Modern Fantasy.

I'm going to write about Coraline, its the only Neil Gaiman story i've had any experience with aside from his short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". Found here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties_(Text)

I have very limited knowledge of writers and new books and such but Neil Gaiman seems to be at the forefront of modern day fantasy writers. His stories in context to history are fresh as well they don't contain the usual elves and dwarves and dragons associated with other fantasy books.

Coraline for me is about a child's need to explore and be a kid. Here she is having just moved into a foggy boring town where she doesn't know anyone. Her parents have become too pre-occupied to pay any attention to her and because of this she gets herself into a load of trouble. So if you will this whole ordeal thats about to fall upon her is the fault of her parents. But non-the-less she goes off exploring her new house where she finds a modern day rabbit hole. A little door in an empty upstairs room. In the beginning its made clear Coraline is bored with her parents and has a general distaste for them at the time. Through this rabbit whole is where she finds an opposite world. Everything is the opposite of what it is in the real world. In this fake world the cat can talk, her parents are energetic and exciting and give her all the attention she could hope for. Something all children can probably relate to. In this modern society too often are adults caught up in their own problems and work to really pay any mind to the problems of a child. They are even seen as mundane silly problems when attention is paid, but the mistake is made in ignoring them. To a child these are the worst things imaginable in life because their experience is limited due to their short life.
Back to what happens. After several visits to this other world with her other mother and other father they tell her in order to stay she must sew buttons over her eyes. Sounds painful. Coraline doesn't want this and escapes, eventually leading to a final showdown with the spider version of Other Mother.
Overall if Coralines parents had paid attention to her none of this would have happened. If only her real mom would have been a mother and her father a father Coraline wouldn't have been bored and maybe they would have been able to solve her problem.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is an interesting short story. From the title it sounds pretty mundane and really when you think about it nothing out of the ordinary happens aside from the strange girls at the party. But i've been in similar situations, I end up following a more outgoing friend to a strange house i've never been to where I don't know a single sole. Its like talking to aliens, everything feels different. At this party while never said you start to get the feeling these girls aren't human. They have very large eyes and one talks about swimming around in the sun. At the end just as the main character is feeling comfortable amongst these beings his friend Vic hurriedly says they must leave, and on the way out we see why. The girl he was there for was standing at the top of the stairs in a mess. Vic had gone too far, his eagerness to mingle turned against him. Its left up to the reader to decide, but I believe Vic tried to have sex with this girl but soon discovered she was an alien. But in the end, even if you think you know a girl they really are all aliens.