It’s always nice (especially when the year is hurtling towards its close) when one of your reads falls neatly into more than one of your challenges, and Coraline does that, fulfilling the requirements for the [intlink id="926" type="post"]RIP III[/intlink] and the [intlink id="577" type="post"]Mythopoeic[/intlink] challenges (having been nominated in 2003). Even though I’ve technically completed the RIP III challenge, I’m adding this as a bonus read.

When Coraline moves with her parents to a new house she is fascinated by the fact that their ‘house’ is infact only half of the house! Divided in to 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 in to 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?

It’s the second time I’ve read this and I have to say I enjoyed it just as much this time round. It is just such a deliciously creepy read, and absolutely perfect for this time of year. Gaiman, himself has said, that the book works on two levels, kids just love the adventure, and don’t realise exactly how much danger Coraline is in and adults do, and so find the book so much creepier and scarier because of it.

… I think part of that is that kids don’t realize how much trouble Coraline is in — she is in big trouble — and adults read it and think, “I know how much trouble you’re in.”

A delightful read.

[rating:90/100]

Buy, Coraline, from Amazon.

Other Blog Reviews:

• The Hidden Side of a Leaf
• Becky’s Book Reviews
• Stainless Steel Droppings
• 3M
• Thing’s Mean a Lot
• Trish’s Reading Nook
• Eva
• Regular Rumination