Blurb for the back cover:
“Not something you should read to your toddler”

My first Neil Gaiman book. Well, if you wanted to get technical about it, it is technically my second. The first one I read was Good Omens which was co-authored by Terry Pratchett of Discworld fame. I’m not quite sure who to credit that book it. Good Omens wasn’t a book I particularly enjoyed, so let’s call is a Pratchett book and still consider Coraline to be the first book by Gaiman that I read. Having got that unnecessary bit of confusion out of the way, let’s talk about Coraline, which I liked.

Coraline, the book’s title character, is a little girl who moves in a multilevel house with her parents. One the ground floor there are two retired actresses who love to reminisce about their glory days while on the top floor, the attic, lives a man who is busy training mice to produce a circus. On the second floor, in the middle, is Coraline’s family. One day while exploring her new home, Coraline discovers a door that when she first opens it discovers it to be bricked off. She thinks nothing of it at first but when she returns to it later the bricks have vanished and she find a corridor that leads back to her house. Only it isn’t her house. Everything looks pretty much the same but slightly off. Coraline then meets her other mother and other father who sport buttons for eyes and tell her that she has discovered an alternate version of her world where the food is better, toys are more fun, and everything is just all around better. Whats more is that Coraline can stay in this better world forever, all she has to do it let other mother replace Coraline’s eyes with buttons, an offer she promptly refuses. Returning from the alternate house, she discovers her parents missing and must travel back through the formally bricked door and save them from the clutches of her other mother who wants to keep her forever.

Coraline is a young adult book but it’s kind of dark and spooky. Probably not something you should read to your toddler. This book you would be able to finish in an afternoon if you were truly dedicated. This book is fast paced which is one of the problems I have with the book. It’s quick and not much happens. Coraline must find a way to free her parents as well as some ghosts and she does so with ease without much of a fight. I guess since it’s a young adult book I can’t expect it to be as deep as the novels I traditionally read.

One thing I couldn’t help but do while reading the book is compare it to the movie Mirrormask which was written by Neil Gaiman. In the movie a girl travels to a alternate world and her mirror mother tries to keep her there as her own daughter. Just something I noticed.

But speaking of movies, Coraline is being made in to a film by Henry Selick, the director that brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas. It will be made using stop motion which means it looks awesome. You can check out some previews of the movie here.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm.
Filed under: Book Review, Thoughts on Books.