History YMMV / TheOceanAtTheEndOfTheLane

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: In the stage adaptation, Ursula Monkton's keeps her OffscreenTeleportation ability from the book through clever uses of body doubles, lightning and set rearrangements, which allows her for instance to leave the stage on one side only to reappear one second later on the opposite side.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: In the stage adaptation, Ursula Monkton's keeps her OffscreenTeleportation ability from the book through clever uses of body doubles, lightning and set rearrangements, which allows her for instance to leave the stage on one side only to reappear one second later on the opposite side.

* RealismInducedHorror: The narrator realizes in hindsight [[spoiler:that his own father tried to drown him]] and thinks that it was Ursula Monkton's influence. Ursula claims that [[spoiler:his father]] was always like that, with the truth being ambiguous. It's implied that he's blocked out the memory not just because of [[spoiler:Lettie sacrificing herself and with it, her memories of what happened]]. He's mildly disturbed by this while attending his father's funeral. Not helping is that this novel is ''based on Neil's life''.

** At one point we are treated to a relatively detailed description of the narrator's father having sex with Ursula Monkton.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Exactly how much of the abusiveness of the narrator's family is due to Ursula's influence?

* TheWoobie: The narrator. Let's count the ways. The book starts with him having a OnePersonBirthdayParty, and the only person his age who gives him the time of day is Lettie. His kitten gets run over by a taxi. He sees the corpse of an opal miner who committed suicide in the family car, then gets drawn into a situation involving [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], which manages to bury a worm into his foot and use it as a trans-dimensional gateway to get to Earth. Once there, the narrator nearly gets killed when the being ([[UnreliableNarrator maybe]]) coerces his father to attempt to drown him in a bathtub, and leaves him as the OnlySaneMan when the rest of his family are coerced/taken over by the being. He manages to escape ([[BringMyBrownPants peeing himself in the process]]) and gets Lettie's help, but it forces him to confront his inner demons (including his father appearing outside the fairy circle, who may have been real) before the situation is temporarily solved. Later, the demon is driven away for good, but at the cost of a [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice Lettie makes to keep the hunger-birds from eating the narrator's heart, which puts her in a coma and -- after 40 years -- still unable to speak or move]]. Did we mention that the narrator is ''7 years old'' when all this is happening, and doesn't comprehend most of he's seen? The narrator's adult life isn't much better either, where it's explained that he's just left a failed marriage, and that [[spoiler:he's always unable to remember the traumatic events after leaving the Hempstock farm whenever he visits]].

* HarsherInHindsight: The fact that the book was written [[RealitySubtext after Neil's father died in 2009]], that he started writing it as a memoir for Creator/AmandaPalmer and that like the narrator Creator/NeilGaiman had a failed marriage before marrying Amanda.

* InferredHolocaust: It's never elaborated upon what damage the hunger-birds caused [[spoiler:when they started eating ''Earth itself(!)'']] (although it seems to get a HandWave by mentioning that Old Mrs. Hempstock can [[RealityWarper make people forget what happened]]).
** Actually, [[spoiler: she demands that the hunger-birds put everything back the way it was.]]

* TheWoobie: The narrator. Let's count the ways. The book starts with him having a OnePersonBirthdayParty, and the only person his age who gives him the time of day is Lettie. His kitten gets run over. He sees the corpse of an opal miner who died in the family car, then gets drawn into a situation involving [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], which manages to bury a worm into his foot and use it as a trans-dimensional gateway to get to Earth. Once there, the narrator nearly gets killed when the being ([[UnreliableNarrator maybe]]) coerces his father to attempt to drown him in a bathtub, and leaves him as the OnlySaneMan when the rest of his family are coerced/taken over by the being. He manages to escape ([[BringMyBrownPants peeing himself in the process]]) and gets Lettie's help, but it forces him to confront his inner demons (including his father appearing outside the fairy circle, who may have been real) before the situation is temporarily solved. Later, the demon is driven away for good, but at the cost of a [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice Lettie makes to keep the hunger-birds from eating the narrator's heart, which puts her in a coma and -- after 40 years -- still unable to speak or move]]. Did we mention that the narrator is ''7 years old'' when all this is happening, and doesn't comprehend most of he's seen? The narrator's adult life isn't much better either, where it's explained that he's just left a failed marriage, and that [[spoiler:he's always unable to remember the traumatic events after leaving the Hempstock farm whenever he visits]].

* TheWoobie: The narrator. Let's count the ways. The book starts with him having a OnePersonBirthdayParty, and the only person his age who gives him the time of day is Lettie. He sees the corpse of a coal miner who died in the family car, then gets drawn into a situation involving [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], which manages to bury a worm into his foot and use it as a trans-dimensional gateway to get to Earth. Once there, the narrator nearly gets killed when the being ([[UnreliableNarrator maybe]]) coerces his father to attempt to drown him in a bathtub, and leaves him as the OnlySaneMan when the rest of his family are coerced/taken over by the being. He manages to escape ([[BringMyBrownPants peeing himself in the process]]) and gets Lettie's help, but it forces him to confront his inner demons (including his father appearing outside the fairy circle, who may have been real) before the situation is temporarily solved. Later, the demon is driven away for good, but at the cost of a [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice Lettie makes to keep the hunger-birds from eating the narrator's heart, which puts her in a coma and -- after 40 years -- still unable to speak or move]]. Did we mention that the narrator is ''7 years old'' when all this is happening, and doesn't comprehend most of he's seen? The narrator's adult life isn't much better either, where it's explained that he's just left a failed marriage, and that [[spoiler:he's always unable to remember the traumatic events after leaving the Hempstock farm whenever he visits]].

* FridgeBrilliance: The narrator's father does not enter the fairy-ring, even though it does appear to be truly him. Why is that? Nothing that wants to hurt the narrator can cross into the ring. The father is verbally and emotionally abusive towards his son, who implies that he does it as a form of control and an outlet for his disappointment in the narrator.

--> '''Narrator:''' You made my daddy hurt me.
-->'''Ursula:''' I never made any of them do anything.

* FridgeBrilliance: The narrator's father does not enter the fairy-ring, even though it does appear to be truly him. Why is that? Nothing that wants to hurt the narrator can cross into the ring. The father is verbally and emotionally abusive towards his son, who implies that he does it as a form of control and an outlet for his disappointment in the narrator.

* {{Squick}}: At one point we are treated to a relatively detailed description of the narrator's father having sex with Ursula Monkton.

** Also, the narrator pulling a very long worm out of a hole in his foot, also described in detail.

* {{Squick}}: At one point we are treated to a relatively detailed description of the narrator's father having sex with Ursula Monkton.