When Coraline moves with her parents to a new house she is fascinated by the fact that their 'house' is in fact only half a house! Divided into flats years before, there is a brick wall behind a door where once there was a corridor and one day it is corridor again, down which the intrepid Coraline wanders. And so a nightmare-ish mystery begins that takes Coraline into the arms of counterfeit parents and a life that isn't quite right. Can Coraline get out? Can she find her real parents? Will life ever be the same again? "I think this book will nudge "Alice In Wonderland" out of its niche at last. It is the most splendidly original, weird, and frightening book I have read, and yet full of things children will love." - Diana Wynne Jones. "This book will send a shiver down your spine, out through your shoes and into a taxi to the airport. It has the delicate horror of the finest fairy tales, and it is a masterpiece. And you will never think about buttons in quite the same way again." - Terry Pratchett.
Don't tell anyone, but I'm not a Neil Gaiman fan. He is so universally loved, but I tried several times to get into Neverwhere and completely failed. It just didn't capture me, it was too weird, vague, I don't know. Since my library had Coraline as an ebook and I wanted to try their ebook subscription service, I just kinda went with it, not expecting much from it.
Coraline has a pretty standard children's book format. Girl finds door that leads to nowhere, but wait *gasp* it does lead somewhere. This somewhere is a nightmarish place that resembles their house only it's fundamentally more disturbing. The story is quite creepy and the imagery stays with you when you're finished.
I'm still not sold on Gaiman's writing, but Coraline did provide an entertainingly creepy hour or two.
