Oh, Coraline!

When it comes to awesome plots, my favourite author is undeniably Neil Gaiman with his unique blend of fantasy and horror, laden with interesting twists, ideas and disturbing characters that may sometimes leave you gaping in awe. Plus, he's wickedly good-looking. I first 'discovered' him while reading Good Omens which I have read three times so far and have been hunting down his books one by one since then, not an incredibly successful task I'm afraid as his graphic novels seem to be missing hereabouts. Can't seem to figure out which of his other books I like best, though...

I suppose it must be one of those 'firsts' for me to have read and watched a movie based on the book within one month of each other and this makes it much more fun. Coraline is a story about a little girl who is bored after she moves into her new house with her parents who somehow seem a bit absorbed in their work, leaving her to seek entertainment on her own. She finds a door in her house which apparently leads to nowhere as it is walled up but eventually leads her to adventure, good food, little black buttons and an incredible rescue mission when it opens up - much, much more than she ever bargained for.

A curious fact is that although both the book and the movie were slightly different in terms of the inclusion of extra characters (understandably needed for the movie to give it a respectable length) and a slight diversion in the story line, I enjoyed both the book and the movie immensely for the entertainment value they offered. The book because of the plot and the general storyline which is disturbing enough although it was written for children/young readers and the movie because of similar reasons, and the fact that it is stop motion, although both my sister and I find the Coraline in the movie slightly loud and almost annoying at times. Not what you'd picture the Coraline from the book to be. I did think the little "extra" information regarding the two ladies who happen to be her neighbours made the movie a tad bit more interesting. I suppose we could say that the book (and the movie) has a hidden message for parents to pay attention to their kids, which may otherwise lead them to paths no one really likes.