424 - Coraline .....

< CORALINE> - Neil Gaiman

I finished another book this year! Yeah!

Once again, the book’s main audience target is children, so, another children book added to my read books. Haha. 

I saw the movie I think, part of it. I remembered the ending scenes....

Coraline, the book, obviously, is about a girl named Coraline. The book started where Coraline and her family had just moved into this new old house. The whole house was not theirs, but just a floor. I think that was what the description meant, an apartment, something like that. She had some strange neighbours: a couple of old weighed ladies who used to be stars on stages staying with their dogs, living below them; and an old man with his instrument-playing mouse living upstairs.

From what I read about Coraline in the book, he was kind of a quiet girl. She played by her own, she spent her time exploring, and her parents did not bother about her and seem to be constantly busy. Between the lines, we could understand that her parents did not give her what she wanted and tend to give her things that she did not want. Her father cooked recipe food that Coraline dislike, her mother bought clothes that Coraline thought was boring. Besides that, not many interactions could be seen between Coraline and her parents. In some scenes, there might be some hint that her mother seemed cold towards Coraline. Her father though, the first impression I got was that Coraline constantly seeing her father’s back.

The apartment was old. They had this drawing room where they kept grandmother’s old furniture. In that room, there was a door that was kept locked at all times. Coraline was curious as to where the door would lead to. She asked her mother about it. Her mother took out a old black key and swung the door open. Instead of a room or hallway, there was a brick wall. Her mother explained that the brick wall was constructed to separate their current apartment from the next, something like that.

One day, she was bored. Curiosity got the better of her. Coraline retrieved the key from the shelf in the kitchen and opened the strange door. This time though, the door swung open and revealed a dark hallway. Again, with curiosity, she walked into the dark hallway and realized that she was walking on something similar to the carpet in the drawing room. Not only that, the wallpaper was similar too. And then, she was there. She was confused as the room she arrived in was very similar to her one in her home. And then, she heard someone calling for her that sounded like her mother. She reached for the sound source. There she found a woman that looked like her mother, but instead of eyes with pupils, the woman had black buttons as eyes.

Button eyes! Wow. That’s really… eerie. The more you thought about it, the scarier it became. Maybe because I am thinking about it in reality context. …..No….I don’t want to venture into that.  

After meeting her other mother, Coraline went around and met other residents in this strange world. She met the old ladies downstairs, but here, there were not old and heavy weigh, but young and slim with button eyes. Here, the dogs talked. Next, she met with the old man living upstairs of her apartment. Here, Coraline realized that the mouse played the instruments. Back into the other house that was not her real house, her father cooked non-recipe food. Coraline was delighted and ate everything. She went into her other room and found that everything in the room was different from her own real room. Weird toys and Halloween-type clothes. Her other mother and other father wanted her to stay with them. She left the house and went back to her real house.

Sometimes later, her parents disappeared. She had no choice but to go through the hallway and back to the other house to look for her missing mother.

Now, that was brave. I did not really say anything about her feelings, but she was kind of scare during her previous visit. She was terrified of her other mother.

To retrieve her parents from the other mother and go back to her real home, she challenged her other mother. She made a deal to look for the missing children’s and her parents’ souls. With the help of the stone and occasionally, the strange talking cat, she managed to find all objects that contained the missing souls. Her other mother was not happy about her success. But Coraline managed to find her parents in the end and hurried back to her real home before the strangely lively dark hallway swallowed them up. Coraline locked the door and kept the key close to her. This is not the end though, there was something scattering around at night in the hallway.  With some advice, she realized what it was. She came with a plan to trap that thing and stopped it from disturbing her further on.

Her plan was brilliant! I mean, for her age.  Also, that thing that scattered around, that was creepy. The way the author described the hand with the bone and stuff.  Another thing that really crept me out was the scene where Coraline met the thing that used to be her other father. Oh man!!!! That was creepy and scary!! I don’t know!!! I don’t watch scary movies so… argh… This stuff easily creeps me out.  

Anyway, I enjoyed the book. But it took me roughly a month to finish = = I got side track easily. I didn't read other books though. Just that I stop reading and do other things. I like how the book built up the eeriness of the slowly, but steadily.

I have these favourite quotes in the book:

‘It wasn't brave because he wasn't scared: it was the only thing he could do. But going back again to get his glass, when he knew the wasps were there, when he was really scared. That was brave.’ 

‘…when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.’

I borrowed the book from the public library. I went to look for hardcover copies in the bookshops, but no, they don't have any. Most books are paperback, I want hardback.