This is my first Neil Gaiman book and I wasn't sure what to expect. It's an adult book on lots of reading lists, but if you're not a fan of fantasy, this won't be the book for you. Set in modern day England, it's a coming-of -age story done in flash-back that reads like a really scary fairy tale. 7 yr old bookish boy deals with preoccupied parents, transient boarders, and deeply mystifying neighbors who draw him into their weird world where things are not what they seem. Beautiful lyrical writing with thought-provoking quotes: "monsters are always scared, that's why they're monsters". The author started out to write a short story, which turned into a short novel, which could have been a longer novel. Ending too soon, it left me a bit dazed, wanting the characters and plot more deeply developed. But like a haunting dream that you can't quite totally recall, it left me ruminating on what exactly happened, or what I thought happened.
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