Coraline

Coraline (Graphic Novel) by Neil Gaiman
(Illustrated by P. Craig Russell)

Coraline is a graphic novel based on the children's book by Neil Gaiman. You may have heard of it because of the buzz from the recent critically praised movie based on the book. So you may be wondering why I am reviewing a children's book on a teen book review site. Well the answer is that I got an ARC (advanced reading copy) of this graphic novel back in august and I just pulled it out. I LOVED it. For most teens, its going to be a simple read. It IS written for 8 year olds and up, and it IS a graphic novel. On the other hand, I think anyone wanting to read this will enjoy it. Not only is the story impressive and very structured, the art is beautiful and eerie. One of the best things about Coraline is its intense creepyness. This will put chills down your spine, at least a little bit. I'm gonna go read the book and see the movie now. READ THIS!

FINAL VERDICT: AMAZINGLY AMAZING. Hits the mark exactly, the only downside is the mark is aimed at middle schoolers. But very good. 5/5 bookmarks.

Signed, Abyss

Bones Of Faerie- Janni Lee Simner

Bones Of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner is a dark apocalyptic fairy tale. From the beginning you can see that this will not be your typical fairy tale. Plants kill people and are savage, and fifteen year old Liza and her village are ruled by her savage father, who rules that any trace of magic, even in people, must be immeadeatly destroyed. We quickly see that this rule is enforced often, even when Liza's father leaves Liza's baby sister out in the wild to die. After this, Liza's mother leaves the village. The story picks up from here, and has many twists. None alter the story in a huge way, but bring out the details more freshly. I would've liked to see more character detail, but this kind of dark fantasy is something I love, and I wish there was more of it. The setting of an apocalyptic fantasy world is something origonal, yet reminiscint of novels such as Garth Nix's Sabriel. I throughly enjoyed the realistic setting, the world, and the theme of continuing a war against all reason. However, the character development could've used work, and the novel could've been a lot more detailed about the backstory of the world it was set in. This was very short, so it shouldn't take you very long. On the cons side, you wont feel quite satisfied when you put it down. This is Simner's fifth novel, but the first four were children's books, and this is her first mature, detailed work. So hopefully we will have more of the same.

FINAL VERDICT: Great novel, but hopefully other books will come out a little more fully formed. 4/5 bookmarks.

Signed, Abyss