Review // Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Published - 2nd August 2012
Publisher - Bloomsbury
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. It’s not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It’s the other house - the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.

Neil Gaiman's Coraline was incredible. Though more often than not, aimed at children, I think this book definitely appeals to adults and not just those who want to relive their youth ;) Written for his own children, this book is unique, wonderful and full of mysteries - and even a little creepy! Coraline as a character is just brilliant and inquisitive (as all children should be). She is brave and adventurous and even at 24 years old, she taught me a LOT.

There was this wonderful line about bravery, where Coraline states that bravery is being scared, and doing it anyway. PERFECT. She teaches that it's okay to be scared, in fact we should be scared, but we have the ability to push past that and do whatever we want to.

Coraline is imaginative and intense which just blew me away as the book is so short! It literally only took about an hour to read, and most of that time was spent appreciating the wonderful illustrations that accompany the book. Without doubt i'd say this book wouldn't be half as good without the amazing illustrations that just create the whole world brilliantly. I read Coraline on my kindle and even so the pictures were beyond what I could ever imagine.  Whether you're a new Gaiman fan, and old hand or have never even heard of him - I definitely recommend Coraline.