Product Description

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 again?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12124 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Disturbing in the best possible way
I discovered this book a little over four years ago. It was the first Gaimain novel I had come across, and remains--despite my delving into the fascinating depths of Neverwhere's London Below, the dangerous beauty of Stardust's Faerie and all the rest--my absolute favourite of all his works. His clear, unconvuluted style is really allowed to shine through here as this story is primarily for children, giving a wonderfully bleak, chilly feel. Also, Gaiman's masterful tendency of leaving much unexplained and not feeling the need to rationalise the extraordinary is, no doubt one that will appeal to children greatly.
Admittedly, the basic idea of a 'Looking-Glass' world is not original, but the intricacies of the storyline certainly are. This novel has that feel that so many horror films try (and largely fail) to obtain with their demonic children and evil dollies; Coraline is awash with a kind of twisted innocence that is infinitely eerie.
Black buttons have ever since made me edgy.

Coraline - ultimate spooky pageturner you can't put down
I was attracted by the amazing artwork on the cover of this book, but was totally unprepared for the surprise inside. It is a pleasure to read out loud and was chosen as a bedtime story for our 8 year old child. OOps - very scary indeed, talking animals, rats singing cautionary tales, haughty cats, an impossibly long key, souls of dead children, the truth seen through a stone with a hole in it...... a girl trapped in a parallel world unable to leave until she rescues her parents.... The Other Mother and Father with large black buttons sewn on their eyelids, waiting to stitch up Coralines eyes..... I'm such a fan, can't you tell. Anyway, some clever person has bought the film rights and I can't wait. There's also a great website.. mousecircus.com Look out for and click on the rats when they scurry over the page, they will sing their chilling song for you. Enjoy if you dare.

Darkly Witty and Disturbingly Weird
What a strange and disturbing little book! At a time when many children's authors are jumping on the fantasy bandwagon and producing clones of existing popular books, this weird tale comes as a refreshing change.

The story is a surreal one; imagine 'Alice through the Looking Glass' with a contemporary twist, written in a style that makes the dark humor of Roald Dahl seem tame by comparison. Coraline lives with her parents in one half of a block of flats; the other half is empty and the door connecting the two is bricked up. However, one day the bricks vanish and Coraline finds her way into a parallel world that mirrors her own, but with some very, VERY disturbing differences.

Some reviewers have grumbled about lack of depth to supporting characters - but I think they are missing the point. This book is quite short, (largish print) and no time is wasted on superfluous details about Coraline's neighbours. The emphasis of their characterization is on dark humor - all we really need to know are their peculiarities and foibles to appreciate their skewed mirror characters in the alternate world Coraline gets herself trapped in.

I like children's books to take me somewhere new, unique and different - and to give me a few laughs along the way. This book certainly gets into my top ten favourites, despite being like one of those hideous nightmares that you can't seem to wake up from!

If you enjoy something dark and different, check out 'Speed of the Dark,' by Alex Shearer.