Neil Gaiman

Gaiman's books tend to start in a familiar place, a house or a lane or a motel, and then let something old and strange through the door. «Coraline» is the shortest way in, a dark fairy tale about a girl, a door, and a mother with buttons for eyes; «The Ocean at the End of the Lane» is quieter, a man returning to a pond he knew as a child and to the year the ordinary world slipped. Both share that plain, unhurried voice and the sense that courage is a small, stubborn thing rather than a grand one.

Feels like memory, dread and wonder.

Start with Coraline.

Gaiman wrote Coraline for his daughter Holly, who was tired of stories where girls only looked at things.