Coraline

From the book jacket: In Coraline's Family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it's different....
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and her self.

This was a good scary store for a YA. I think in every young child at some point, they wish that they had another family, or house, or life. Even in this story, though the grass looked greener on the other side, it was worse. It also helped to remember how the shadows seemed to come alive in the dark and that sometimes the worst things were those that you couldn't see, but that lived in the dark. It was an entertaining book and a quick read. 4/5

The Maidenstone Lighthouse

This book was a very quick read and was a nice way to start out the month of October. From the book cover: Nestled in a coastal inlet a few miles north of Newport, Rhode Island, Freedman's Cove is known for its superb seafood, its postcard-pretty waterfront, and its exquisite Victorian homes - a legacy of the town's past as a summer resort for wealthy families. Manhattan antiques appraiser Susan Marks inherited one of these ornate mansions from her great aunt. After suffering a devastating loss, she retreats to Freedman's Cove to nurse her grief.

This book was an interesting mix of mystery, love story and ghost story. I enjoyed it because it was not too complicated and was in the need of a story line that was not too heavy. It does have a general storyline that as I was reading seemed so familiar that I thought I had maybe read this book at some point in the past - but I think it is just that it is a common story. Altogether though, it was fun to read a ghost story to start out the month! 3 1/2 of 5.

A Ghostly Challenge

This should be a fun challenge! I love "ghostly" books - and Halloween is my favorite holiday!

For this challenge, you have from September 1 to October 31 to read 2 books that feature ghosts or are otherwise ghostly. Use your discretion.

1. All books are allowed, audiobooks, picture books, non fiction, fiction, short stories, whatever.
2. Books of short stories count as one book though.
3. Crossovers allowed.
4. You can make a list beforehand or add to it as you go.


I think my books are going to be:
A Certain Slant of Light Whitcomb, Laura
The Maidenstone Lighthouse O'Rourke, Sally Smith