I really enjoyed this book.
I like Neil Gaiman quite a bit, but this book felt somewhat different: it felt somehow like a Stephen King story.
Mild spoilers ahead.
The book is written as the main character, as an adult, visits the place where he grew up. There’s a pond there, but he knew, as a kid, that it was no pond, it was the ocean. And there was a girl, somewhat special. And a man, who killed himself.
See? Isn’t this your Kingesque coming-of-age/did-we-imagine-it-or-was-it-real plot?
It also feels pretty intimate, you are led to immediately visualize young Neil in the story, not a random kid. It’s a good book, well written, with a good story and characters.
And a big difference between King and Gaiman is that Stephen is not very good at endings, but Neil is great.
Vote: 8/10