Coraline

Rating:
Summary: drop what you're reading--read Coraline now!
Review: If you are looking for a scary and thrilling adventure, you found the right book. If you don't, I suggest that you put this review down. If you think Lord of the Rings is scary, don't read Coraline.

It was a boring rainy day when Coraline was exploring her new apartment. All the doors in the apartment opened normally except for one. When Coraline opened it, she found only a brick wall behind.

Coraline went to the floor below hers, where the two old ladies who lived there read her tea leaves. The old ladies saw that something very bad would happen to Coraline. They gave Coraline a rock with a hole through it, to protect her from evil.

That night Coraline heard a scuffling sound, and she went to look around. She ended up at the door that was always locked, and when she opened the door, the brick wall was gone. There was a hall; Coraline followed the hall to the end, and entered a world just like hers. There to greet her were people that looked just like her parents...but they had button eyes. Coraline's life got stranger and stranger.

The new parents wanted to make Coraline love them, but she refused. A way they tried to make their love official was to give her button eyes.

Coraline went back to her real apartment but when she got back, her parents were gone. She decided to go back through the door and get her parents back. Coraline made a deal with her other mother that if she found her parents, the other mother would set them free. If she didn't, the other mother could put the button eyes on Coraline and she would be stuck in the other mother's world forever. Will Coraline find her parents or will she get button eyes?

Coraline is a marvellous book because there is a lot of description, but the description makes the characters seem funny but they turn out to be evil. If you read the book at night, it isn't scary, until you put it down and imagine what is going to happen next. Coraline is a very suspenseful book. I think that if you like reading ghost stories and really scary books than you should stop reading whatever you are reading right now and start reading Coraline.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely NOT a good bedtime story!!
Review: When Coraline Jones moves in to a new apartment, she spends her first few weeks exploring the grounds and making friends with her eccentric neighbors-2 retired actresses who raise Highland Terriors and a crazy old man with a mouse circus. Until one day when the rain keeps her indoors. Bored to tears, Coraline is told to go count the doors and windows by her workaholic father who just wants to get her out of his hair. So, count she does-and in the process, Coraline finds a secret which will turn her hum-drum life upside-down. A door that leads to an alternate-reality, where Coraline's "other mother" gives her everything she could possibly want. At first, it seems like heaven, but Coraline soon realizes it's much closer to the other end of the spectrum. The other mother will do anything to keep coraline on her side of the door-including kidnap Coraline's real parents! In this delightfully spooky romp through a much darker, scarier version of C.S.Lewis's Narnia, Gaiman's visual descriptions, along with McKean's horriffic illustrations, will leave you spotting monsters under the bed for weeks!

Rating:
Summary: Not Up To Par
Review: I never imagined I would give anything written by Neil Gaiman less than a five star rating, but I'm only giving _Coraline_ three stars because I feel so guilty that I didn't like it more than I did. For something by a writer of such abilities, it struck me as particularly bland and lifeless, and did not live up to some of the raves I have heard, claiming that it is sure to replace _Alice in Wonderland_ as a new children's classic.

Coraline, a girl of about nine or ten (not specified, but that was the sense I got) lives with her parents in an old house that has been converted into flats. Her parents are benignly neglectful and the other flats are populated by characters who are benignly eccentric. During the course of exploring the house, Coraline discovers a mysterious passage between her flat and another, which sometimes is bricked up and sometimes gives access to an alternate and moderately darker version of reality. There she meets a personage claiming to be her "other mother." This being tempts her to stay in the alternate reality forever and promises that she will never be bored and will have everything she wants.

The first thing that struck me about _Coraline_ was its stunning lack of originality. From Alice to Narnia, how many books have we read where kids at loose ends discover alternate realities in old houses? _Coraline_ did not really offer anything new on the subject.

