Book Review - Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Title: Coraline
Series: -
Author: Neil Gaiman
 
Description: There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. It’s not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, not the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbors, read in the tea leaves. It’s the other house, the one behind the old in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. Forever. She knows that is she ventures through that door, she may never come back.
 
Review: Coraline and het family have just moved into a large house. The house is so big, it is divided into four apartments. Coraline and her parents live on the second floor, with elderly ladies Spink and Forcible among them. On the attic floor love a crazy old man who is training a mouse circus. The fourth house, next to Coraline’s apartment, is empty.
 
One day, Coraline finds a door, and when she opens it she walks into an apartment that looks exactly like hers. But better. The food is tastier, the toys are nicer and even her parents are there. But they are different, have black-button eyes and papery white skin. The ‘other mother’ wants Coraline to stay with her forever, but Coraline really wants to go back. But she finds out her actual parents have been stolen.
 
“Coraline” is definitely an extraordinary book. The characters are apt and well developed, with Coraline herself as the leading role. She is a delightful headstrong girl, which is especially evident in the dialogues with her eccentric roommates. The setting is also perfectly chosen. And old house with a dilapidated garden quickly evokes associations of all sorts of ghost stories.
 
“Coraline” is an exceptional and original story, that read like a modern fairy tale, and cannot be compared to any other book I have read. I love Neil Gaiman’s writing and world building. He builds the tension, which is well dosed and grimly constant, but is never relies on bombastic scare effects. It relies on a chilling setting, creepy undertones and a series of extraordinary characters.
 
I read the copy with illustrations by Chris Riddell, which are detailed pen drawings that a just a creepy and magical as the story is. A good addition to Gaiman’s book.
 
“Coraline” is exciting, highly original, pleasantly creepy and very quick to read. A highly recommended read, for both adults and children.
 
Rating: 5/ 5