An Attempt at Something Different
Jan. 15th, 2004 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
in_the_blueIn the midst of all the cachu floating around my friendslist circle lately - the talk about fandom censorship and squickfics and right and wrong and self-righteousness and who should be blacklisted and that garbage - I managed to read the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It's a YA book for ages 8 and up.
If any of you have read this, what are your thoughts on it?
Disclaimer: my opinions are mine and shoot, they're not meant to offend or criticize or any of that. (Just clarifying up front because everything seems so sensitive these days.)
This is a creepy little book. I didn't expect any less from Neil Gaiman, but I confess that it takes a lot for any book (much less a YA book) to give me the chills these days. This one did.
The book weaves the tale of Coraline (who everyone calls Caroline), who moves into a new flat and finds a mysterious bricked-in door that leads nowhere... or so she thinks. Upon further exploration (and despite warnings), she finds that the door leads to a mirror universe to her own where things are absolutely ideal... at first. But on further explanation, the ground is pretty much yanked out from under Coraline as the differences begin to show themselves.
The beauty of this book, for me, was in the simplicity of its writing. Gaiman writes in an almost perfunctory style and leaves the emotion to the actions of the characters, rather than to the descriptions of people or places. This style made the story even more eerie because it reads in such a straight-forward way.
I don't think I will let my 8-year-old daughter read this book yet because a lot of the concepts in it are rather disturbing. All right, very disturbing, although Coraline is a great role model as she manages to deal with her circumstances, solve mysteries, and emerge triumphant (I will tell you that much). But really... the back cover quip alleges that this is the next Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure about that. Maybe Dark Alice in Wonderland, to borrow from the world of comics.
It's all in the eyes.
Comments please, from anyone who might have read it?
If any of you have read this, what are your thoughts on it?
Disclaimer: my opinions are mine and shoot, they're not meant to offend or criticize or any of that. (Just clarifying up front because everything seems so sensitive these days.)
This is a creepy little book. I didn't expect any less from Neil Gaiman, but I confess that it takes a lot for any book (much less a YA book) to give me the chills these days. This one did.
The book weaves the tale of Coraline (who everyone calls Caroline), who moves into a new flat and finds a mysterious bricked-in door that leads nowhere... or so she thinks. Upon further exploration (and despite warnings), she finds that the door leads to a mirror universe to her own where things are absolutely ideal... at first. But on further explanation, the ground is pretty much yanked out from under Coraline as the differences begin to show themselves.
The beauty of this book, for me, was in the simplicity of its writing. Gaiman writes in an almost perfunctory style and leaves the emotion to the actions of the characters, rather than to the descriptions of people or places. This style made the story even more eerie because it reads in such a straight-forward way.
I don't think I will let my 8-year-old daughter read this book yet because a lot of the concepts in it are rather disturbing. All right, very disturbing, although Coraline is a great role model as she manages to deal with her circumstances, solve mysteries, and emerge triumphant (I will tell you that much). But really... the back cover quip alleges that this is the next Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure about that. Maybe Dark Alice in Wonderland, to borrow from the world of comics.
It's all in the eyes.
Comments please, from anyone who might have read it?
