This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
Bookshop_Lady: "Coraline" is creepy and might be too creepy for some kids. "The Thirteen Clocks" has a few creepy moments but overall is a light-hearted fairy tale. They're very different books and tell very different stories. But for all that, I believe older children/young teens who enjoy one of these books will probably enjoy both.… (more)
reading_fox: Slightly older YA, and a full novel. But the same theme, children move into a new place and discover a creepy 'fairy world' thats hard to escape.
BookshelfMonstrosity: Readers will savor the tension of both horror stories involving characters seeking ways to put souls to rest. Each story explores the distinctions between fantasy and reality in a deliciously creepy way.
BookshelfMonstrosity: Smart, determined girls journey to darkly magical worlds in order to rescue a parent in these original and dazzling fairy tales constructed with beautiful imagery and intricate storylines.
Good thing I didn't read this as a child, or it would have scared me witless. I would not consider myself to have been a brave child, by any stretch of language, and above all, I loathed being scared. I remember watching the film when it first came out, and I found it particularly unsettling, and I was eleven then. I'm sure a great deal of people can relate to the dark fantasies presented in this novel in some way or form, I know I can. So vigorous in a child's imagination are the shadowed recesses of one's home, and what lies beyond what we can't see. As an adult, I must confess, I just managed to pull through this one without scurrying under the covers. Mission accomplished (nervous sigh). ( )
I really enjoyed this book. Very much like the movie was and that made me happy as I love the movie. What an imaginative story and if you've never seen the movie see it or read this book. ( )
This taps into the inquisitiveness that comes upon us whenever we find a locked or blocked up doorway - what;s behind that, where does that go. In Coraline's case, it goes into a parallel universe that looks a lot liker her own home, but is very different in nature. When she explores through the door for the first time she comes home to find her parents missing. They are in the mirror in the hallway, but where are the really? Coraline ventured back through the doorway and into the parallel world to find them. Along the way she finds other trapped individuals and a talking cat that helps her along the way. It's an inventive journey through to a parallel world. ( )
In a way, this kind of reminded me of [b: Skellig|24271|Skellig (Skellig, #1)|David Almond|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320460285s/24271.jpg|960] because they're both short novels about supernaturally mature children encountering supernatural strangers (though in Skellig the stranger isn't scary).
It sort of seemed to me like the whole point of the book was to flesh out or illustrate the epigraph, which says something like, "Fairy tales are not important because they tell us dragons exist. They're important because they tell us dragons can be beaten." ( )
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. --G.K. Chesterson
Dedication
I started this for Holly, I finished it for Maddy.
First words
Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.
Quotations
We are small but we are many/ We are many we are small/ We were here before you rose/ We will be here when you fall
Coraline was woken by the midmorning sun, full on her face. For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. She did not know where she was; she was not entirely sure who she was. 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.
Coraline sighed. 'You really don't understand, do you?' she said. '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?
The pale figues pulsed faintly; she could imagine that they were nothing more than afterimages, like the glow left by a bright light in you eyes, after the lights go out.
There was something irritatingly self-centered about the cat, Coraline decided. As if it were, in its opinion, the only thing in any world or place that could possibly be of any importance.
Last words
As the first stars came out Coraline finally allowed herself to drift into sleep, while the gentle upstairs music of the mouse circus spilled out onto the warm evening air, telling the world that the summer was almost done.
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
)
)
Google Books — Loading...
Wikipedia in English (1)
44