Coraline

Coraline and her parents have moved in to a new flat, and things seem wonderful. But, Coraline's parents are too busy for her, so she goes exploring. As she does so, she finds that the new flat has twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Of those fourteen doors, thirteen open and can be passed through. The fourteenth, though, when Coraline's mother unlocks and opens the door, has only a brick wall behind it. Or does it? Because when Coraline unlocks and opens the fourteenth door, there isn't a brick wall there. Instead, she discovers another flat - which looks exactly like her own. At first, the other flat is really nice. The food there is much better, and her bedroom has a toy box with windup toys that are great fun. There's also another mother and another father. And they want Coraline to become their other daughter. But, in order to do so, Coraline would have to change. And that's where the trouble begins. I must confess that I am not one to read scary stories. If I do, I do so during the daytime, with all the lights on in the house. You can never be sure when the scary monsters will come out, after all. As such, I have not read many books by Mr. Gaiman. This is only the third, the first two being Odd and the Frost Giants and Norse Mythology - neither one of which falls into the category of scary story. As I had heard many good things about Coraline, and it's written for readers aged 9 and up, I thought it would be a safe enough option for me. I loved it. It did still scare me (I freely admit to being an adult scaredy cat), but I continued listening. As Coraline puts it, "when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave." For Coraline, I was brave. I should first point out that I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Mr. Gaiman himself. I am often leery of author-read audiobooks because, while they may be wizards with the written word, narrating involves an entirely different skill-set, and many authors just don't have it. Neil Gaiman does. His narration absolutely pulled me right into the story from the very beginning, and his knowledge of the story and the characters meant that he knew exactly what to emphasize and where to add tension to make the audiobook a truly great experience. From the beginning, when Coraline has to entertain herself because her parents don't have time for her to the end when Coraline finally ... no, I shouldn't say that. I don't want to give away spoilers. Anyway, from the beginning to the end, Gaiman weaves a tale that is fantastical, suspenseful, and wonderful. I loved the running - not really a joke or a gag, so much as a continuation of incompetency, so we'll go with that - the running incompetency of the other residents in Coraline's building being unable to say her name correctly; they keep calling her Caroline, even after she has corrected them...multiple times. Beyond the human characters - and I'm including other mother and other father in that category despite their being ... not really human - are the animal characters with which Coraline interacts multiple times. The rats. Oh. My. God. The rats. They sang. And I'm not talking about pretty little songs written by Disney musicians that will make you feel all happy and light. Oh, no. These rats sang songs that were dark and creepy and just... *shivers*. But, also... I loved those rats. I don't know why. There might be something wrong with me. But I thought they were great characters, and that's not even considering the old man who trains them. Then there's the cat. That cat is perfect, as anyone who has ever been owned by a cat can attest. In addition to all the great characters of both the creepy and non-creepy variety, Gaiman also weaves some wonderful themes in the story about love, family, fear, and bravery. As such, despite the creepiness of this story, I suspect that will become one of those stories that I revisit around Halloween each year, whether that's as a reread or a relisten. What about you? Will you also take a chance on this story? I vote for yes, but you obviously have the deciding vote...

This review is split into two parts, first is the story itself. -like any other Neil Gaiman story, this one is captivating, eerie and unique. The book is nothing like the movie there are a lot of differences and they took quite a bit of Liberty when making the movie. I recommend you read the book even if you've seen the movie because the way it is written it's almost a whole another story but with similar plot points. The book itself was easy reading but also very enjoyable for child or adult. Five stars when it comes to the story itself. Second part of review- the bookseller -if you go to buy a copy of this used I do not recommend ordering from GreatBookDealz. First and foremost it took them ages to ship this book and after almost a month of waiting I had almost given up hope until it finally arrived (this was after Amazon sent me a message saying if it had not arrived by a certain date that they were going to refund me because it was taking so long). The tracking never updated either until the last minute so I never even knew where the package was in transit which is frustrating. The long wait was disappointing especially since it didn't have far to go, I ordered this near the beginning of October and wanted to receive it so I could read it before Halloween but didn't receive it until November. The other disappointing thing was someone had taken a highlighter to parts of the book but that was not specified in the description. The only thing they specified was that the cover had wear which is normal for used books. I don't per say mind the highlighter marks but would liked to have been made aware of it beforehand. The wait time was horrible and I definitely will not order any more used books from that seller!