The second thing that struck me was the banality of the characterization. No one in this book stirred me to sympathy, or any emotion at all. The evil character wasn't scary, merely boring. The only interesting person was the cat, and there I was hampered by its similarity to the Cheshire Cat of Alice fame.

The writing had its moments. I did recognise certain lines and phrases that appear verbatim in other of Gaiman's works, as if they had been recycled to add a little spice. The story just didn't do a thing for me; it seemed obvious and somewhat trite. Although the alternate reality was supposed to frighten, or at least impress you with its darkness, it just left me with a big, "So What?" I've had scarier neighbours and been scarier places in this reality!

For a writer of Gaiman's abilities, this seemed very off the cuff -- the sort of thing one might produce off the top of one's head as a bedtime story. I missed the detail and the deeper exploration he most often gives his subjects, which I think would not be inappropriate to a childrens' book. In the end, _Coraline_ came off as superficial.

Dave McKean's drawings were interesting, but the black and white pencils did not have the impact of some of his other work. They also did not add much to the story.

_Coraline_ might make a good read-aloud book, where the reader could imbue the characters with personality and the situations with feeling. It is an extremely easy read, and as such might be good for beginners.

"Alice," however, it certainly is not.

Rating:
Summary: excellent one-off read
Review: We fellow the adventures of Coraline, a young girl wise beyond her years in the Other House. Gaiman builds an entire world (albeit a small one) that is deliciously creepy and strange. The attention he pays to small details - an eerie theme song guaranteed to give you the shivers, the 'doughy' texture of the Other Father's face, the malicious expression in the Other Picture - are touches that make 'Coraline' a gem and a wicked scare.
However, if I could give 3.5 stars, I would. 'Coraline' is really an excellent one-off read but not worth the price (I own the paperback novel) I felt that without the suspense, much effect is lost upon re-reading the book. It's still an enjoyable read the second time around, but falls short when compared to Gaiman's other works. Coraline as a character lacks emotional depth. While I rooted for her, she's easily forgettable. More interesting characters are the cat and the Other Mother, but they are under-developed (forgivable within the constraints of length of a Children's book)
For children, 'Coraline' is highly recommened. For older readers, I do recommend the book as a light read, but Gaiman has written better.

Rating:
Summary: Creepy and original
Review: I have been reading this book to my son's fourth grade class and each time they beg me not to stop. They gasp as they listen to descriptions of "the other mother" and her evil ways, and quite frankly so do I. In fact, I couldn't stand waiting and had to read ahead between class sessions! Although aimed at children, this book does not talk down or pretend its audience can't handle its shocking and often original conceits. A mysterious door to nowhere, missing parents, singing rats, a doppelganger house that is a little fuzzy around the edges--it all rings terrifyingly true. The illustrations are also nicely sinister. You'll never look at black buttons the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: A walk on the other side of....
Review: The world is full of alternate universes; worlds of the insane, worlds of the dying, worlds of the dead, and the worlds on the other side of those things that seem nondescript. There are windows and wardrobes and mirrors and wells and hallways, and then there are doors that open with strange and rusted keys...and who can resist such an opening?

Certainly not Coraline. Her parents are disracted as only parents can be. They buy her clothes that must be 'grown into' as parents often do. They cook "recipies" instead of normal food. Other grownups can't even pronounce her name, let alone understand why she wants to wear violently colored gloves...

Welcome to Coraline's odd world, where bravery is measured in facing a terror not once, but twice, and Coraline must learn that the one thing that she cannot trade for her heart's desire is her heart.

This is an amazing, astounding book; creepy enough to hold the interest of kids, spooky enough to startle adults. The story is multi-tiered in such a way that no matter what your age or maturity level, you'll always remember what you read.

