Coraline

Title: Coraline

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Children

Published: 2002

Recommendation: A horror novel for children and adults alike.

Rating: 7.5/10

Summary: Coraline and her parents move into the new house where she discovers a door that looks bricked, but actually leads into another apartment just like her own, and at the same time very different.

Reactions: I haven't watched the movie based on this book, but I have a pretty good opinion of Neil Gaiman and I enjoyed The Graveyard Book previously, and thus I ended up purchasing and reading Coraline.

Coraline is the title heroine and a pretty interesting character: smart beyond her years, brave and curious. She sounds like entirely the sort of character I love in a book, but somehow she didn't turn out too likable in this novel. I still rooted for her and applauded her wit, but I didn't feel as emotionally drawn into the book as I hoped to be.

Perhaps, it's that she is a little too smart for her years. Just take the following quote:

"I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?"

Yes, all she says is true, but when would you ever hear such a thing from a little girl?

I did enjoy the suspense in the book though. The book is very atmospheric and even scary in places. At the same time, it's definitely targeted at young audiences in the type of scary things it uses. I believe a kid could easily relate -- but so could I, which is a mark of good writing.

All in all it was a fun book for bedtime reading and a book that would be fun to read out loud to someone else. Recommended.