Review Detail

When I turned the last page of this book, I had a sudden and overwhelming urge to turn back to the very first page and start it all over again. Coraline is a magical journey. A scary, dark, and creepy journey.

Coraline and her parents have just moved into a new flat. Coraline (and heaven forbid, don't call her Caroline) is often left to her own devices, since her parents are busy doing their own thing. This doesn't generally bother her, because Coraline is an explorer.

She meets all the neighbors, explores the yard and the deep, dark well, and generally wanders around looking quizzically at the world from bright eyes.

Her exploring takes her one day to the one door in the house that goes nowhere. At least, it normally does (it used to lead into the next flat, but was bricked off). Today, it leads into a strange double world with Coraline's "other mother" and "other father," both of whom have black buttons instead of eyes and want to do nothing but spend time with her.

It's a creepy, spooky world on the other side and soon Coraline is in a battle with the beldam (this is what the other children call the "other mother" -- a beldam also means crone, hag or witch) to win back her real parents and the freedom of the children's souls that were trapped and killed before her.

If it weren't for Coraline's matter-of-fact, childlike manner, the reader might hide themselves quivering in the closet while reading this book. But she's a brave girl, as she likes to tell herself, and we readers must also be brave. In the end, her wits and courage (and a cat) triumph.

Coraline is a wonderful book full of evocative imagery and unexpected turns. It's one book that I will always keep a copy of on my shelf.

For more on the book, see the author's official site for it at: www.mousecircus.com.