When I put this book down, I had that lingering feeling I get sometimes when I finish a truly engaging story. For a few brief moments I was tricked into believing it. This really happened, and now it's over, and why does that have to be? Gaiman has always had the ability to draw you in and make you share the experiences of his characters, but something about the quaint setting and subtle approach of this book made that work even more this time around. 
 "Ocean" is the story of a little boy (undoubtedly an avatar for a young Neil Gaiman, based on his interests and hometown) experiencing the unexplainable. And when I say unexplainable, I really mean it. There are no cheap outs where Gaiman dodges having to explain things by just saying "it's all too mysterious!" or something. There's enough information available to make your own inferences about the strange world, but enough left out to make you long for the ability to understand it, just as the narrator longs to understand his circumstances. 
 This isn't high fantasy. It's part creation myth, part horror story, part fairytale, with few of the negative elements of any of those genres. There were a couple of instances where I wondered "why couldn't they just have done [blank]," but not anywhere near enough to drag down the story. This one is more about tone and feeling, with a plot that moves forward in service of those elements. 
 "Ocean" will make you remember your own childhood, how the smallest thing could seem infinite and mysterious. Only, if you believe this book, maybe everything was.