Helpful Score: 1
There are authors that I love for their use of language -- a gifted wordsmith doesn't always have to have a great story to keep my attention. And then there are writers that are actually storytellers. Neil Gaiman falls into the latter category. In his telling of "Coraline", he uses a clipped, choppy style that absolutely drove me crazy... until I got sucked into the imaginative and undeniably scary story.
This is the stuff of nightmares: Coraline is a young girl with less-than-attentive working parents. Like any spunky heroine, Coraline goes on adventures that quickly get her into trouble. The story begins when Coraline and her family move into a new home, an old rambling estate broken into three flats. Of the 14 doors in the house, only 13 go anywhere... or so it seems.
There are lots of things that go bump in the night in this book, but Gaiman really goes outside of the box with his scares. If Stephen King took a stab at retelling "Alice in Wonderland," it might read something like "Coraline." Even as a "grown-up," it touched on a level of buried-deep fear and revulsion that will stick in my memory banks for awhile. (insert shiver here)
The book jacket touted "Coraline" as a book for all ages. While I agree that any adult reader will be reeled in by the dark and imaginative fairy tale and that even young readers could probably handle the vocabulary and length of the novel... I'd strongly disagree with the editors' recommendation for readers as young as age 8. As a kid with a wild imagination, this would have kept me up nights. Lots of them. As an adult with an imagination that has only slightly tamed over the years... it still might keep me up tonight.
This is the stuff of nightmares: Coraline is a young girl with less-than-attentive working parents. Like any spunky heroine, Coraline goes on adventures that quickly get her into trouble. The story begins when Coraline and her family move into a new home, an old rambling estate broken into three flats. Of the 14 doors in the house, only 13 go anywhere... or so it seems.
There are lots of things that go bump in the night in this book, but Gaiman really goes outside of the box with his scares. If Stephen King took a stab at retelling "Alice in Wonderland," it might read something like "Coraline." Even as a "grown-up," it touched on a level of buried-deep fear and revulsion that will stick in my memory banks for awhile. (insert shiver here)
The book jacket touted "Coraline" as a book for all ages. While I agree that any adult reader will be reeled in by the dark and imaginative fairy tale and that even young readers could probably handle the vocabulary and length of the novel... I'd strongly disagree with the editors' recommendation for readers as young as age 8. As a kid with a wild imagination, this would have kept me up nights. Lots of them. As an adult with an imagination that has only slightly tamed over the years... it still might keep me up tonight.
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
