Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Rating: 5 of 5

I’m not the biggest fan of Neil Gaiman novels but Coraline is one of my favorite stories. I think its a great book for the young and the old. This is my second reading of Coraline having read it last about ten years ago.

At 160 pages its really more of a novella than a novel but its quality is great and the story line is dense with a number of twists. The story was written for Neil Gaiman’s daughter(s) and I think that really shows through if you read the story in that light, but I’m a middle aged man and can still feel like the book is for me.

Gaiman does steal some elements from Alice in Wonderland. The “other mothers” world is accessed thought a dark tunnel through a door a bit like how Alice arrives in wonderland and she’s guided by a somewhat aloof cat. If you read the book hard I suspect you’ll find numerous elements borrowed from other stories. But I think a lot of this borrowing is more of an accidental fusion and Coraline remains a uniquely interesting book.

I really like the imagery of the other mother wanting to sew buttons on Coraline’s eye’s. It feels like the correct amount of disturbing to me. Coraline’s hunt for the other children’s souls is pretty interesting and Gaiman gives it just enough predictability that you feel smart when reading it but are still surprised by a few twists.

Coraline remains one of the few books I’ve read multiple times. I think there’s at least one more read in it for me, maybe in another ten years.