Coraline By: Neil Gaiman Book Review
Title: Coraline By Neil Gaiman
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Adventure,
Summary: 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.
The Story: Brilliant, Horrifying, and Imaginative
The story of Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a horror-fantasy written for young children, but captivating enough for all age groups. It is on par with the likes of Alice in Wonderland had she had ebony hair and if the Red Queen was a cannibal.
(Which I feel is in better keeping with the original core foundations of fairy tales. Looking back, the original stories of Hansel and Gretals, Sleeping Beauty, and others circle around the idea of being devoured. Often by the maternal. )
It goes without saying that the star of the novel is the cast and the world. Firstly, the world building is as fun and imaginative as one can hope; it shows better than it tells the importance of building a believable world for your story. While also not over bearing the reader with exposition. The magic was explored as Coraline explored which is a fine pace for horror. The world of Coraline exists within the walls of her family's new flat, behind a door that should never be open. Similarly to a venomous predator, it brightens with a deceiving charm that is designed to hypnotize unhappy children. The world is dazzling; it's a child’s wonderland and the inhabitants of the Other-World support its deception.
It was my second favorite part of the book.
I love the way Gaiman created the characters of the other world and how they slowly start to fall apart. I could feel the unease in Coraline as the world closed in and collapsed around her. It's a world that accomplishes being both charming and uncanny at the same time. It gives new meaning to the phrase, “coming undone.”
However, this writing style I found to also be a double edge sword. Even though I knew this was a children’s book, it never registered to me that it would actually be written for the consumption of children. The story just seems so haunting, I was expecting Gaiman’s writing to reflect something more mature. As such, the style is whimsical and youthful. I think It portrays Coraline’s childness accurately, but at an expense. The expense being Coraline’s reactions. It can sometimes feel like Coraline is slow to react to danger - her reaction to the abduction for example, is very mellow and I wish we could have gotten a passage to explore her anxiety more. This is not to say that the writing is lacking anywhere else. The action, the magic are described beautifully and clearly.
Characters: Original & Unforgettable
Coraline: Coraline in the book I found to be gullible and quieter - but more fearless.
Different summaries of the book put her at nine years old, others say elven. Either way, she is much too old to fall for some of the tricks that are played on her. I understand that the Other-World preys on unhappy children’s desires, but the Other Mother also has the obvious “something isn’t right here” traits that I think would have tipped a child of her age off. At the same time, I wonder if my perception of her is based on her actual behavior and not just the style of writing.
Nonetheless, she did leave a remarkable impression on me. I believe the reason Coraline didn’t leave as soon as I would have is because she is completely motivated by her need to explore. Coraline is the type to be interested in something because it is different and lean into it rather than flee. There are no dancing mice, only dancing rats and the fact that is something she has never encountered before is enough to make her investigate. The people of the world have button eyes and from Coraline’s perspective that is new and intriguing enough to stay.
The Other Mother: The Other Mother hands down is both the most frightening villain I have come across in a book ever. It's always fun creating the baddies (I am writing a breakdown on how to do so yourself), but it can be an easy hit or miss in some stories. Some villains fall prey to being predictable and many today are sympathetic. But every once in a while you find a perfect villain that is so good at being bad that you start planning your Halloween costume before the credits roll. The other mother in this case is that villain.
She is simply scary in the most casual and haunting way. What makes her horrifying begins with her uncanny appearance and branches off into her purpose - to eat. She is a beast; a wild animal on the hunt. Like a wild animal she uses her natural tricks to find her next meal with a focus and ruthless precision obtained only by the motivation of death. She slips into her camouflage of motherly skin to distract you from her button eyes. Its pulled too tight over her prominent bones - a starving skeleton. Then she’ll entrance to disarm and go right for the kill, you don’t even see it coming, you just grin at her smile. A smile of fangs - God, I love her character!
It’s scary in an imposter way. Whatever the Beldam is, she is a liar. The best part about her though, and my favorite part of the story was the dialogue. The movie created a wonderful pacing, but the book creates a hostile relationship between Coraline and the Other Mother. The Other Mother is the villain who hates her hero but also needs them.The book explains her love for Coraline perfectly:
“You know that I love you.”
And despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true: The other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold.
In the other mother’s button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a possession, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behavior was no longer amusing.
The Cat: The cat is a sarcastic little demon whom I love in both adaptations. Simply, both mediums manage to capture what I think we can all agree with is the essence of a cat. He is proud, thinks so highly of himself that all interactions with him have to end in a slight jab. There isn’t much to say about him other than he is a remarkable supporting character who was perfectly casted as Keith David. Makes me want to get two cats.
Recommendations:
I have to recommend this book. Anyone who is a fan of Gaiman, dark fantasy/old fairy tales are bound to have already read it. I do wish the opening chapters weren’t so slow and that we got more time to interact with the normal world to better understand why Coraline would have been tempted, but I think this is a wonderful introduction for young audiences who want to explore more dark, mature themes. The themes and writers group questions at the end of the book make for a wonderful book club subject.
