Title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: July 2, 2002
Pages: 162 pages (paperback)
How I Got the Book: Bought it.
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring...
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 about 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.
Others are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight using all her wits and any means she can find if she is to save them--and herself.
At first, I found the writing a little simplistic even for a children's book. She did this, he did this, she did this, she said this or that--I like it when a book is direct, but there is a difference between that and telling us everything instead of showing it. As I kept reading and saw Coraline make statements like this:
The other mother is a thoroughly creepy character and I love her for it. My friends may or may not share this opinion, but it is often the creepiest characters in a novel that I love the most. Wait, I should revise that because I don't love all creepy characters (the idea of me even tolerating the creeptastic Patch Cipriano of Hush, Hush fame and similar characters is both laughable and frightening). I love the creeps that are not romanticized and are allowed to shine in all their creepy glory. When it is shown as it is, I find it interesting; when it is romanticized and I know it most certainly should not be, I find it infuriating. The other mother ends up on the good side.
(And that was me seeing how many times I could say creepy or some variation of it before it stopped sounding like a word anymore. It still sounds like one, so I haven't used it nearly enough. I'll do better next time!)
In a way, my love for both the movie and the book is affected by nostalgia for a long-lost time. Being able to sit on the top bunk of my brother's bed, watch a movie, and feel like nothing bad could happen--I'll never have that back. My brother and his girlfriend broke up; the bunk bed was later broken during a home invasion that has become one of the defining moments of my life due to the trauma. Coraline takes me back to a time where I could sit on the ancient, creaking bunk bed and feel safe. Two and a half years of fear, paranoia, and the inability to feel safe is a very long time indeed.
So should you read Coraline? Yes. I don't hand out five-star ratings lightly these days and this book deserves one. For the echo of safety it can take me back to and its subtle charm, I love it.
5 stars!
What am I reading next?: The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: July 2, 2002
Pages: 162 pages (paperback)
How I Got the Book: Bought it.
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring...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 about 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.
Others are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight using all her wits and any means she can find if she is to save them--and herself.
Review:
Coraline the movie is one of my all-time favorite movies. There is no need for me to argue it. One of the few good things my brother's then-girlfriend did for me was to make me sit down with her and my brother to watch the movie. I'm not a huge fan of Dakota Fanning, but I thought she was fantastic while voicing Coraline and both the animation and plot of the movie wowed me. After that fantastic cinematic experience, I wanted so badly to read the book, but I had such trouble finding it in stores. Now I have my own copy to cherish and I won't be letting it go anytime soon.At first, I found the writing a little simplistic even for a children's book. She did this, he did this, she did this, she said this or that--I like it when a book is direct, but there is a difference between that and telling us everything instead of showing it. As I kept reading and saw Coraline make statements like this:
Coraline sighed. "You really don't understand, do you?" she said. "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?" (Coraline, p. 120)I realized the book was not simplistically written; it was merely understated. Some sage words of wisdom are in these pages (one piece in particular is especially relevant to another book I am reading right now) and the choice to keep the novel so sparsely described lets the truly extraordinary moments and phrases of Coraline's shine.
The other mother is a thoroughly creepy character and I love her for it. My friends may or may not share this opinion, but it is often the creepiest characters in a novel that I love the most. Wait, I should revise that because I don't love all creepy characters (the idea of me even tolerating the creeptastic Patch Cipriano of Hush, Hush fame and similar characters is both laughable and frightening). I love the creeps that are not romanticized and are allowed to shine in all their creepy glory. When it is shown as it is, I find it interesting; when it is romanticized and I know it most certainly should not be, I find it infuriating. The other mother ends up on the good side.
(And that was me seeing how many times I could say creepy or some variation of it before it stopped sounding like a word anymore. It still sounds like one, so I haven't used it nearly enough. I'll do better next time!)
In a way, my love for both the movie and the book is affected by nostalgia for a long-lost time. Being able to sit on the top bunk of my brother's bed, watch a movie, and feel like nothing bad could happen--I'll never have that back. My brother and his girlfriend broke up; the bunk bed was later broken during a home invasion that has become one of the defining moments of my life due to the trauma. Coraline takes me back to a time where I could sit on the ancient, creaking bunk bed and feel safe. Two and a half years of fear, paranoia, and the inability to feel safe is a very long time indeed.
So should you read Coraline? Yes. I don't hand out five-star ratings lightly these days and this book deserves one. For the echo of safety it can take me back to and its subtle charm, I love it.
5 stars!
What am I reading next?: The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
