It ended too soon

I waited an eternity to read the critically-acclaimed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and found it worth the wait.  Unfortunately, it ended all too soon, more of a novella, really.  Gaiman has such a way with words.  He paints beautifully nuanced pictures, and yet still tells a wopping good yarn.  It's hard to find both...beautiful writing sometimes gets bogged in the prose.  

This is the story of a grown man returning to his childhood home and the memories of his seventh year.    The main character was an outcast who spends his seventh birthday party with just his mom because no one shows.  As I started the book I initially wondered if this might be OK for a younger reader....however, it quickly turns very dark and very mature.  A suicide leads the lonely boy to make friends with an amazing family of women who happen to have an ocean at the end of their lane.  No matter that it looks like a duck pond, there is very old magic at work.  Something very scary escapes, and thus begins a nightmare for our young hero, complete with monsters that look human, and some that don't, old magic, and parents that betray children. 

My only complaint is that it all ended much too soon.....