Book Review (2): Coraline by Neil Gaiman

It isn't common nowadays for me to finish a book. In fact, it isn't common for me to finish a book in four hours.

That's how long it took for me to finish the newest book that I've bought, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. It's funny how the moment overwhelms you and you can put down books that you've been having or reading just to go on a short little detour to another universe.

Quick note to myself: Congratulations, dear girl. You've read more books than you ever did in the past four years! Since the year started, you've completed these books: Warriors of Alavna, The God Project, Coraline. You are still trying to plough through: Eragon, The Manhattan Hunt Club, The Star of Kazan. Keep it up.

The story is about a little girl named Coraline, duh. While struggling with self-perceived neglection and getting bored with freaky neighbours, Coraline finds a door that opens into a parallel universe. In this universe everything is the same, except that her mother and father, creatures with buttons sewn where their eyes should be, are devoted and centred around Coraline. Sounds good, until they offer her to stay in this fun-filled world forever, in return she must allow them to sew buttons into her eyes. Suddenly not too keen on the idea, Coraline rejects and retreats into her real world. Things didn't end there, for in the real world Coraline discovers that her real parents were kidnapped into the parallel world. The rest of the story depicts how Coraline braved into the world again to save them.

It was one of those books that I wanted to get a few years back but never gotten around to it because I didn't think paying 17 dollars for a kiddy book was worth it, even if it's Neil Gaiman. I finally got it at an awesome price of 10 dollars a few days back and I thought 'Might as well.'

I felt sick over the long holiday weekend so I read the book. Now here are my thoughts.

As a horror fantasy, I think that two criteria were met perfectly. Coraline had this creepy undertone throughout the entire story that never lightened the slightest bit. No lighter moments, no 'let's take a breather here'. Neither was it intense horror either, but then again when you're targeting this at middle-aged children then I suppose it's pretty intense. It takes a child with fantastic imagination to visualise what Gaiman illustrates though, so for children who aren't that great with language the entire story might just not work for them.

The theme of courage in this book was portrayed very strongly, which was something I really like. This was a quote from Coraline herself: When you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave. And we see that in the book she was freaked out a number of times, but she did it all in the motivation of saving her parents. If anything, this book displays courage in a manner that is simple for children to understand.

You ask if I like it personally? To be honest, no. I didn't quite like it and felt quite reluctant to admit that I paid 10 dollars to read a book that didn't blow my mind. What did I not like about the book? I don't know, actually. Perhaps I no longer hold the same mind of a child, maybe if I were younger I might sing a different tune. It was the general feeling. I didn't read the ending, close the book, sigh and smile to myself (which is what I usually do whenever I read something good). It's a personal opinion, and unfortunately, I have nothing to back my dislike.

Still, personal opinion aside, this book is the winner of the Carnegie Medal. Other winners include CS Lewis' "The Last Battle" (part of the Narnia Chronicles) and Philipa Pearce's "Tom's Midnight Garden". Both books I own and thoroughly enjoy. There will be a reason why Coraline was such a highly-esteemed story and I urge everyone to give it a try. You never know if you like it till you try :)

Disclaimer: Despite the official term, the above book review is not a wholesome and fully critical one. The book is merely reviewed and reflected on based on story writing skills and other literary elements.