's always churning and roiling. And people change as much as oceans.”