That's one of the really uncomfortable things about Neil Gaiman- and I don't even mean all of the things that should be uncomfortable in what he writes. It's not the crazy, twisted other stuff that gets to me. It's the way he takes some truth, like you said about that crazy shit actually happening, and weaves it in.

So I know what you mean about the girl who would have grown up to be beautiful, and the crazy, kind old man who is a wonderful gentleman, except for the fact that he sacrifices a child every year. (Which is what made The Lovely Bones so difficult for me to watch.)