Coraline Review

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (162 pages)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Date Finished: 31 December 2014

Synopsis:
Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best.

My Review:
I thought that this was a pretty good book! From what I had heard from other friends, however I thought it would be more creepy. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I think that I may have a different sense of what is creepy than they do, though. It was a fun, quick read with really cool illustrations. If you want a good read that will only take a couple of hours. I highly suggest this book. There were a lot of moments I found predictable, but I was still intrigued by the ideas of the novel. I gave it a four out of five stars because I wanted it to kick up the creepy factor a notch, but all-in-all it was a really good book!