Coraline, So Fine

About a week ago I went to see Coraline in 3D. It blew my mind, I found myself whispering "wow" with a child-like wonder. The story was fantastic, and the animation-stop motion-was nothing short of spectacular, especially in 3D. I had wanted to read the book for some time and bought one with the cover shown here that is numbered and signed by Gaiman and McKean. The only problem was that it was so nice that I didn't want to read it. A couple of days ago I picked up a cheap little paperback to have as a reading copy, so my nice one could just sit on the shelf and look pretty. Gaiman is a great story teller. He so simply gets to the extraordinary that it seems believable, and that that world could exist somewhere. I found a lot of truth in Coraline's story. A girl who simply wants to be noticed by her parents who are too busy working to spend time with her, so she discovers a world where her "other" parents seem to be a dream. They cook her food that she likes, and they play with her, and everything seems the way she's always wanted it, the only weird part is that they have buttons for eyes. Everything seems great until things begin to go wrong and become scary and Coraline realizes how much she wants her real parents back and that she just wants to go home.
I don't want to leave out Dave McKean's fabulous illustrations, they add that little bit of extra creepiness to Gaiman's already creepy story.
This will be one of those rare times when the book and the movie are both great, so I encourage you to see the movie (try to see it in 3D, I promise you won't regret it!) AND read the book. I'm nearly through half of the book and I'm finding it a really quick read, and even though I know what will happen because I saw the movie, I can't wait to read those parts of the book to find out what's different.