{Review} Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Published by HarperCollins, 2002

Softcover, 162 pages

ISBN 0439576881

Genres: adventure, children's fiction, fantasy, horror, paranormal, science fiction, YA

2/5: The movie Coraline has been a favorite of ours ever since it was in theaters. The Mr took me, pregnant at the time with Gabriel, to see it on Valentine's Day and it was great fun. Now the wee one loves it as well for its "spookiness", as he says, and awesomely quirky characters. It has just the right proportions of action, drama, dialogue and story progression, and the animation! Absolutely stunning and so very interesting you can't tear your eyes away. Needless to say, Gabriel and I were very excited to pick up a copy of Coraline at our favorite used bookstore and start reading it as soon as we finished Dahl's The Witches. We would have been disappointed anyway, but right on the heels of a hilarious and imaginative Roald Dahl book? With Quentin Blake illustrations?? I'm not sure it's possible to have moved on to a more anticlimactic selection than Gaiman's Coraline. It plods along, as flat and colorless as the Other Mother's misty landscape, with an awkward storyline in which developments feel haphazard, superficially planned, and make little sense. The characters promise a lot but, once again, lack any real uniqueness with which to interest the reader, much less charm or entertain. Coraline is well written, and therefore mechanically a very good piece. However, that cannot whatsoever make up for the tepid nature of the content. Gabriel and I were very glad to finish this book and return to the marvelous Dahl and Blake. While it wasn't a terrible reading experience, I can't recommend Coraline very highly. This is, in fact, a rare time I would suggest simply enjoying the movie.

Mary Beth

{Review} Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs & a somewhat minor identity crisis

My blog has been having an identity crisis over the past several months. I've been agonizing and today decided to DO something about it (resulting in my blog being revamped... Again). I really do promise that this is the last time for a long time. Scout's honor. I've decided to do with it what I darn well please, so it is now (officially) a book blog. This makes me very happy :)

You may have noticed the new widgets (I love that word, haha) to the left. Three to be exact because I went a little overboard, but I couldn't help myself. They are all from that amazing site goodreads, which I have so completely fallen in love with since April. One widget shows what I'm currently reading, another how I'm doing on my books-read goal for 2011, and a third that is representative of my favorite books shelf.

One of the books I read this year that actually ended up on my favorites shelf is to the left - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Here's my review:

A fantastic new YA book
by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine #1) by Ransom Riggs
Published by Quirk, 2011
Hardcover, 352 pages
ISBN 1594744769
Genres: fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, paranormal, science fiction, YA

My review: 5/5 stars. Fantastic. A well-written and suspenseful adventure story, about which I have only one complaint: that it wasn't written sooner. Considering how engrossed I became in it at age 22, I can only imagine how my imagination would have taken flight when reading it ten or twelve years ago. It is not a book that will appeal to everyone, but I adore it and am eagerly awaiting more adventures with Jacob, Emma, Miss Peregrine, and the rest of the peculiars.

I'm still a little fuzzy on writing reviews, since I want to say what I like/dislike about the book but I also don't want to give too much away. I mean, goodreads has a little box you can check that will warn the reader the review contains spoilers, but I still don't like to give too much away, haha. So I'm still working on it. Have you read Miss Peregrine? Or another great YA book this year? I'm getting re-interested in YA books, strangely enough, mainly thanks to the peculiars and... Lemony Snicket, who I will probably talk about next time.

Toodeloo... good grief, my spell check tagged this word and wants me to replace it with "toothily," so toothily for now and have a great evening! Happy reading!!

Mary Beth