Coraline

No cover

Neil Gaiman: Coraline (2010, Bloomsbury Publishing)

E-book

English language

Published April 10, 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing.

ISBN:
978-1-4088-0819-1
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4 stars (1 review)

Tie-in edition of the animated feature directed by Henry Selick, director of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, with a cast including Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Dakota Fanning When a young girl ventures through a hidden door, she finds another life with shocking similarities to her own. Coraline has moved to a new house with her parents and she is fascinated by the fact that their 'house' is in fact only half a house! Divided into flats years before, there is a brick wall behind a door where once there was a corridor. One day it is a corridor again and the intrepid Coraline wanders down it. And so a nightmare-ish mystery begins that takes Coraline into the arms of counterfeit parents and a life that isn't quite right. Can Coraline get out? Can she find her real parents? Will life ever be the same …

53 editions

Quick, Fun Read

4 stars

Coraline is a children's book good enough to be organically read by adults. As it's fairly similar to the movie, I'll cover some not-so-obvious interpretations I had:

Throughout the read I couldn't help but feel like Coraline's other mother was a perfect embodiment of a BPD parent. Aside from the obvious BPD characteristics exhibited by the other mother, I felt the following quote summed everything up beautifully: "It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon love its gold. Int the other mother's button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a possession, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behavior was no longer amusing."

After reading the book, I found a great blog analysis that touched on the many thoughts I had throughout the read: pensievely.wordpress.com/2020/12/17/seduced-by-borderline-an-analysis-of-coraline/

BPD-aside, very fun book. Made me laugh a few times, a bit creepy, and …