Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

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.

This was a simple story which made for a quick read. It's also pretty short. You could tell it was aimed at young readers as the language was much more straight forward compared to Gaiman's adult focused books. It had the usual Gaiman darkness to the story which, among other things, have made me a fan of his. I like how he doesn't shy away from the darker side of life even with his children's books. Even though it's dark in places, it's not particularly scary. That said, I did find a couple bits gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I think it's just me. I have a thing about eyes and Coraline's other parents had black buttons sown on where their eyes should be and combined with my over-active imagination it made me shiver and cringe.

I don't really need to explain what the story is about as the synopsis above pretty much covers the whole story. I think whoever compiled the book blurb on the back could have revealed less of what was to happen especially as it's a pretty short book - they've not really left anything to surprise! I loved the eerie drawings at the beginning of each chapter too. Another fantastic read by Neil Gaiman.

I read this for a "Name that Tune" themed read-a-thon in which I had to choose a song and change it's lyrics to relate to the book in some way. You can read my Coraline song here.

Coraline: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Related Posts:
Coraline First Lines
Coraline Name That Tune Song

"Name That Tune" Fun

In one of the book groups that I participate in on Goodreads runs a bi-monthly Toppler, which in basic terms is a read-a-thon. They alternate between a week long one and a 24 hour one. This time around, it is a 24 hour one which started at 12 noon DST (which is 5pm my time) on Saturday 9th August and finished at 12 noon DST on Sunday 10th August.

Each Toppler has a theme and this time it is the game show "Name That Tune". So first off, I had to pick a song that I like. I chose "The End of the Line" by The Offspring. Then I had to choose a book that would make a good song title, I chose Coraline by Neil Gaiman as the title rhymed with Line in the song which I thought might make things easier on me. I then read my selected book within the 24 hour time frame allotted. Then finally, after reading my book, I wrote a song set to the tune of my chosen song. The result is as follows:

"The End Of Coraline"
When the book's by Neil Gaiman
And the Toppler’s going on
All of time should just stand still

When the story’s underway
And the Toppler game is played
I could live my life happy
if this book would never end

Please stay now, don’t leave me without a book- the end of Coraline
Please stay I can't make it on my own - the end of Coraline
Make it on my own
The end of Coraline

Now that you are read and gone
And I'm left to carry on
I could never smile till I
Find another book

Please stay now, don’t leave me without a book- the end of Coraline
Please stay I can't make it on my own - the end of Coraline
Make it on my own
The end of Coraline

Finally,
Your final resting day
Is a Sunday
I weep
And think of brighter days
What’s my next read?

You can't take back, the one you’ve read
That still lives on after the last page’s spent
In that one day, that changed our lives
And happy memories are left behind

You can't take back, the one you’ve read
That still lives on after the last page’s spent
In that one day, that changed our lives
And happy memories are left behind
Please stay now, don’t leave me without a book- the end of Coraline
Please stay I can't make it on my own - the end of Coraline
Make it on my own
The end of Coraline

I'm really chuffed with my song and the book was really good too! I will post my review for Coraline soon.

Normally when I take part in the 24 hour topplers, I manage to read one book but this time round I managed to squeeze in a cheeky second book. I read The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson. Again, I had to choose a song and write some new lyrics for it. I chose to adapt "Mirror in the Bathroom" by The Beat. I only did the first two verses of the song and while I do like it, I don't think it's as good as my Coraline song.

The Emperor's Soul
Shai is in a locked room
Wants to be free
The door is locked
Just her waiting to flee.
Where she sits and carves
Soulstone at the table
All by herself
While she is carving.

Shai is in a locked room
She just can't stop it,
Every day she plans to flee
And carving.
All her interest in the
Carving of a self
Just a thousand indentations
For the Emperor’s soul, soul, soul...

So it has been a reading and lyric writing packed weekend for me! Some of the other participants were brave enough to record themselves singing their revised song but I'm too chicken to do that! I will post a review for The Emperor's Soul soon.

First Chapter - First Paragraph - Tuesday Intro: Coraline

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea.

I think I've posted the first paragraphs of all the books I am currently reading so this week I've decided to post one that I am going to be reading at the weekend for a challenge in one of the Goodreads groups that I'm in.

I will be reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman in a 24-hour read-a-thon challenge. I'm really excited about reading this book as Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors.

"Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

It was a very old house - it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.

Coraline's family didn't own all of the house, it was too big for that. Instead they owned part of it.

There were other people who lived in the old house. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived inn the flat below Coraline's, on the ground floor. They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a number of ageing Highland terriers who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Once upon a time Miss Spink and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline the first time she met her."

Coraline: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Review: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 5 stars

I love Terry Pratchett's books. And I love Neil Gaiman's books. So naturally I was really excited about reading Good Omens, a collaboration between these two fantastic authors. It was so good and I really hope that they consider writing another book together at some point as their individual writing styles really compliment each other.

The humour of Pratchett's writing was present as were the footnotes that can be found in his Discworld series. This combined with Gaiman's penchant for creating dark and disturbing tales made this story utter perfection in my eyes.

In this story, a direct descendent of Agnes Nutter, a Witch and prophet, is in possession of a book which contains all her prophecies which are very accurate indeed. The prophecies (and therefore the book) ends on a Saturday with Armageddon. The end of the world is coming about because the Antichrist has been placed on Earth, a young boy placed in the care of a normal human family, and representatives from Heaven and Hell are placed on Earth to ensure that the Divine Plan is kept on track. Lot's of mishaps and confusion results and everyone (on both sides) is left scrambling around trying to avert the destruction of life as we know it.

I loved all the individual characters and there was quite a cast (luckily at the front of the book there was a list of characters for reference although I only used it at the beginning of the book) and I thought they were all really well developed. I really liked Crowley and Aziriphale and I enjoyed how they interacted with each other.

All in all, a fantastically, humorous time was had by me while reading this book!

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads