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5 internautes sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
There's magic behind those walls and inside of this book, Juil 10 2004
Coraline Jones is a little girl (precise age unknown) who has recently moved into a big old house with her parents. It is the summer break from school and Coraline is bored. To pass the time she likes to explore the big house and its surroundings. One afternoon, she finds a door that leads into a black corridor. This black corridor in turn leads into a house that is practically a mirror image of her own, with the same rooms and the same inhabitants, including her parents. But within these there are fundamental changes; the rooms contain weird variations of her toys, the house and the yard are filled with talking animals and her parents are very different here too. They look like her parents but certainly don't act like her parents. Soon, Coraline and her real parents are trapped into this mirror version of their house and it is up to her to get them out safely...This is a challenging book to categorize. It is actually marketed as a book for children and adults 8 years and up. The writing is indeed geared towards a younger age bracket, the prose simplistic, the sentences short-clipped. Not only is the novel only 160 pages long, but it's large print as well. I personally breezed through this book in less than 2 hours. However, one has to wonder whether this book might be a little too dark for young kids to enjoy. Gaiman raises some deep chills here and goes for the grotesque on occasion with several scenes involving insects. Usually I find the term "Dark Fantasy" to be a cop-out used by authors who would rather not be referred to as horror writers so as not to be pigeonholed into a genre that has its ups and downs (Dean Koontz anyone?) but with Gaiman the term actually seems to fit like a glove. There's something very magical about his writing that makes us feel a part of the world he is crafting despite the fantastical premise. I loved how Gaiman used the short length of his story to his advantage. The story wastes little time getting started as Coraline actually stumbles upon the magical door at around page#25. Lots of things happen in the novel especially once the "challenge" is set forth between Coraline and her other evil mother, the pace picks up and the pages become filled with action and adventure. And the ending feels appropriate and satisfying too. The only thing I wish would have been included is some explanation, no matter how small, of how this alternate dimension came to be. But then again part of the appeal of Gaiman's work has always been about the mystique and unexplained weirdness of his tales. "Coraline" is a treasure of a story, wrapped in a small package that won't require more than two hours of a reader's time and yet will leave a lasting impression.
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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
2.0étoiles sur 5
brief fairy tale - not much more, Juil 17 2008
There really should be a law about over-enthusiastic "reviews" on the covers of books. On the cover of Coraline, the New York Times is quoted as writing "one of the most frightening books ever written!" On the inside, a who's who of young adult writers gush over how inventive and scary this book is.
I'm really sorry - but the hype here is a bit much for 162 triple-spaced pages of decent but not spectacular young adult writing.
Coraline has one adventure, nothing about the adventure is any more inventive, or scary, than the stuff that Pullman, Nix, Stroud and the other heavy hitters in this field do, and then it is over. Where the NY Times gets off calling this one of the scariest books ever written is beyond me.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
Coraline, Aoû 26 2009
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
Harper Trophy, 2002
978-0-7443-1812-8
Children/Young Adult
162 pages
Supernatural Fiction
Paperback
Buy the 2008 movie tie-in edition
Buy the 2009 graphic novel
Buy the Kindle edition
Neil Gaiman has been named as one of the top ten living post-modern writers (the Dictionary of Literary Biography). A prolific creator of comics, drama, poetry, prose and song lyrics, he's also been called the new face of horror fiction. You can even find him active in other media such as blogging, film, journalism, radio and television.
Coraline has won an incredible roster of awards and is, of course, a New York Times Best-seller. I decided to review Neil Gaiman's horror story for children because it was just released this past Tuesday as a DVD. This was a big deal in our household, as my 12-yr old daughter owns a copy of the book and the movie never came to our small city.
I can see why she was excited. Gaiman's story reads effortlessly. And the scenes are a wonderful collection of darkness and light, of horror and comedy and, always, even in the evil, of love. Through it all we follow Coraline, a bored schoolgirl on holiday and in a new home. The target of a wannabe mother from a sinister, alternate world, she too, is an interesting mixture of characteristics. Short as the book is, we delight in the growing understanding in the girl of what love means and of the sacrifices it sometimes demands.
Coraline is unlike Neil Gaiman's other mind-boggling works. It is a compact, lean and fully comprehensive piece. And I think it showcases just how brilliant this author is.
Note: In my opinion, the movie is a disappointment. Much of the shadowy feel of the written work is gone, surprising since the director is Tim Burton. Additional characters were added and scenes were modified, not for the better. My daughter says the movie was OK, but claims the book was better and commented on the same disappointments as I.
Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2009
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