Mr Gaiman doesn't need any promotion from me, but he's going to get it anyway. 
 The story is told from a perfectly realised bookish seven-year-old's point of view, the best of unreliable narrators. It has the feel of a long short-story, which seems appropriate somehow. I definitely didn't feel short-changed: in this book, Neil Gaiman says more about what life's all about in 3 hours of reading than most authors manage in far weightier tomes. 
 It's a story about love and trust and sacrifice and seeing beneath the surface of things. I can't say much more than that without giving things away - the story is so tightly written. I will say that the Hempstocks get to take centre stage this time and I'd love to visit them. 
 I'm not ashamed to say that I blubbed like a kid at the end. Maybe it's because I was forced to move from being seven again back to the reality of middle-age! 
 Best book I've read so far this year.