Almost immediately, this book swept me away into the narrator's memories, and left me in a kind of trance until I finished the book a day later. There is a kind of dark whimsy that surrounds the story, and a lot of Gaiman's writing as far as I can tell. The story feels sort of delicate until it doesn't, and then you're hooked. Although most of the book is from a young boy's perspective, I could slip right in and appreciate the view without reverting to my own inner child. It's a beautiful book.