3/7/2013- Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Hello! I'm back in the high school library today, and I just finished reading another off-the-shelves lunch break book! Today's choice, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, went much better for me than Game Over (see my post from Monday) had. A few years ago, I saw the movie that was based on Coraline and really enjoyed it, which was why I decided to read the book. I can't remember the movie as well as I should, but I remember it well enough to know that the book is quite different. It's very short, so there are fewer characters and fewer things that happen, which isn't a bad thing at all. The basic story, about Coraline getting bored and wandering into an alternate world where she finds strange versions of her parents that want to stop her from leaving and replace her eyes with buttons, is pretty much the same. As the book is more streamlined than the movie is, however, that makes it even more creepy and disturbing. Without the minor characters and showy scenes, the whole thing focuses strictly on Coraline and how she manages to work through being terrified to solve some major problems, which is very effective.

It probably doesn't need to be stated directly, but I'd have a much easier time recommending Coraline to a student that wanted a quick book to read than I would Game Over. It may not have all of the Satan-opening-an-arcade murder flashiness, but by actually being about its main character and how she feels, it manages to be much more unsettling. Of course, it also helps that Coraline isn't nearly as idiotic as Game Over is, which didn't hurt matters. If I find another book even close to as interesting on my next high school library lunch break, I will be happy.