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Coraline

Coraline

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Creepy and funny!
Review: So far, I haven't read anything by Neil Gaiman that I didn't enjoy, and Coraline is no different. This is one of the most charming books I've read recently, and like everything else written by Gaiman, it is witty and funny, yet creepy and disturbing at the same time. And while Coraline was written for children, I haven't yet heard any adult complain about it. I haven't asked any kids what they thought about it, but I'm sure kids would have just as much fun as your average adult, if not even more (though maybe not as a bedtime story...).

Coraline is the story of a young girl. A bored, polite, smart little girl, who goes exploring on a rainy day, and obviously runs into trouble. A lot of trouble. But there's more to "Coraline" than that. Gaiman has a wonderful way with words, which never ceases to amaze me (and of course, causes me to ask myself how come I can't write like that), and his dark sense of humor and witty simplicity makes reading "Coraline" a treat for anyone (for example: "She might want something to love... Something that isn't her. She might want something to eat as well. Its hard to tell with creatures like her.").

You simply can't help but to fall in love with Coraline, and the entire book. And obviously, Dave McKean's artwork makes this book even more fun to read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buttons _can_ be creepy
Review: Coraline was my first foray into the world of Neil Gaiman. I was stuck, just waiting for Robin McKinley or Philip Pullman's next work to come out. Coraline came to me through a classroom book order form geared towards 4th through 6th grade, and I'd heartily agree with that age determination.

I purchased Coraline as a potential read aloud novel in my classroom or to add to my classroom library. While I quickly determined this was not the book for a third grader, no matter what their reading ability, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as an adult reader.

Neil Gaiman has created a fantasy world set in an old Victorian-like house that has been turned into flats. Coraline is slowly likeable as the bored and out of sorts child who wanders into a second world connected to her house via a spooky little corridor. Coraline finds most things in this new world mirror those in her own, including a set of "other" parents. Gaiman's use of language never lets you get lost as you try to sort out the two worlds, even when Coraline becomes trapped in the increasingly dangerous (and creepy) second world.

As per usual in a fantasy novel, the young heroine is aided not only by her own disinterest in doing what she ought, but also by a cast of characters who provide both advice and "magical" trinkets. My third grade students would have loved this adventure. It was written well enough for most of them to follow it, but I couldn't be entirely sure some of the more sinister elements wouldn't have caused some scary dreams. Alas, this one will stay at home with me and I'll have to find a different adventure for our read aloud. My gain.

I recommend this book for middle-school aged children and would probably argue against it for those parents searching for material for their "advanced" but chronologically younger readers. I completed this book in the air between New England and Chicago; this is a one sitting read for adults. I'll be heading to the Neil Gaiman aisle of my local bookstore again soon.

Black buttons.....brrrr.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Coraline review
Review: The book Coraline is an excelent book. The book has a secret world of horror and I thought that was really interesting. The author Neil Gaiman is wonderful at discribing weird things. I also liked the writing styke of this book.

The best part of this book was when Coraline first enters the new but similar world.She finds that everything is the same but different.It's the same as her house but she notices that the picture on the wall with the little boy has a different expression on his face.Then Coraline finds her parents but they aren't really her real parents.They are called her "other parents".They have pale white skin and button eyes.

The author discribes the characters and setting marvelously.He discribes the other mothers skin as white as paper.He also discribes the begining as if you were right there with the characters.She shares the house with three other people.On the first floor lives Miss Focible and Miss Spink.He discribes them as old and round women. On the third floor lives the old crazy man.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "It's Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline."
Review: In this fantastic book, Gaimon taps into nightmares most people aren't aware they had to create a truly frightening story. Most authors would be uneasy about putting children in such a high-stakes situation, but Gaiman doesn't flinch. A father himself, he knows that children are a lot more resilient that most adults give them credit for--proven by the hundreds of enthusiastic grade-school fans who have written him at his website. Unlike the Lemony Snicket books, the horrifying events portrayed here are told in a low-key, deadpan style which makes them even more effective.

Also check out the unabridged audiobook, read very effectively by the author himself. The background music is wonderfully eerie, and the rat choruses are spine-tinglingly creepy.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uneventful, dark, standoffish book goes nowhere fast
Review: I know I'll get lambasted for this, but I'm having a hard time understanding Neil Gaiman's appeal of late.

I know what he's capable of. I've read the Sandman series.

I've read Neverwhere and Stardust and American Gods and Smoke and Mirrors, too. Neverwhere is unbelievably brilliant and creative. Stardust is cute, and clever, but not extraordinary. American Gods is clever, but undeveloped in its execution.

I also have Gaiman's other works with illustrator Dave McKean -- The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch: A Romance...the Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish...Dustcovers: The Selected Sandman Covers and others.

So I'm no stranger to Neil Gaiman.

Neither am I devoid of ability to recognize talent, creativity and passion.

That said, I must admit Coraline left me cold. Not much went on in the book. The characters were flat. And it seemed very dark for supposedly being a children's book.

