Review: Coralline by Neil Gaiman – In which I get far too much into the idea of scaring children

Novel: Children's story, supernatural, horror, fantasy. Contains disturbing themes. 

This review contains minor spoilers.

I read this book quite a while ago so do forgive me if I am unable to give you a perfectly clear vision of the book and my feeling on it. But to get straight down to the point, it’s good.

Basically, a girl named Coraline is being ignored by her parents and doesn't enjoy living in the new house they have moved to. When she finds a door in the wall, that leads to the bricked-up segment of the building, being extremely bored and curious she goes inside and after traveling through a tunnel she finds herself in an exact replica of her house.

Except her parents are different, they seek her attention instead of the other way around, and this Otherworld, as it is referred to is full of amazing and wonderful gifts, just for her. And the grounds surrounding the house are is just as amazing. The only problem is that if Coraline wants to stay here, then she is going to have to let the Other Mother remove her eyes and replace them with buttons.

I really enjoyed it, it was imaginative, dark, interesting, and had a good lesson. I hope that, when and if I have children, they too will enjoy the book. It’s not just a “kid’s book” though, Gaiman knows how to make the story interesting enough and the character unique enough that it doesn't really matter what age you are, the story will still intrigue you, and you will still end up rooting for Coraline as well as her friend, dubbed only “the cat”.

Personally, I never bought into the age grouping of books; I don’t think that stories should be made for a certain age group. Which is not to say that there shouldn't be limits on what our children can read, but I have a passionate hatred for the censorship of books and I think we should be less ready to steer our children away from dark subjects.

Which brings us to the question, "Is Coraline scary?" 

To me, no it wasn't. I read it many years ago when I was younger and I did not find it scary. I felt for the character, and I may have been creeped out at one point or another, but I don’t think I was scared. It certainly has a creepy atmosphere and I think that if you are looking for a dark book to give a child that still won’t be too chilling, then Coraline is your book. Neil Gaiman explained that adults are smart enough to know how creepy a concept is, but to children, it just seems exciting. 

I don’t understand why so many critics compare this book to Alice and Wonderland, as the tone is completely different. The concept is vaguely similar, I suppose? Girl, portal, insane world. But Coraline is a well-defined story, with a lot of well-defined characters, while Alice is an experiment in absurdism. It's imaginative, but there's never a sense of danger or tension because the whole thing is supposed to amuse children, not excite them.

Coraline also stands out from Peter Pan ,or The Wizard of Oz in tone and sense of humor. Its villain is much more threatening than any of those in the aftermentioned stories, and the message is on par with them all, if not surpassing in how it demonstrates the truth that no one truly wants everything (although stories about children wandering to better worlds, usually have a core theme of reality being always better than fantasy). 

I’d say it is a Great, with a wonderful ending, a great beginning, and many interesting little bits all the way in between. If you're looking for a good book to get for a child then I suggest this one and if you are looking for some dark, eerie concepts then you can do worse than to pick up this book yourself and give it a go.

Thank you for reading & have a nice day!