Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Genre: J Horror/Mystery

Blurb (on back of book): Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.
Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best.

MY OPINION: ***

This will be a SHORT review :D

This book was a read-aloud to my little sister, who extremely liked it. I can see why it would be a big hit among younger readers, what with the short choppiness and the simplicity of the book, all while incorporating mysterious and "scary" elements into the book. However, I, as an older and more mature reader, did not enjoy the book as much as other junior horror novels. I do not enjoy reading junior, but sometimes when I'm bored, I'll pick up one of those large fonts formatted books, or easier books for fun.

This book was not my favorite because of the writing, which, in my opinion, was not poor, but too simple for my tastes. The author did a great job of providing suspense and mystery, as well as cliffhangers to keep the readers going, but I also thought that the writing style could have been a bit better. The sentences were all choppy and many of them could have been put together... The tags for when people say something could have been more descriptive (i.e. "said" could become "asked" or "responded").

I thought that the main idea of the book was really empowering for younger readers, but the characters weren't well developed. I never really got a true taste of what Coraline looked like, or what her personality was like. I didn't get to know the characters very well.

Of course, this is all to be expected of a junior book, hence the mediocre rating. I do believe that the author could have done better if it was aimed towards a higher level, but being as it is, the book wasn't half-bad, and the storyline was quite interesting.

I would recommend this book to younger readers XD

PS My sister thoroughly enjoyed this book, so stay tuned for a review from her via her blog, Sith Cat.

Main Character: Coraline
Sidekick(s): Parents, Miss Spink, Miss Forcible, Mr. Bobo, etc
Villain(s): The other mother, etc
Horror/Mystery Elements: This book was aimed to be a horror novel with mysterious scenes to provide suspense.