Frankly, the same problem that plagued American Gods seems to run rampant through Coraline: a good idea left undeveloped.

Coraline starts out promisingly enough. A big old house. A curious little girl. A bunch of odd neighbors. And a locked door with a brick wall on the other side. Great premise. Lots of things could happen in such a setting.

Things do happen, but too quickly without any character development. The stories goes from zero to 60 in a couple of pages and then wraps up -- before any explanation is giving as to why this other world existed, who or what those "other parents" are, who the strange neighbors are, and why the little girls seems wise beyond her years, able to face terror with hardly a blink of her eye.

I think Neil Gaiman needs a hard-nosed editor, one who'll tell him, "Great idea, Neil. But it needs to be developed more." Or, "Good draft. Could be published as-is. But I think it needs a bit more fleshing out in these areas..."

I said it in my review of American Gods, and I'll say it in my review of Coraline: Neil Gaiman is extremely talented and creative, but his best work is still ahead of him.

I can't recommend Coraline.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Trippy
Review: I only slept two hours the night I read "Coraline." The first few hours I read and finished the book; the next couple hours I couldn't sleep, reveling in the creative world this book took me too that no other book has. There was not a cliche anywhere: not in story, language, mood, characters. Instead we have scuttling hands, fortune-telling mice, button eyes, and worlds disolving into nothingness on the outskirts.

The unflappability of the young girl protagonists threatens to make the book too low key (as some reviewers have accused), but instead, I think it adds to the odd, vague tone. Also accurate in the negative reviews is their observation that there's a lack of background for this world's existence and for the characters in it. I respond, hallelejah. How many thousands of books are ruined by too much exposition. This book gets to the dark, otherworldly story pronto. Its world is assumed to exist and needs no justification.

Stephen King has never creeped me out like this. I'm reading this book to my seven year old daughter (against the advice of my wife) and loaning it to my tough guy, non-reading friend.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: !CORALINE!
Review: This book Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a creapy,suspinceful
fanticy book. This book will send a chill down your back and
through your shoes. Its about a girl who has a pretty strange life as it is, but one turn ofa secrate doors noob will trap her
in a second worled or will it? As she see's things she's never
seen befor she plays a game to save her parents life.So read this book today!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Confusing Book
Review: I can honestly say Coraline is one of the worst books I have ever read. To me this book had no plot whatsoever.I also thought it was confusing because, when she went from one world to another you couldn't tell she had switched. I will not toattaly down this book because I thought it was nice when she found her partents in the snow globe. But the rest of the book was rather odd. Don't get me wrong I like fantasy books but, this was a little to weird.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wins the Nebula Award!
Review: This short novel wins almost every major fantasy & science fiction award but once again the ALA committee blows it by handing the Newbury to an inferior novel. [I'm a librarian and can say that with some amount of authority--although maybe not much.] This book is an instant classic but was probably too dark for the at times very timid committee. At least Gaiman's not alone. E. B. White didn't win for Charlotte's Web and S. E. Hinton didn't win for The Outsiders. I suspect for much the same reasons. Regardless this is a beautifully written tale with a fine, tough little kid with dry wit and great courage working her way through events that would panic most adults. If the book reminds you a bit of Alice In Wonderland, good. It should. Both are books that are dark enough to unnerve some adults and good enough to enchant children. I'll be reading this one to my kids, grandkids and whoever will listen until I'm in my dotage. Buy it, you won't regret it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lovely and incomparable.
Review: Neil Gaiman, Coraline (Harper, 2002)

I'm not exactly sure what to say about this minor gem. It's a kids' book, but not really a kids' book. It's a fantasy/horror novel, but not a fantasy/horror novel. It has minor similarities to about a hundred books to be found over the ages, both children's and adult, but nothing strong enough to be called an influence (at least, not one that wears its heart on its sleeve). About the best thing I can come up with would be a much darker version of Roald Dahl's Matilda with a leavening of The Secret Garden, a touch or two of Neverwhere, and a dash of Wendy Walker's The Secret Service just for flair. And a large number of flavors running underneath you will sense but not really be able to put your finger on.

Coraline is a girl who's pretty much bored with the way things are. While exploring, she discovers that a door in the drawing room, behind which has always been a wall of bricks, now has a tunnel to what she assumes is the flat on the other side. But when she goes through, she finds a weird alternate universe where her parents have buttons for eyes, things are interesting, and the world ends beyond the garden...

Gaiman mentions in an interview after the book (found only in the ebook edition) that Coraline is usually seen by children as an adventure story, by adults as a horror novel. Both are correct, of course. It is a lovely rendition of both, told in an almost classical children's-book style (consider the diction in older children's books, from the depression or before, and then consider Coraline) but without ever talking down to its target audience. Coraline is a wonderfully well-drawn character, as are most of the book's creations. There is a great deal to enjoy here; this is easily Gaiman's best aside from American Gods. If you've been avoiding it because you thought it was a kids' book, think again. ****


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