Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
TW/CW: kidnapping; implied d*aths of children
Coraline is about a girl, Coraline, who moves into a mysterious house with her clueless parents. While exploring the house, Coraline finds a mysterious door that leads to another world, a world where she has a new set of parents who actually seem to care about her. But the more Coraline goes to this other place, the harder it is leave. When Coraline discovers some disturbing things in this alternate reality called the Other World, it’s up to her and a moody cat to find their way out. While I’m not usually one to go for the horror genre, this book was actually really good! It was my first Neil Gaiman book and made me curious about his other works. I really liked Coraline’s character and the worldbuilding of the Other World was really good, despite the book being so short. I also really liked the cat, and I thought the messages of this book were really profound as well. I think a lot of autistic and disabled people in general will be able to relate to this book, as we’ve often felt neglected by those around us and ended up staying in unhealthy places like the Other World for far too long, eventually having to find our way back out. However, since this book is in the horror genre, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There is a kidnapping of some characters and it’s implied that a character in the Other World m*rdered lots of people including children. This part is disturbing but the book doesn’t focus on it for too long. The book got turned into a very popular stop-motion animated movie a while back (the company that created it was Laika which is known for it’s stop motion animated movies). I look forward to watching the movie, especially since a new friend of mine gave it a ringing endorsement (Thank you, R!). Overall, Coraline is a disturbing yet profound and thought-provoking read that’s worth checking out!
What’s your name,’ Coraline asked the cat. ‘Look, I’m Coraline. Okay?’
‘Cats don’t have names,’ it said.
‘No?’ said Coraline.
‘No,’ said the cat. ‘Now you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names.”
6 Comments
Tiger
You’ve done it again, Evangeline! You’ve roped me right in to yet another book (and movie too!) that I really want to check out. The Other World immediately made me think of Stranger Things, which I imagine you’ve seen too; and the cat does sound pretty awesome, especially after reading his quote that you share. Talk about profound! I’ve often thought about the fact that animals don’t have to spend time “finding” their true selves-they just are; so that quote really did resonate with me. And I, like you, would not have picked any horror-related book to read; like the cover of this one would have deterred me from checking it out. But then your description of the plot intrigued me to the point of wanting to check it out. Thank you again for expanding my media boundaries!
EvangelineFiles
So happy you enjoyed my review and that the cat quote resonated with you! I can see why the cover would be a turn off-it was actually a different special edition cover when I got it online so I was quite perplexed at why I got a copy with the cover shown in the picture. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts and hope you like the book if you decide to check it out!
Charles
Another great post. Thanks for sharing!
EvangelineFiles
So glad you liked the post! Thank you for reading and commenting!
Walinda Alleman
Wow! That quote completely and totally resonated with me. When you compare cats and dogs you kinda see that played out. Most dogs seem to need more attention and maybe validation than cats do. I’m going to have to process that some more. I feel like the quote speaks to me too.
Sounds like an interesting story. I think I’ve seen the movie featured somewhere before.
Great review!
EvangelineFiles
That makes sense-my dog is definitely like that. I’ve been thinking about that quote a lot as well. I think we can all learn something from the mysterious cat in the book. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts!