Starbody

So, I have many friends who are devoted fans of Neil Gaiman (and I mean that in a Morrisey of the literary world kind of way). It’s not that I wasn’t interested in the Sandman novels or any of his other work, it was more that it just never surfaced to the top of my book list (which, like my Netflix queue, is ever changing). And so, I eventually read Anansi Boys, which while I enjoyed the writing quite a bit … I didn’t really connect with the story. With that read, he moved back down to the middle of my list.

Until now. I came in to work one morning to find that a friend had left a copy of Coraline for me on my desk. It came complete with a mysterious little sticky note adorned with a little girl with buttons for eyes.

Last night, I read it all in a short sitting (it’s not a very long book and published for young adults … a title which I sometimes qualify for) and it was soooooo superbly, fantastically, creepily, excellent that I want to now run out and buy more of his books. The dialogue is charming, but not in an overly cute way. The characters are perfectly drawn and incredibly vivid. And (if you can believe this) it actually has a nice little life lesson in it as well. I highly recommend if you haven’t already.

And speaking of the friend. She is a master crafter and has really nice instructions for making a lovely little headband that seems like a nice Sunday project. I’ll be after her for help with my elusive robin’s egg blue sewing machine.