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.
Rating: 
Summary: Taut, Original, and, yes...frightening
Review: Gaiman's book is filled with dread from the first few pages onward; it is a dread that permeates the story via his descriptive prowess, ability to nail his metaphors, and the weird-perfect symbolisms that pop up constantly. Obviously, the buttons are a most horrifying and disturbing motif. This is a nervous story, an ominous story, a chilling story; it skitters about in any number of malevolent directions like Coraline's final "enemy." Yet, the book never drops the silken thread of its purpose, which is to unspool a modern fairy/horror-tale that grows black, black, and frightfully BLACKER with every page. I'm not certain this is yet on a par with 'Alice in Wonderland' (let's wait another fifty years and see), but it certainly ranks with the best of Dahl's work in terms of theme, style, and sheer impact. A winner, to be certain. But leave it for kids ages 11 and up; the hideous evil lurking beneath this tale insinuates itself even after the story is finished and the memory of it will be very difficult for younger kids to dismiss. A final note: the illustrations are, in my opinion, not up to a par with the impact of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly imaginative, scary imagery, all around good story...
Review: Coraline is a misunderstood and ignored girl, who's parents are preoccupied with computers and recipes, and who's neighbors unfailingly call her "Caroline" despite her corrections. Strange dreams and messages from her neighbors mouse circus hint at a coming change. And in the fashion of Wonderland and My Neighbor Totoro Coraline stumbles across a doorway to another flat in her building, which leads, not to cute fuzzy creatures or wonderland, but to a parallel world with a second set of parents and neighbors, all distinguishable by the black buttons sewn over their eyes.
Opening the door gives Coraline's parallel "other" mother the opportunity to kidnap her real parents. Coraline challenges her "other" mother to a game in which Coraline has to find her parents, as well as the souls of three children trapped in the parallel world.
The imagery is frightening and imaginative, and Gaiman, not surprisingly, is fantastic at beautiful dream like sequences that sort of transcend conventional plot. The things happening in this parallel world are beautifully absurd and confusing, and fully appropriate for this story.
Those being his strengths, there is one major weakness. One quality I always look for in a good childrens book is an author that doesn't talk down at children. As in, the language is not obviously simplified. Unfortunately some fantastically imaginitive stories tend to lay everything out far to easily, and explain everything fully. In Coraline the climax of the story is fantastic, despite the reader knowing the thoughts of every character. Coraline's plot is well seen and easy to understand given her actions alone, making further description and explanation extraneous.
This is not just a problem in the end of the book, but throughout thoughts and feelings are clearly marked and defined, and despite popular belief, children don't need these things pointed out.
What remains despite all that is still a really great and scary story, and a fun read. Well worth a look if you're in for a good children's scary story.
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Summary: Amazing!: )
Review: It was an incredibly good book! My favorite character was Coraline.You must read this book!! I think the cover is neat looking.It is past my bedtime, so please excuse me if this review is not creative. Good Night.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully creepy
Review: Coraline was the third book I read by Neil Gaiman, not counting his groundbreaking Sandman comic book series, and it's the one that sold me on his status as one of the best emerging writers around. Without spoiling anything by giving away details, Gaiman has written a book that reminds us that there were things behind closet doors and such when we were young that we simply have forgotten were there. Some of the best prose writers are those who can set a scene and create vivid images without taking thousands of pages to do it, and Coraline makes use of every word. At the end of the day, Coraline reminds us that we haven't banished the creepy things from our childhood closets, we've just buried them as best we can. No author I know of is better at describing the world between waking and sleeping than Gaiman, and Coraline proves he knows plenty of innovative ways of going about it.
Rating:
Summary: Read it!
Review: What a terrific book! I bough this for my 10 and 11 year old.....a boy and a girl. I read it first and could not put it down. My daughter fought me for it! An engaging story that has wonderful characters and a great twisted fantasy. This family gives it 5 stars! Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing yet entertaining...
Review: I admit, that I bought this because of Gaiman's name, but Caroline is a book that holds its own without the author's cult fame. Seeking to find an escape from her prosiac life and indifferent (but not bad) parents, the young Caroline journeys through a door that should lead to nowhere, and finds herself back where she started...except everything is wrong. I admit there are portions that are not exactly inspired, but that is because the rest of the story is so good. As for the classification...I'm not sure I would read this to my nephew. It's good, but there are portions that are subtly disturbing. All I know is that after reading Caroline, I had a nightmare where my mother was not my mother. Take that as a detraction or a recommendation as you see fit.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting concept
Review: I kept hearing about this book, so I had to read it to find out what all the fuss was about. Indeed, it is a deliciously creepy tale for children, and I managed to race through it within an afternoon. I did like it; however, I was expecting a little more. Coraline is a refreshingly intelligent girl, but perhaps almost too intelligent. She never seems quite concerned enough about her dilemma, even though her very soul is at stake. This, in turn, made the story a little flat for me. I suppose I didn't believe the danger, since she was so casual about it. While reading this book, the ominous overtones kept reminding me of another children's book, the similarly creepy "Marianne Dreams" by Catherine Storr (unfortunately, it's only available in the UK at the moment). If you read "Coraline" and like it, you might like this book as well. The writing was flowing and easy to read, and the story drew me in. It's nice to see that there are some intelligent, wonderfully creative stories for kids out there.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better
Review: It was a fun read but it could have been better. I expect more from Gaimen. And it was a little too simple, even for a YA novel. But it kept me reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Bland fantasy
Review: I cannot say that I cared much for Coraline. I didn't hate it. I simply felt that it wasn't much of a story. Coraline is a bored little girl who likes exploring, so she heads (a la Alice) into a "wonderland" of sorts, only it is a rather bleek and scary place. There she encounters various characters and has an adventure. She ends up having to fight to make it back home. I am an adult who loves children's fantasies. Coraline was a short diversion. I would put it in the category of filler as we wait patiently for Harry Potter V.
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