“Then Coraline put her hand on the doorknob and turned it; and, finally, she opened the door. It opened on to a dark hallway. The bricks had gone as if they’d never been there. There was a cold, musty smell coming through the open doorway: it smelled like something very old and very slow.” (p. 26)
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: HarperTrophy. 2002.
Genre: Horror
Review:
Coraline loves to explore. She has explored everywhere around the house that her family has moved into. But there is one thing about the house that Coraline finds curious. There is a door which leads to nowhere—it opens up to a brick wall. But Coraline soon learns that the door does lead somewhere and it is on the other side that she meets her Other Mother and discovers a house that is just like hers…but not. She knows right away that something is not right and the Other Mother is more than she appears. The Other Mother wants to change Coraline so that she will stay with her forever and does whatever she can to make Coraline stay. It is up to Coraline to outwit the Other Mother and find a way out but she soon finds that it is more difficult then she thought to escape the Other Mother’s grasp.
This was an interesting take on a horror story designed for the younger set but able to be enjoyed by older kids as well. The story was just spooky enough, but I thought that some of the pictures in the book were downright creepy and could very well cause nightmares in some of the younger readers. Good for readers who are too old for Goosebumps but not ready for Steven King.