Coraline

I've been fan of Neil Gaiman ever since I read Sandman a couple of years ago. I'm always fascinated by his way of tying the themes of his work to the fantasy genre and how, with a few words, achieves images that stay with you. I strongly believe he's one of the best writers we have working today, and after reading a lot of his books and comics I can say that Coraline is one of his bests.

Gaiman has a language in this novel that radiates his style and charisma and uses it to put you in the perspective of a nine year old girl and makes you think and react like her. I've never seen someone describe childhood like this, it's like being a child who wanted to explore and play all day again.

The themes of this book are ones that everyone can feel identified and he portrays them in a way that every person, no matter their age, can comprehend. At the same time, he uses those themes to develop his characters achieving a very particular and lovable cast (especially the protagonist Coraline), but who also has a depth and complexity within them.

But Coraline is a horror book and one that never shies away of that. The novel chooses which moments lean over to these aspect and does it in an excelent way, always taking into account the themes and with the reason for what it's doing, achieving horrofic scenes at the same time that visualy and conceptualy shocking but, some how, that still work for every audience.

Setting up themes and situations since the first page to bring them up again later in the book, developing his plot and set of characters with a prose that puts you in the skin of a girl to small for her age trying to learn what means to be brave and the the value of things, Neil Gaiman achieved a work like no other.