** spoiler alert ** Amazing! I loved the character of the other mother with the button eyes. There is something so wonderfully creepy about her. I saw the movie too, but I like the graphic novel better. Wybie was a good character in the movie, but I prefer the story without him. I think what makes the story is the fact that Coraline wants to have fun all the time and it is only after she goes through all of this without her parents that she realizes how terrible it actually is to get what you want all the time. ( )

A young girl fights to save her family from the button-eyed Other Mother who has imprisoned them.

Horror is such a strong genre because the reader can imagine it all for herself. Nothing the author can tell you is quite so bad as what you can dream up from a few choice descriptions or intimations. You can picture the nasties however you wish, paste your own mother's face on the Other Mother, imagine the wet pop as the needle punctures your eyeball... whatever. It's all up to you.

Russell's adaptation is paneled with his usual flair, and his art is as entrancing as always, but I did find that I lost most of the horror. The Other Mother and her world just weren't as scary as they are inside my head.

I think it comes down to the buttons. Russell's buttons are really just black dots painted onto each character's head. There's no hint of the thread that holds them on, no sense of impermanence. They reminded me of round black sunglasses without visible earpieces.

So as a work of horror, this flopped for me. As an adaptation of a story, though, (no emphasis on genre), it's very good. As I mentioned above, Russell's paneling drives the story forward and gives the reader lots to delight in. There are tons of itty bitty panels that help fill in the gaps so many graphic adaptations leave, and some of his jumps help add a nice touch of humor to the story. I found that many of his artistic choices added an extra dimension to the material, too. They got me thinking about this story in a new way, as Russell's adaptations almost always do. I also appreciated the realism; it made for a nice contrast with the stylized illustrations Dave McKean contributed to the original text.

It's worth reading, but I'd recommend that you borrow it from the library rather than buying it.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

about a little girl who moves to a new house and she fines a door and ask were it goes to and it doesn't lead anywhere but then she open it again herself without her mom and it lead to anther place with her mom with buttons in there eye she said she was waited for her to come but also the mom said doesn't every body have 2 pairs of parents ( )

i like it but i dont love it. It has alot of action. but it boring at the end. ( )

Review at: http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/20... ( )