Halloween Read 2: For Young Adults and Scaredy Cat Adults
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
Horror is not a genre I gravitate towards. However, when it is a book by one of my favourite authors Neil Gaiman, I would tread even the scariest path. Given the fact that this is a book for young adults, I flippantly thought that I wouldn't be too scared. I was proven wrong. It spooked me at a different level and for years after reading it, the story and the creepy setting can't be erased in my memory. Kudos to the incredible storyteller Neil Gaiman.
Plot
Coraline is bored during her summer holidays in her new house. As any mischievous & curious child, she goes venturing around her house when her parents are away shopping. She enters into a warped reality where she sees her house and parents but the only thing is the alternate parents have buttons for their eyes. The button-eyed parents not only stole her real parents but also trapped the souls of other children who came across the entry into this creepy alternate house. The adventure is then the efforts of Coraline to get out of the place. Will she succeed or not?
This is a clever and cynical take on portal fantasy settings. At first, Coraline feels like she is in a wonderland where her other mother obliges to all her requests. But the new place has a menacing undertone which Coraline realizes later and the curtain comes down on her fantasy world. The button-eyed mother has been characterized brilliantly that she could crawl under anyone's skin. Let me leave you an excerpt from the book to give a flavour of her character.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline.
"I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave."
"Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline.
"Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back."
Even though this book scared me, I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the scary dark rabbit hole that Neil Gaiman had created. This is an unforgettable book for me. The book is short and succinct making it a perfect example of an 'All killer, no filler'.
-Preethi
