Hey, what's up, you guys? It's Connor,
and today I'm gonna be doing a book review for Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
If you guys don't know, I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman. I have a whole little section that you just can't see.
It's right there... of all Neil Gaiman books.
But I had never read Coraline before, so I figured it was about time that I picked this up, and read it, and
watch the movie, and then give you guys a review. Coraline follows this little girl named Coraline, and with her family,
they have recently moved into a new home that is kind of like a duplex that is split into
three or four different homes. So there are multiple families living in this house. Coraline is bored,
and so she
wants to be an explorer. And she's going around and exploring the
area around her house, and she's meeting the new neighbors and everything like that.
She's a little unhappy because her parents don't give her a lot of attention, and
she kind of wishes that they would give her more attention
until she finds this small, little door in her house, and [until] she goes through the door and, [until she]
finds a parallel version of her life where the parents are very attentive. As usual with my book reviews,
I'm going to go with my pros, go through my cons, give you my rating, and be done.
My first pro for this book is just a personal pro.
I absolutely love Chris Riddell's illustrations, and this edition is illustrated by Chris Riddell.
Here is an example of one of the illustrations in the book, and here is another example of his illustrations.
This is the "other" mother - the one in the parallel version of her life.
So those illustrations in the book just made my enjoyment of the novel that much more because I love those illustrations.
Another pro for me is that I really love the themes in this book of bravery and courage. It's all about being scared
but having the courage to do the right thing anyway and [knowing] that in your life,
you're gonna be scared or you're gonna be frightened,
but you can have the courage to do the right thing, and to succeed, and all of that. I loved it.
That's a pretty common theme in children's literature, and I thought that it was well done in this book as well.
I really liked Coraline as a main character.
I thought that she was really fun. She has a really good head on her shoulders, and she is
very practical which I appreciated. One thing that I especially loved was that she actually
listens to people when she's being given advice. When she's being told to do something,
she actually listens, and will take that into account, and will adjust the way that she's acting
accordingly. That is one of the most
frustrating things in books... is when a character is in over their head and they're given advice, and then they totally disregard the advice. Ah,
so frustrating, and I really liked that she does not do that. She is
smart, and she
makes good decisions.
I did watch the movie after I read this book, and I liked and
disliked the addition of a friend for Coraline that helps her out throughout the story. In the book
she does everything on her own, and I really liked that because she's strong in her own and
she doesn't need anyone else to really help her besides the cat. But in the movie
it also gives off that message of [that] you don't have to do everything on your own
and you can rely on other people to help you along.
So I liked and disliked it because in the book she's a lot stronger
and as I said, she does everything herself.
And in the movie, she's okay with getting help, and I liked that as well.
But I liked how strong she is in the book, so I think I prefer how strong she is in the book
than in the movie. I thought the whole parallel version of her life was really interesting.
I liked the "other" mother, and the "other" father, and the "other"
characters that live in the same house as her. It was very entertaining, and I liked seeing the differences between her real life and this
parallel, fantasy, like, idyllic version of her life. It's a "be careful what you wish for"
situation because what you get might not be what you were thinking that you would get.
I really loved the side characters in this book as well.
I thought that the
guy who lives above her that's training the rodents to do a circus and the two old movie star ladies living together [were]
fantastic. They were super funny, and I loved the quirkiness that they added to the story. The last character in this book that I absolutely
loved was this cat character. I thought it was fantastic. It's unnamed which was interesting.
It's a little pedantic towards Coraline, but it is very loyal. And I just loved the cat.
I thought he was a great character. And the last pro that I'm going to talk about is that I just think that this is
a fantastic
storytime book. If you are reading to your children, I think that you would really enjoy this book as well as the children.
I think it's a very
parent-and-child reading together book mainly because it may be a little frightening to certain children.
I've heard people say that this is such a scary book to them,
so [by] being together with your child when they read this, you might be able to keep it less
terrifying and you could really harp on the messages of appreciating what you have instead of wishing for something different.
That message is kind of a weird one because
yes, you should be appreciative of what you have
but some people are definitely in the right to wish for something different than what they have.
So depending on your whole situation, that message could be good or bad. Also
the writing is very simple and easy to get through, so children will definitely be able to read this without any problems.
In this edition,
the words are quite large, and the sentences are simple and everything like that.
So I think that the writing is very appropriate for the age group that this book is targeted towards.
Now, I'm going to talk about a couple of cons.
The first con that I had for this is that I thought that the ending was a little bit rushed. There's this
huge section of the book where she's going to this other place, and seeing this "other" mother, and everything like that,
and I thought that the main conflict and resolution all happened very quickly.
I would have liked that teased out just a little bit more, and the only other con that I can think of is that
I think I preferred the movie a little bit over the book.
I liked the visual aspect of the movie, and I think that it does a good job of portraying
everything in the book in a quicker time frame. And I just ended up enjoying the movie a little bit more,
so take that with a grain of salt. So overall, I really enjoyed Coraline. I ended up giving this book four stars.
It's really fun. I really loved the messages. I really loved the characters, and I definitely recommend it to
children and to parents that are reading to their children.
So that's gonna be my review of Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
If you liked it,
please give it a big thumbs up and comment down below if you've read Coraline before. Have you watched the movie?
Between the two which one did you prefer? Anything else
you want me to know, leave it down below, and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye!
