first line: Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.
rated: 5 out of 5 stars
I have finally read a Neil Gaiman book. Wow!
I kept hearing great things about this book and about Neil Gaiman. I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.
Okay, let me say, I loved this book. I began reading one evening, and finished it that same night. I literally couldn't put this book down and was sad to see it end.
It was entertaining, magical, and very creepy.
Little Coraline lives with her parents both of whom don't pay much attention to her because they are too busy. Coraline is on break from school as is always looking for something fun to do. She wonderes what's behind the locked door in the drawing room, and her when her mother opens the door, it opens to a brick wall. One day when Coraline's mother is out shopping, Coraline opens the door. This time a passageway mysteriously appears. She walks through and finds an apartment same as her own, only oddly different.
There she finds her "other" parents, creepy people with big buttons for eyes.
'It sounded like her mother. Coraline went into the kitchen, where the voice had come from. A woman stood in the kitchen with her back to Coraline. She looked a little like Coraline's mother. Only...
Only her skin was white as paper.'
Once Coraline leaves this alternate world, she comes back through the door and into her own apartment to find her real parents missing. She knows the 'other mother' must have taken them and she needs to go back through the door and bring them home. All throughout the story she faces terrifying creatures and scary situations and keeps telling herself she is not afraid.
'Coraline took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness, where strange voices whispered and distant winds howled. She became certain that there was something in the dark behind her: something very old and very slow. Her heart beat so hard and so loudly she was scared it would burst out of her chest. She closed her eyes against the dark.'
Another very creepy thing about this book is the illustrations.
Images show up every once in a while throughout the book, and this is the kind of book that really hooks you, so I was really into reading, then an unexpected image like this would show up:
This book was cute and creepy all mixed up together. You can't help but like Coraline and hope she makes it out ok.
'Coraline' is being made into a film, due in theaters February of 2009.
