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A review by solouncapitulomas
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Now, you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
This was my first read for Halloween 2021 and I know I was perhaps putting a lot of pressure in Neil, but it depended on this book if I was going to read more mysteries or horror this month; glad that it worked out.
I grew up scared of Coraline, never read the book or watched the movie, but the other mother with her button eyes was usually present when I thought about fears I had, when I first heard about the story I was told it was "the tale of a girl that crossed to another dimension where two adults very similar to her real parents tried to sew buttons into her eyes" and to me, that was the whole plot. But in fact it is only mentioned twice that the mother wants to do this to her, very vaguely also. It is scary nonetheless, however I will watch the movie later on the month and this book will now go up into my favorites reads, of all time. Btw this is my second read from a male writer this year.
I really don't have a lot to say, this was a short read (less than 24hrs) it scared the hell out of me and half of the time I was thinking about Coraline and preoccupied something was going to happen to her, but she's a badass and managed it all ON HER OWN (since her parents were incompetent). Honestly she was treated very badly by everyone, except the ladies that helped her, but they didn't know her name so there's that. The cat was helpful but he was so rude and sarcastic (how I imagine cats if they could talk) I feel that if I was in this book I would be the cat.
Don't have much more to say without spoiling the whole plot and I really want this review to be spoiler free so here are some quote I really liked:
“Because, when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”
“It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.”
“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?”
“Easy,” said the cat. “Think of somebody walking around the world. You start out walking away from something and end up coming back to it.”
“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?”
I was listening to Tag, You're It by Melanie Martinez & Runaway by AURORA while writing this review
'kay, I'm out
Bye
This was my first read for Halloween 2021 and I know I was perhaps putting a lot of pressure in Neil, but it depended on this book if I was going to read more mysteries or horror this month; glad that it worked out.
I grew up scared of Coraline, never read the book or watched the movie, but the other mother with her button eyes was usually present when I thought about fears I had, when I first heard about the story I was told it was "the tale of a girl that crossed to another dimension where two adults very similar to her real parents tried to sew buttons into her eyes" and to me, that was the whole plot. But in fact it is only mentioned twice that the mother wants to do this to her, very vaguely also. It is scary nonetheless, however I will watch the movie later on the month and this book will now go up into my favorites reads, of all time. Btw this is my second read from a male writer this year.
I really don't have a lot to say, this was a short read (less than 24hrs) it scared the hell out of me and half of the time I was thinking about Coraline and preoccupied something was going to happen to her, but she's a badass and managed it all ON HER OWN (since her parents were incompetent). Honestly she was treated very badly by everyone, except the ladies that helped her, but they didn't know her name so there's that. The cat was helpful but he was so rude and sarcastic (how I imagine cats if they could talk) I feel that if I was in this book I would be the cat.
Don't have much more to say without spoiling the whole plot and I really want this review to be spoiler free so here are some quote I really liked:
“Because, when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”
“It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.”
“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?”
“Easy,” said the cat. “Think of somebody walking around the world. You start out walking away from something and end up coming back to it.”
“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?”
I was listening to Tag, You're It by Melanie Martinez & Runaway by AURORA while writing this review
'kay, I'm out
Bye
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Blood and Child death