Coraline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Coraline” by Neil Gaiman
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Source: Bought
Summary from Goodreads:
When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there’s another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change he and never let her go.
Coraline will have to fight with all her wits and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.
The idea of a parallel universe that’s similar to ours but better is a very appealing idea. That’s why it’s always popping up in literature. Come on, who wouldn’t want to have everything the same but with nicer family/friends, or a better job? That’s how Coraline hooked me.
Coraline initially likes the idea and considers it until she find out what must be done for that to happen. I’m not going to spoil the book but it is similar to the movie.
I do have to say that this is one of the instances where the movie is better than the book. They obviously have many similarities but the movie makes the story more exciting and expands a bit more. The movie was definitely more fun. I ended up re-watching the movie because I wanted to see how the two differed.
For me, this was a step up from The Graveyard Book. It was a bit more interesting but it still felt lacking in some areas. Once again, the characters were a bit flat and the writing was a bit on the blah side. It wasn’t bad but it had some room for improvement.
The book is spooky but just enough so younger readers can enjoy it. I really like the novella length (194 pgs). I felt like it was the right length. Any longer I think the story would have been dragging.
Rating 3/5
I recommend it for fantasy readers looking for a quick read and fans of the movie.
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