Halloween Mini Reviews – Coraline / The Cats of Ulthar (Spoiler-Free)

Hey guys! 🙂

So I’ve been feeling quite Halloween-y this October (which is no surprise for those who know me) and that means my reading habits have been reflecting that mood. Thus, I decided to create this new segment in my blog called Halloween Reviews where I post about all the scary/paranormal/eerie books I’ve been reading. I hope you enjoy it!

These first two are super short so I decided to cram them both in a single post. Expect more Halloween reviews soon! (And yes, this comes a week too late but oh well)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

While exploring her new home, a girl named Coraline discovers a secret door, behind which lies an alternate world that closely mirrors her own…

Gaiman is an excellent writer/narrator and it was such a pleasant experience to listen to him. He gave such unique voices to each unique character that I truly forgot I was listening to a single person at times. His intonations were perfect and he knew exactly when to slow down or speed up, depending on which mood he intended to channel the reader.

He captured Coraline’s thoughts and actions perfectly and made me feel like I’d known this little girl all my life. Her parents were also very refreshing, realistic and human. All the other characters also had this dimensional quality to them that I rarely see in middle grade literature. The dialogues were also incredibly organic.

I really enjoyed Coraline’s tale. It was moving and relatable and full of joy and despair, all at once. However, I feel like had I read this at a younger age, I would have loved it even more. There were things that I, as an adult, couldn’t enjoy properly and even though the magic was there, I couldn’t fully grasp it.

But don’t be fooled. It was creepy enough to make your skin crawl at times and there were several instances where I felt this could really have given kids some intense nightmares. I loved the little details Gaiman added that only the most attentive of readers would think to notice, too.

Overall, Coraline was whimsical, passionate and full of innocent wonder (and also a bit scary). I give it four candy corns out of five!

The Cats of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft

In the tale, an unnamed narrator relates the story of how a law forbidding the killing of cats came to be in a town called Ulthar.

This short story was one of Lovecraft’s favorites, due to his love for cats, and even though I’m a cat lover myself, I feel like it didn’t quite hit the mark. I enjoyed it, for sure, but felt it was too brief for me to feel any sort of attachment or fondness for the characters or the story itself.

Nevertheless, Lovecraft is certainly a talented writer and his ideas are exceedingly progressive. I like his writing style immensely and felt the narrative included just the right amount of unsettling details to keep the reader entertained. However, I could sort of guess the ending from the very beginning and so it didn’t feel very suspenseful to me.

Thus, only three candy corns.

Thank you so much for reading and until next time!

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I hope you enjoyed this new Halloween segment! Have you read any of these books? Please let me know your thoughts below ｡^‿^ ｡