Coraline, a novella by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is a dark fantasy novella first published in 2002, illustrated in its original British edition by Dave McKean. It follows Coraline Jones, an only child who has recently moved with her parents into a flat in an old house. Bored by rain, unpacking, and adults who tell her to entertain herself, Coraline explores the building and finds a locked door in the drawing room. Behind it is a brick wall, because the house has been divided into flats. One day, however, the door opens onto a passage leading to an improved version of her home. There Coraline meets the “other mother” and “other father,” counterparts of her parents. The other mother cooks appealing meals, gives Coraline attention, and has black buttons instead of eyes. Her offer of permanent happiness has a terrible condition: Coraline must let the other mother sew buttons over her own eyes. Coraline refuses and returns home, only to discover that her real parents have disappeared. A mirror reveals them imprisoned, and Coraline goes back through the door to rescue them. The novella’s central antagonist is the other mother, also called the beldam. She rules the other world, manipulates its inhabitants, and gradually reveals a spiderlike form. Coraline is aided by a talking black cat, which can travel between the two worlds and cannot be controlled by the beldam. In the real world, Coraline also knows Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, retired actresses who live in another flat, and Mr. Bobo, an eccentric neighbor who trains mice. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible give Coraline a stone with a hole in it, saying it can help her find lost things. Coraline challenges the beldam to a game: if she finds her parents and the souls of three ghost children, she and her parents may go free. Looking through the stone, Coraline locates the children’s hidden souls, represented by marble-like eyes, and finds her parents. She escapes by deceiving the beldam about the key to the door. Afterward, the severed other mother hand follows her into the real world in an attempt to reclaim the key. Coraline and the cat lure it to an abandoned well, where it falls. Coraline received the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella and the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers. It was adapted into a stop-motion feature film, Coraline, released in 2009 and directed by Henry Selick.