Reviews with content warning for Death - Coraline

Coraline has been one of my favorite movies for years, but i never got around to reading the book. Part of my inner child healing is reading things under my age that little me would have loved and so I brought myself to read Coraline for the first time. Holy cow, this book is TERRIFYING. I don’t think there is a horror book on the market that can capture the tense atmosphere and terror of this short little book. The rats, the other mother, the unsettling aspect of it all. I loved every minute of it. While i have to say, i hold the movie closer to my heart than the book, i did enjoy the book immensely. This story is such a sad one of loneliness and wanting to find where you belong and realizing you belong where you were, you just didn’t understand it. I think it relays that message in an understanding way for kids. Highly recommend.

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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

i’m definitely biased as coraline is my favorite movie, but i loved this book.

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Coraline the movie is my favorite movie ever, but this is my first time reading the book, so i had really high and specific expectations. first of all, no Wybie???!??!!?! i really appreciate his addition in the movie.
in the very first chapter it says "She hoped it wasn't a spider. Spiders made Coraline intensely uncomfortable." knowing the scene in the movie where

the Beldam strips away the floorboards into a spiderweb to trap Coraline and prevent her escape from the Other World

, i highlighted this and noted it as some sly foreshadowing for the climax. there were then thirteen subsequent uses of the word "spider", so i was really expecting

the Beldam to exhibit some explicitly spider-like qualities

, but this never happens, which i think is a shame. it would have been even more effective in the book than it was in the movie.
on the other hand, the final chapter of the book (XIII—i see you Neil Gaiman) is even more brilliant and satisfying than the movie, with the

fake doll tea party to trick the Beldam hand into jumping into the well

. genius
the overall theme of the story was very well done, Coraline's need for attention from her busy parents really comes through especially in how she talks about them when they're not around, and then just small moments of affection between her and her parents when they return are so touching, i cried (

daddy issues

)
also, i have to say, Neil Gaiman did not do his own characters justice in his audiobook reading. give it some life! make Coraline sound stubborn and actually like a child! make the Beldam snarly and mad-villainous! everyone is so dry, which works perfectly for the cat since it's in the cat's character, but the rest just becomes dull. except for the rats' songs. those were horrifying and unsettling and i love them.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A cute, spooky little tale about a little girl who battles her “other mother” in order to be reunited with her family. Creepy, macabre, and hopeful. Coraline is a feisty, free-spirited, little girl who is learning how to be an adult while maintaining some of the wonder of childhood. Not exactly what I expected but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

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farncc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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katwebb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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sapphic_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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solouncapitulomas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Now, you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”

This was my first read for Halloween 2021 and I know I was perhaps putting a lot of pressure in Neil, but it depended on this book if I was going to read more mysteries or horror this month; glad that it worked out.

I grew up scared of Coraline, never read the book or watched the movie, but the other mother with her button eyes was usually present when I thought about fears I had, when I first heard about the story I was told it was "the tale of a girl that crossed to another dimension where two adults very similar to her real parents tried to sew buttons into her eyes" and to me, that was the whole plot. But in fact it is only mentioned twice that the mother wants to do this to her, very vaguely also. It is scary nonetheless, however I will watch the movie later on the month and this book will now go up into my favorites reads, of all time. Btw this is my second read from a male writer this year.

I really don't have a lot to say, this was a short read (less than 24hrs) it scared the hell out of me and half of the time I was thinking about Coraline and preoccupied something was going to happen to her, but she's a badass and managed it all ON HER OWN (since her parents were incompetent). Honestly she was treated very badly by everyone, except the ladies that helped her, but they didn't know her name so there's that. The cat was helpful but he was so rude and sarcastic (how I imagine cats if they could talk) I feel that if I was in this book I would be the cat.

Don't have much more to say without spoiling the whole plot and I really want this review to be spoiler free so here are some quote I really liked:

“Because, when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”

“It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.”

“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?”
“Easy,” said the cat. “Think of somebody walking around the world. You start out walking away from something and end up coming back to it.”

“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything. What then?”

I was listening to Tag, You're It by Melanie Martinez & Runaway by AURORA while writing this review

'kay, I'm out
Bye

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