Coraline, Neil Gaiman

 

Welcome to Halloween Week! The closer we get to that magical, mystical holiday, the more I want to read booooks and watch movies that feature all things creepy and crawly and go BUMP! in the night. Stuff that's to hide under your bed (or in your closet, if you'd rather) and give your nightmares. 

And perhaps one of the most unsettling books I've read to date is Neil Gaiman's Coraline. The scare factor of this one came as a surprise to me. I did not foresee a book written for a younger audience making me cringe like this did, but that made it even better!

The story centers around tweenage Coraline. Having just moved with her family to a creepy old house in the country, Coraline finds herself bored out of her mind. Her parents are too busy doing things parents do to spend time with her, and the only close neighbors are an elderly pair of sisters and a strange man with a horde of trained rats. So Coraline decides to explore the house and grounds and comes upon a strange door. The door leads to an alternate reality where everything seems better, from the food to the toys. Even her "Other Mother" is different, loving and attentive rather than distracted and dismissive. But things soon take a sinister turn. Because the Other Mother is not who she seems to be, and she wants Coraline to stay with her....FOREVER! And she'll do whatever it takes to keep her newfound "daughter" from getting back home.

Coraline was a delightful horrific story! There's a lot of scare packed into this slim, quick read! And if you liked the book, there's a movie adaption too.

I highly recommend both! (But read the book first. There's things in there that are TOO SCARY for film).

--AJB