Book Review: Coraline

Book: Coraline by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Dave McKean

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Coraline's boredom had her discovering a new world that nearly cost her everything that was dear to her: her parents and her freedom.

Coraline Jones was a typical yet independent little girl and she loved to go exploring, the new home that her family moved to gave her plenty of opportunity for that. In between visiting her neighbors Miss Spink and Miss Forcible or the kind but slightly strange man who lived upstairs, what Coraline wanted most was to spend more time with her parents.

It wasn't until it rained that Coraline took a little more interest in the strange door in the drawing  room. The door was locked but it didn't go anywhere which she found out once her mother unlocked the door. Behind it was a brick wall.

It wasn't until a few days later after she received a few cryptic messages of warning that Coraline (still bored) decided to open the door, but this time the brick wall was gone. The door opened up to a dark corridor and as she walked through she wound up back where she started, home. Except it wasn't her home although it was very similar there were things that were different including two people who resembled her parents. Only they weren't.

She explored the other world and thought it was interesting but she didn't want to stay. However, problems started once she returned home, her parents were gone. Unfortunately, she realized where they were, the other world and she had to go back to get them.

I like this, it was a creepy (but not too creepy) fantasy meets fairy tale type of story. I thought Coraline was an interesting character because she was curious, smart and brave. This was a cute story and I really liked the ending.