A boy inadvertently opens the door to something nasty while on an odd mission with a girl (or is she?) who lives nearby. He seeks aid from the girl, her mother, and her grandmother, to purge the thing from our world. 
 Neil Gaiman has mastered the art of writing reality that skirts fantasy, and vice-versa, and he also intermingles them better than any other author I've read. His characters shine, the good ones, the evil ones, the peripheral ones. I felt connected to all of them. I was horrified, enchanted, proud, and trepidatious in turns throughout the story. 
 So many little (and big) things tie into other things, and the reader gets caught up in all of it too. At the end, I had more questions left open than I had answers, but that's okay. Aren't the best books the ones that leave us wondering and pondering? 
 If you like Gaiman, you must read this. If you're unfamiliar with him and simply love a good story, this is a fine place to start.