Coraline: A Book Review

CORALINE: A Book Review

AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman

RELEASED DATE: January 24, 2002

PAGES: Approx. 160 pages

RATING: 5/5 STARS

Friends have been recommending this book to me for years, but it wasn’t until the movie adaptation came out in 2009 that I finally got interested enough to buy my own copy of Neil Gaiman’s famous story. And, as is the norm that happens whenever I obtain new books, Coraline went on my book shelf and spent some several years collecting dust before I finally (FINALLY) found the time – and opportunity – to pick it up and read it.

Coraline isn’t a long novel. It’s less than 200 pages, and even the slowest reader would be able to finish it within a day or two, just as I had. And what an amazing two days it was, as I delved into the written story that was adapted into one of my favorite movies, featuring one of my favorite heroines, the young, clever and brave Coraline.

Neil Gaiman has just become a new favorite author.

*~*~*

Coraline, not Caroline, is a young girl who recently moved into a new home with her busy, and sometimes inattentive, parents. The house, which was a manor converted into several flats (AKA apartments), houses some of the strangest adults Coraline has met: Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, two retired actresses, and their many aging Scotties; and Mr. Bobo, the “crazy man who lives upstairs” that’s training a mouse circus.

Coraline, not Caroline, is still adjusting to the move when she discovers, in her family’s sitting parlor, a locked door that once connected their flat to the other empty flat in the manor, but since been bricked up. Curious by nature, and despite warnings not to go through the door, once home alone, she opens the locked door and discovers a passage that leads to a world much unlike her own: a flat that looks like her new home, inhabited by two people known as the “Other Mother” and the “Other Father” who resemble Coraline’s parents except for having buttons as eyes. More attentive to her than her actual parents, Coraline comes to enjoy the quality time spent with the Other Mother and Other Father, and discovers that the new world allows for her to get whatever she wants (from her favorite foods to new toys that are sentient enough to play with her) and also meet the more interesting counterparts to her neighbors; the Other Miss Spink and Other Miss Forcible perform onstage in a never-ending show, and the Other Crazy Old Man Upstairs has an actual rat circus.

The only inhabitant that Coraline is confused by is a feral black cat that talks back to her when she approaches  it; it admits to being the same feral black cat that resides near her property in the real world, and who can travel between the worlds through gaps as it pleases.

Indeed, this world seems too good to be true. And as Coraline comes to realize, it actually is.

Frightened by the Other Mother and her suggestion to stay forever (and the price Coraline needs to pay for that), she returns to her own world, determined never to unlock the parlor door again.

But her parents are missing. And according to the feral cat that stalks the property, there’s only one place they can be. Unable to receive help from her neighbors or the authorities, Coraline must prepare herself to return to the Other World. She realizes she’s not the first child to fall victim to the Other Mother. But she’s determined to be the last.

*~*~*

As I was reading this, I was using the imagery from the movie to build up the story in my head. Then as I continued, I realized that that could only help me so much, because there were quite a few differences between the movie and the novel itself.

In the movie, we got a clear visual idea of how old Coraline might be (I think the movie states she was 11 years old). In the novel, you get the sense that she’s a little younger, probably around 9 or 10 years. I could be wrong but that’s the way I felt as I read this book. Her actual age is never stated, so for all readers know, we could be reading from the perspective of a 6 or 7 year old. The reason I bring up her age, however, is because of how mature and resourceful Coraline proves to be despite that.

Coraline is a favorite heroine because, despite her young age, she proves to be as clever as any adolescent or adult would be in her situation, and just as brave. She even explains to the feral cat, before she enters the Other World, what she thought being brave was. All throughout the novel, as she goes up against the Other Mother, and discovers the warped reality that the Other World is transforming into, Neil Gaiman makes a point of giving you a good visual of the horrible things that Coraline encounters as she tries to save her parents and other victims, and each time Coraline admits to being afraid but refused to back down or give in.

This is a different book with a new heroine that I had never discovered until now. This isn’t an adult, or even an adolescent (whom people would assume can survive this ordeal); this is a young child that proves to anyone who knows her that despite her age, she can be as brave and clever and resourceful as anyone else. She doesn’t even have a weapon to protect herself from the creatures that attack her. All she has is a feral cat and a stone with a hole in it. In every situation that she finds herself in, she found a clever way to escape and win.

I absolutely adore Coraline, not only for her bravery, but also her compassion. After this ordeal, she finds herself having a better relationship with her parents and neighbors, and she was even able to say goodbye to the other children that were the Other Mother’s previous victims. No one asked her to save those children; she did it because she believed it was the right thing to do.

I have heard that Neil Gaiman is an extraordinary writer, but it wasn’t until I was halfway through Coraline that I realized what people meant by it. Neil Gaiman has a way with words: he’s able to write details that give you a clear visual of what he’s describing; he gives enough of a description of the characters that you can see them in your head but allows you to really get to know them through their actions and words; he has a way of building these fantastical settings that seem too good to be true. In a way, his writing is almost poetic, they flow and they build and create and you just fall into the story you’re reading.

I can’t help but compare this to its movie adaptation but I think both versions of the story work. I like Coraline the book and I like Coraline the movie; neither is better than the other in my opinion. The movie adaptation changed several things, added a few scenes and characters here and there, but that’s the norm. What matters is that the movie stayed true to the spirit and message that Coraline the novel has, and it did.

Coraline, not Caroline: the story of a young girl who, for people everywhere, no matter their age or gender, defined for us what bravery truly meant.