From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

Coraline

Neil Gaiman

Start date: October 1, 2020

Finish date: October 31, 2020

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: Group pick Oct 2020 - Modern Classic/Popular
[close] Group pick Oct 2020 - Modern Classic/Popular

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MODERN / POPULAR READS

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What Members Thought

Mar 22, 2015 lethe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: a-children, r-rip, c-record-correct, d-21st-c, l-eng, s-autumn, p-owned, g-horror, g-gothic, g-supernatural

My review for the R.I.P. Challenge #3:
Coraline was not on my initial list either, but I had heard good things about it and when I saw the cover of the Subterranean Press edition I fell in love.

Coraline's parents are busy with their work and don't pay her much attention. The neighbours are friendly enough, but can't even get her name right and insist on calling her Caroline. One day when Coraline is bored she discovers that the brick wall behind an unused door in her flat has disappeared and the My review for the R.I.P. Challenge #3:
Coraline was not on my initial list either, but I had heard good things about it and when I saw the cover of the Subterranean Press edition I fell in love.

Coraline's parents are busy with their work and don't pay her much attention. The neighbours are friendly enough, but can't even get her name right and insist on calling her Caroline. One day when Coraline is bored she discovers that the brick wall behind an unused door in her flat has disappeared and the door now opens onto a dark hallway. Through it she enters a flat that looks almost exactly like her own, but more interesting. She meets her other parents there, two people with buttons for eyes who would love nothing better than for Coraline to come and live with them for ever and always. They want to sew buttons on her eyes too, which is where Coraline draws the line and leaves. Back in her own flat she discovers her parents have disappeared, abducted by her other mother, and the only way to get them back is to return to the other flat once more. There she will need all her courage and resourcefulness to outwit her other mother, rescue her own parents and the lost souls of three children that had been captured before, and return safely home.

I loved this book. I devoured it in one sitting, and can see myself re-reading it soon in order to catch all the details that I missed the first time around due to reading too greedily. I've seen complaints elsewhere that there are no layers to the story, and that not everything is explained. I wasn't bothered by any of that. Not all questions need to be answered, I like it when things are not spelled out but left open to the interpretation of the reader.

One gripe: never before have I seen a book printed on such ultrawhite paper. I don't know if this is the paper normally used by the Subterranean Press, but if it is, stop doing so people! It looks downright tacky. Off-white or cream-coloured paper looks much better and is easier on the eyes. That said, I'm not such a sourpuss that I detract points for the paper a book is printed on, so I give it 4/5 (finally!). ...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Djrmel rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, young-adult, horror

Gaiman follows the path of the Brothers Grimm with a wonderful blend of innocence and horror. Scary without too much gore, moral without preaching, and best of all, intelligent without precocious, this book walks all kind of fine lines and never goes overboard. It's a bit slow to get to the action, but the characters are interesting enough that even an adult reader will hang in there to see where all the suspense is leading. I wavered between three and four stars, but when a book gives a cat a p ...more

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Sep 21, 2009 Liander (The Towering Pile) Lavoie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, currently-own, fantasy, inventory

This review is copied from my blog, The Towering Pile. It was originally published here.

When Coraline goes through a doorway in her house, one which is supposed to be a bricked off doorway between her flat and an unoccupied one, she finds herself in a flat much like her own, where she has an other mother and an other father, who want her to stay with them forever.

This story is delightfully creepy. Neil Gaiman's excellent writing and really weird imagination had me giggling and shuddering through ...more

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