Coraline by Neil Gaiman // Reviews

When Coraline finds a door that leads to an alternate universe with another set of parents, everything starts to go wrong.

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade Fiction

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, an Imprint of HarperCollins

Publication Date: August 29, 2006

162 pages, paperback

series: –

Synopsis: Goodreads

I read this book at night and although I’m not that easily scared when reading books, this book managed to creep me out.

Coraline just moved to a new home and a peculiar home at that. There are no other children to play with and her parents are always working and don’t seem to have time for her. So she gets to know her neighbors as well as her new home. While exploring she finds a door that leads to another world and that’s where the story takes off.

I loved Coraline as a character. She was smart, had always something witty to say and was very brave for such a young girl. Her curiosity got her into some uncomfortable situations, but she managed to get out of them by thinking things through.

I loved Coraline’s neighbors: the gentleman living above her with his rats and the two old ladies from downstairs. They were so strange, but also very likable and funny.

The people in the other world were rather terrifying after the second glance, but they were nonetheless great and very mean villains and I really enjoyed the “games” that the other mother let Caroline play in order to get back into her real world.

The writing was engaging and easy to follow. I think this is due to the target audience that can be children as well as adults. I fell in love with how simplistic the story was overall and also highly enjoyed the illustrations.

I would have loved to read this as a child and now again and compare the creep-factor as well as the enjoyment-factor.

This will definitely not be the last time I picked up a Neil Gaiman novel. I am excited to venture into his worlds!

Mountain Garden by Will Ottley // Reviews

This is a fantasy novella about a stag searching for the meaning of his life.
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. My opinion is in no way biased.

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade

Publisher: Perpetualaum Books

Publication Date: February 26, 2014

107 pages, hardback

series: –

Synopsis: Goodreads

This book was sent to me by the author some time last year. This was my first ever review copy and I was so excited to receive it. Unfortunately I didn’t get to read it until now. And the only thing that I’m upset about is that I haven’t read it earlier.

This is usually not something that I would have picked up on my own. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good. The imagery and the illustrations in this book complimented the story told about Buckan very well.

Buckan, a young stag, needs to overcome a lot of his fears in order to get to the Mountain Garden, where he will find the answers on how to save his friends and family from the wolves’ attack.

I used up all of my blue post-it’s while tabbing this very short read. It has such a nice metaphorical writing that I couldn’t help, but admire it.

It’s very easy to refer Buckan’s story to one of a human being: the obstacles he has to go through to save the other deer; the character growth resulting from that; the energy he has to summon to then actually save the deer.

This is definitely a tale for all ages. It has adventure in it, beautiful illustrations, a great philosophical meaning behind it and great writing that accompanies it.

Chloe Holt did an excellent job with the illustrations. They are simple in black and white, yet powerful due to them being quite realistic and raw.

I am grateful for the author being kind enough to send me a copy so that I could experience this fable for myself. This was Will Ottley’s debut and I will definitely look out for books written by him in the future.