#5 Platform - Coraline

insheepsclothng wasn't kidding about this book being a fast read; it took maybe 3 hours to get through the whole thing.

Book #7 - Coraline
Author - Neil Gaiman
Provenance - Bought online from Amazon.ca

For all that I read a fair amount of young adult stuff, I don't think I've read too much stuff targeted at children over the past few years. This book is a definite exception. As much as I like Neil Gaiman, this book does come across as fairly simplified. Not like I didn't know that going in, though.

The book's about a young girl, Coraline, who gets bored with her life and goes into a mirror version of her life, which she then encounters problems getting out of. There's a lot of your basic fairy tale set-up stuff in here, with the repetitions in threes and the guiding animal character, but there's also a solid look at identity and finding yourself in here, as well. That said, the story does speed along, and it's easy to see where it's going. It'd not be as enjoyable if it wasn't for the style. Gaiman does have style. It just doesn't carry me the whole way here. Still, I definitely plowed through the book very quickly, so it can't be all bad, right?

Next up: The Story of the Stone. I hope it avoids Second Novel Syndrome.