Book review : The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

As autumn is definitely my favorite season for cuddling up in an oversized sweater with a cup of tea and a good book, that is exactly what I've spent my time with these past days. 
Never would I have thought, though, that I would discover a book as special as this!

I've read this book in German but I can only imagine the English version to be even better!

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home and is drawn to the farm at the end of the road where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl and her mother and grandmother. As he sits by the pond ­behind the ramshackle old house, the unremembered past comes flooding back—a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

It seems almost impossible to write a summary for this book. You don't wanna spoil it by saying too much, and this novel is so beautifully poetical, so wonderfully fantastic, that each word could be too much. It doesn't happen often that I'm sad a story is over once I've finished reading it, but it was definitely the case with this book! I would love to just take it and read it again but unfortunately you can only really read a book for the first time once.. 

The seven year old boy, the story teller whose name we, the readers, never get to know, tells us the story from his perspective. So we are very close to him and get to feel all the emotions first hand.
It think that is it, what makes this little boy who's living in books so authentic and lively. 
He get's to know the girl "Lettie" who lives together with her mother, and her mother's mother, in a farm at the end of the lane. They are very loveable, but also strange people. 

And then things start happening that are so incredible they totally fall out of any reality. 
The little boy is often scared and I would have done nothing more than to hug him while reading this book. The style of writing is just as fantastic as the story itself – I don't want to tell you more because I don't wanna take the magic of reading this book for the first time away for anyone.

This book definitely deserves 5 out of 5 stars, the title of my new favorite book, and a recommendation to read this for everyone, who loves to dream and isn't scared of strange and extraordinary stories. This book absolutely put a spell on me and I'm pretty sure I will reread it more than once! It's a book that you can always discover something new in, a book that invites us to linger and just get soaked up in it's magic. 

What was the best book you recently read? 

xx Micky

Book review: The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare

The Bane Chronicles is a collection of 11 stories around the adventures of Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and takes the reader on a journey throughout his 800 years on earth and through history.

Admittedly, I am a big fan of Cassandra Clare's books and Magnus Bane is probably my favourite figure of hers. 
Not probably lastly because I can associate with his personality so well, He's adventurous but at the same time so deep. And he appeared in every book of Cassandra Clare so far which is why it was interesting for me to read a book entirely based on him. The book was surprisingly well written and I would especially recommend it to those who have already read books of Clare's Mortal Instruments or Clockwork series since it aids the reader to find a certain coherence between the stories and events in 'The Bane Chronicles' - although I don't think the knowledge of these books is absolutely necessary to enjoy 'The Bane Chronicles'. 

This Book made me laugh, think and brought me to the brink of crying with it's ability to draw me into a so entirely different world from ours and that, to me, is all it needs to make it a good book. 

Of course reading the 'Bane Chronicles' requires a certain extend of imagination and willingness to accept the mysterious or even impossible in order to really get under Mr. Bane's spell and enjoy the book. But if you bring these qualities, then I guarantee you that you will not miss to enjoy this 'magnificently' well written book. 

Here's one of my favourite extracts from the book that perfectly describes Clare's descriptive and catching style of writing; 

Hope this review was helpful, have a magical weekend! 

xx ♡ Micky