One thing I have learned after four decades on this planet is that anything can get boring. Donuts for breakfast? The delight will fade. Roller coasters every day? The thrill will abate. Reading sci-fi on a regular basis? (gasp) Yes, even that will get tedious after a while. I recently hit an apathy wall when I started reading a new book by a favorite author. I got two chapters in and realized, “I’m just not enjoying this.” The prose was great and the story was intriguing, but I couldn’t shake the indifference. It took me a while to realize that my reading mind was over-saturated. The quality was irrelevant, I was just bored. And what’s the remedy for any boring activity? Do something else. And so I switched to fantasy. But not just any fantasy, and I specifically avoided epic fantasy because I didn’t want to get halfway through a giant tome only to realize that I had made a mistake. I wanted a simple, digestible, yet high-quality fantasy. Once I started that search, it didn’t take long to narrow it down to Neil Gaiman. Coraline fit the bill, which had already set itself apart as one of the most beloved children’s fantasy stories of all time. I had already watched the stop-motion movie, which was fantastic. This gave me the opportunity to play every reader’s favorite game: “Which is better?” (Spoiler alert: they’re both fantastic.) Oh what a breath of fresh air Coraline was. It’s a shorter read, more novella than novel, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest because you get the feeling that Gaiman hand-selected each word from a bowl of perfection. The prose is simply magical and it seizes your attention from the very first page. The story follows the titled protagonist, a young girl who is small for her age, as her family moves into a new house. While exploring, she discovers a portal into another house. It’s a mirror image with all sorts of fun and adventure, but with a sinister underbelly. She slowly uncovers that mystery, which pulls her into a mission to save her family. This story can easily be read in a single sitting. But when you find a bowl of candy, it’s best not to eat it all at once. This was the first time in recent memory where I intentionally doled out a book to myself. I read a few chapters a night over the course of a week, which was a delightful way to end each day. I was actually sad when Coraline ended because it was the reading tonic I sorely needed. Thank you, Mr. Gaiman. What a masterpiece.

Lo compré pensando que era la novela gráfica, pero muy buen libro 👌🏼

Die Novelle lässt sich sehr schnell lesen. Ich selbst bin schon recht langsam beim lesen und kein guter Englischsprecher, daher hab ich für die Novelle etwa 5 h gebraucht (es sollte aber durchaus schneller gehen). Die Geschichte kannte ich schon zuvor aus dem gleichnamigen Film, wobei der Verlauf im Buch stringenter ist und etwas weniger umfasst als der Film Coraline, wobei mir das Buch etwas besser gefällt als der Film von der Geschichte her. Hier wurde bereits resümiert, dass die Geschichte vorhersehbar sei und etwas abgegriffen. Zu Beginn mag dies auch so stimmen, aber sobald die andere Mutter ihr wahres Gesicht zeigt, finde ich die Geschichte schon originell und spannend. Für ein eigentlich an Kinder gerichtete Lektüre finde ich das Buch schon sehr reflektierend, wobei es ein wenig schon an einen Bildungsroman erinnert. Ich finde sehr gut, dass die Hauptperson Coraline (nicht Caroline) kein typisches Mädchen im Sinne einer pinken Lilifee-Generation, sondern ein wahrhaftiges Kind mit seinen guten (Neugier, Aufmerksamkeit und Mut) und schlechten Eigenschaften (Ungeduld, Blauäugigkeit und eine gewisse Selbstbezogenheit) darstellt. Sehr schön ist, dass Coraline zum Ende mit immer schärferen Sinnen und Verstand agiert, um sich und ihre Eltern zu retten. Ich hab schon in manchen Rezensionen gehört, Coraline sei wie "Alice im Wunderland", was ich deutlich verneinen würde: Während Alice zufällig in eine einfach existente Parallelwelt eintaucht, die sich zwar manchmal an ihr stört und ihr auch gefährlich werden kann, aber dennoch für sich selbst da ist, wird Coraline in eine für sie geschaffene Parallelwelt geführt, die ihr zwar sehr vertraut erscheint, die aber auch nur für Coraline geschaffen wurde (sehr erhellend hierzu ist der Gang mit der Katze vom Haus weg). Ich denke, dass diese Geschichte mit ihrem Grusel, ihrer Skurrilität und ihren Entwicklungstendenzen des Hauptcharakters für den Leser eine angenehme Erfahrung darstellt. Lesenswert!

I recommend getting it I loved the movie so much but I knew that there was a original version of coraline and wanted to read it the only problem I have is that it took forever to come to my house but I think because of the crazy weather I’ve recently dealt with which hasn’t got anything to do with buying this book

A very nice and detailed book, great read, not too different

I was really disappointed with Coraline. It’s nothing like the movie, which I was expecting, and the book just didn’t capture the same creepy, atmospheric tone. The story felt slow and didn’t have the same exciting plot twists. If you’re a fan of the movie, don’t expect the same experience here.