Coraline

Product Information

The equivalent man in the alternative world always gets her name right, and yet that's also where the cat explains why names are unimportant: “ We [cats] know who we are, so we don’t need names.” When Coraline asks what she'd do if she needed to call it, the cat replies, “ Calling cats… tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.” This a perfect, traditional fairy * tale, with a slightly surreal twenty-first century warp. The writing is as magical as the plot. The creep factor is so immense thanks to Gaiman's writing skills and him seemingly wanting to traumatize people, the clever and first peaceful way, by generating more and more suspense until it escalates without much real violence. It´s more the permanent feeling of something being terribly wrong, more and more disturbing signs appearing, and the final realization of the protagonist what really is behind the seemingly better reality. So one message could be to

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: Seriously creepy and disturbing book. You might want to vet this for your children if you worry about that sort of thing. When I say "Stephen King for children," I am not joking. This book is dark and full of very disturbing and unsettling images. I see there are two versions with different illustrations. For what it's worth, I really liked the Chris Riddell illustrations in this one. Coraline is a little girl who is rather introverted. This means she is ignored by adults a lot. Most of them don't even know her real name - Coraline - and instead, keep erroneously calling her Caroline. Her parents work a lot and don't spend a lot of time with Coraline. Coraline is another amazing story from the creative mind of Neil Gaiman. The narration takes you on a creepy ride through the eyes of sweet and inquisitive Coraline. A blend of magical realism, dark fantasy, and things made of nightmares, all wrapped up in a children's story. The characters are creative, the creatures imaginative, and Caroline's journey is epic! What a ride it is!Because I’ve now enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s masterwork of a children’s story in both bookish formats, and I honestly can’t decide which I prefer. The cat is perhaps my favourite character of all. Gaiman knows cats well; they appear elsewhere in his works. And this one is the genuine article: superior, stand-offish, wilful, easily offended, and yet a true friend. This is creepy and exciting and beautifully written and filled with wonderful characters and settings and scenes. I love Neil Gaiman, as of recently, and I most especially love Coraline (both book and character). I love it enough to read it multiple times, and also read the graphic novel at least once (possibly more), and also see the movie several times over (including in theaters with my whole family, including my very very small and very very scared brother).

The story begins with Coraline, a young girl who has just moved into a new house with her parents which has been broken up into different apartments with neighbors. Coraline’s new neighbors are interesting: an old man who trains rats for a circus performance, and two old ladies who are retired stage actresses. The issue is that Coraline’s extremely frustrated and bored with not much to do. Her parents are simply too busy with work to spend any time with her and Coraline feels somewhat neglected. The movie adaption gives some brief idea of where she came from; she is Wyborn’s Grandma’s sister. But I’m not sure how much of this we can actually consider. Although the movie was written in collaboration with Gaiman neither of the characters actually appear in the book. So I’m left with even more speculation. the story was really interesting and I should have read this book sooner! the illustrations in this book are so amazing and they're cute but some of them are scary too, which are SOO AMAZING.

Tl;dr - A delightful, very creepy and haunting story that will have both adults and children turning on the nightlights after darkness falls. A great, smart heroine who takes the initiative and acts with purpose. Highly recommended. This isn’t a remotely teachy or preachy book, but Coraline learns a lot about life, familial love, and especially herself. She finds bravery she didn’t know she had, but she faces temptation as well. “ The other mother loved her… as a dragon loves gold.” The other mother offers her everything she thinks she wants. But there is a price, and Coraline has a Eureka moment, and declares: LOL So funny and so true of children. I'm glad Gaiman isn't trying to make Coraline into a 'little adult.' And, now that I think about it, nor is he trying to force some kind of 'healthy eating' agenda down readers' throats. Ugh, I hate that shit. Instead, he's absolutely captured childhood with perfection. Its thirteen chapters are delightful, dark, and funny, with a heroine many can relate to, as child, parent, or both. Yet Coraline is written so simply and poetically that it’s almost meant to be listened to. The audio version that I borrowed from the library has a full cast, and it’s one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever encountered. Plus, having the story read aloud to you only adds to the experience of being returned to your childhood. It’s just wonderful.

what does the old man mean when he says he has a message from the mice that says Don't go through the door? and what do Miss Spink and Miss Forcible mean when they say she is in danger when they see her tea leaves? what kind of danger is this? I finally read this with my kids after seeing the movie a hundred times. We were surprised that the movie stayed fairly close to the book minus a few differences like the addition of a character and small details like the mango milkshake. It was fun reading along and having the image of the movie characters in our minds. They were astonishingly heavy - almost too heavy for a girl to lift, even using all her strength, but she managed. She didn't have any choice. So there you go. You don't really need me to tell you how I feel about one of Gaiman's books at this point. You know I love his writing. She left us here' said one of the voices. 'she stole our hearts, and she stole our souls, and she took our lives away, and she left us here, and she forgot about us in the dark.'

Reviews

For tea she went down to see Misses Spink and Forcible. She had three digestive biscuits, a glass of limeade, and a cup of weak tea. The limeade was very interesting. It didn't taste anything like limes. It tasted bright green and vaguely chemical. Coraline liked it enormously. She wished they had it at home.