I have heard people sing the praises of Neil Gaiman for years. This is the year I finally listened to them. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but I have made some progress. I started with what I've heard referred to as the scariest children's book ever, Coraline. 

I'm glad this wasn't around when I was a kid. We didn't have an extra door in our house, the way that Coraline does, but I would have been looking at all unknown doors with a wary stare. This book would have given me nightmares as a kid. Fortunately, I am not a kid. And I don't have to tell you if it gave me nightmares or not. 

Coraline is the story of a little girl whose curiosity and sense of adventure pulls her to the one thing in her apartment she's supposed to stay away from--the door that leads from their apartment to a brick wall. Only, one day she opens the door and finds not the brick wall but a whole another apartment. 

At first, things in the other apartment seem better than home--the food is tastier, the toys are more interesting, and the adults are more engaged than her own busy parents. But as time goes by, she learns that all is not so perfect in the mirror apartment. 

Coraline is faced with a painful choice--stay in the reality that is true, but lonely and bleak, or go back to the unreality that seems so shiny but has darkness underneath. And when she discovers that there are other children in the unreality, children who need help, her choice becomes even more difficult. 

Delightfully creepy and exquisitely written, Neil Gaiman has obviously created a character and a world that is unforgettable, darkly intriguing, and incredibly memorable.