As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman on Friday.  The reason this particular book caught my attention at the Landmark bookstore was that I'd previously heard about a movie adaptation of the story in the works, at Arrow in the Head (this article).  Besides, it had a nifty cover with a Dave McKean illustration, which used a combination of matte and gloss finish to make it appear as though there were ghostly hands reaching out for the little girl; and it wasn't that expensive (Rs. 196 for the paperback).  Anyway, I finished reading the book this afternoon, and here are my thoughts on it:

The book is about a young girl called Coraline Jones, who moves into an ancestral home with her parents one summer.  This is a large creaky house, and there are others staying there as well — two old women, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, who had been actresses at one point of time; and an old man who is training a group of mice to perform in what he calls a "mouse circus".  It is summer holidays and Coraline's parents, though caring and loving, are IT people and therefore aren't able to spend a lot of time with her.  So Coraline spends time exploring the yard and other places near the house.

One day, she comes across an old door inside the house, that opens up to a brick wall — her mother tells her that the old, abandoned flat which was once, one half of their house, is probably on the other side.  At night, Coraline finds the key that opens the door, and is surprised to find the brick wall missing, and in its place, a dark passageway.  The dark passageway leads her into a "copy" of her flat, a somehow odd, creepy copy.  Things get a bit more spooky when she realises that this house is inhabited by her "other" mother and "other" father, who want to keep her in this alternate reality.  This world is filled with warped versions of entities in the real world — some evil, others willing to help her (like a black cat that can only converse with her in the alternate world).  What's worse, her actual parents seem to be missing, and it's up to Coraline to save them and escape this realm.

I can't claim to be that familiar with Neil Gaiman's work, because apart from this book and the movie MirrorMask (which is written by Gaiman), I've only read about 10 issues of his Sandman comics (those are amazing, though).  Anyway, this book, targeted at children and young adults, is interesting and very imaginative.  I wouldn't say it is all that scary though (I don't know how kids might find it) — maybe I didn't get as involved in the world as I was supposed to, or maybe my imagination didn't make the alternate reality "evil" enough.  Anyway, the action picked up more towards the final scenes, when things got a bit more dangerous for the lead character.

There is a film adaptation of Coraline in the works.  The picture I've posted above shows the book cover (left) and the movie poster (right).  The movie is going to be a stop-motion animated feature, and is being directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas), with the main character voiced by Dakota Fanning.  I'd definitely be interested in seeing that, unfortunately, it won't be out until 2008.  Anyway, there is also a comicbook adaptation being done, with artwork by P Craig Russell.  I found a post on his blog with some preview pages from the adaptation, here, and there is also this post on Gaiman's journal with a couple of lettered pages from the graphic novel.

The book shares similarities with the film MirrorMask, which is written by Gaiman and directed by collaborator Dave McKean (who did covers for the Sandman books and also did the cover and other illustrations for Coraline).  That movie is about a young girl, Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), who finds herself transported into an alternate fantasy realm, inhabited by strange and creepy creatures, with a warped version of her mother as the queen.  The queen wants to trap Helena in this reality, Helena must find the mystical MirrorMask if she is to return to her world.  I'd seen the movie before reading this book, so because of that, the book felt a bit repetitive.  Anyway, both are interesting enough, though I feel Gaiman's work on Sandman is better!