Rating:
Summary: Same old tricks
Review: Gaiman is up to his usual tricks in "Coraline": children more grown-up than grown-ups, his typical moral-- Adults lose their ability to "imagine things" (all adults except Gaiman of course), scary eye gimmicks (see the Corinthian in Sandman)and cliche dressed up in Gaiman's mannered prose (see the "what it takes to be brave" cliche in Coraline, all of "Stardust".)
Perhaps I have just read too much of Gaiman's material to find this book entertaining or original. I had the same problem with "American Gods" which retreads the same anthropological theories and concepts that seemed so fresh in the Sandman series (at least I bothered to finish Coraline).
Another problem with this book is that it is supposed to be for children, but, like "The boy who swapped his Father for two Goldfish", it is really aimed at Gaiman's established fan base who no doubt find some comfort in his predictable style and concerns. I added this book to my classroom collection (yes, I know-- those who can't teach) and it has remained untouched by my group of 13 year olds.
I wasn't disappointed by Coraline; I knew what I would be getting-- but that's the problem; an author as talented as Gaiman should really try something different. The greatest joy of his comic book work was that it often managed to transcend genre, especially in works like "Violent Cases" and "Mr Punch" and even in the fantasy driven Sandman series. His novels just recycle in prose ground he has already covered in comics.
The worst thing about my Coraline purchase is that it is unillustrated and although style wise Dave McKean is in the same rut Gaiman is, his art is always interesting. Gaiman's isn't.

Rating:
Summary: Horrifyingly wonderful!
Review: This is an amazing book. Coraline wanders into a world like hers, only terrifying! She has an "other mother" and "other father". Her other mother is very creepy- the way she looks at her hungrily- this book runs chills up your spine!

Rating:
Summary: Like a terrifying dream...
Review: You've already heard about how creepy this children's book for all ages is, I'm sure. So I won't dwell on that (although it is easily as creepy as _any_ book for adults..)
What I liked most about this book was the prose style. At once simple, rich, charming and creepy, it reminds me almost of a sort of novel-length haiku, or an old fairytale, the kind they cut out of the later collections because it was too odd, too frightening, too disturbing for their sensibilities. Does that make sense?
I also especially like the character of Coraline. She is a perfect portrayal of an intelligent, resouceful, brave girl who is nevertheless still a child, with all that entails. At no point do her actions (or those of anyone else in the book) seem out of character. It's easy to tell Gaiman is a father.
The surreal world Coraline enters is great as well, like a wonderful dream that twists and becomes a nightmare.
By the way, I have to disagree with the previous reviewer: I _loved_ the illustrations, because it's _easy_ for a trained artist with a smidgen of talent to draw true to life, but suggesting the essence of a subject is a lot harder and a lot creepier. There are worse things lurking in your imagination than any artist could possibly represent, and I think Dave McKean's pictures tap into that, particularly the cover illustration, which is the most perfectly suited I have ever seen.
If I had to think of one negative thing to say about this book, it would be that the use of the phrase "glorious romp" near the end of the book bugs me because it feels dated. That's it. That was _all_ I didn't like.
To sum up, this is a truly wonderful book. And yes, it's creepy, but it's not a tragedy, and it ends positively. You won't need therapy (probably), but you'll never forget _Coraline_.

Rating:
Summary: Behind the door to nowhere...
Review: The locked door that opens on a brick wall one day opens on a similar but different world. Very different. Her mother and father over there... aren't, but so want to be. The strange cat around the property talks. And Coraline must figure out what went wrong and make things right. To beat an often used phrase around, it's a modern fairy tale, written much like the old ones. It's scary and strange and not at all happy in parts. Which is it's charm.

Gaiman captures the spirit of a child's confusion about grow-ups handily and twists the love of parents wickedly. Coraline is refreshingly young but not incabable as so many writer's tend to make children. She has a child's distrust of weird foods and plenty of imagination (and a cat) to help her on her journey. And well, it's Gaiman with the illustrated help of Dave McKean, perfect in his off-kilter style. Yes, it's a.. I won't say children's book, perhaps more for the 10-16 set (what is that young adult? I never know), but I enjoyed it easily.