Coraline
Written and Narrated By: Neil Gaiman
Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
For adults? Not Gaiman’s best. But for kids? Oh my! Creepy horror!
I dunno; it seems like, to me, everything always comes back to Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane. What an absolutely stellar audiobook: Such a story, so well-written, and Gaiman’s narration, naturally, added so much. So since then, any audiobook by him just haaaaas to reach the heights he set with that book.
Naturally then, I was a bit disappointed with Coraline. No, no, no! Please don’t get me wrong: On a bad day, his writing farrrrr surpasses what mere mortals, struggling authors, put out on their very best days.
And so we have this audiobook. Of COURSE his narration is wonderful: Gaiman NOT doing Gaiman? Sacrilege!!! I can only feel the utmost pity for non-English speakers who have to listen to this audiobook as narrated in their native Italian, or Spanish, or whatever. Oh what they’re missing as the man hits every note, every pregnant pause, every sassy comment just perfectly.
So it’s not that.
It’s just that, well, I think kids (P’raps the older ones?) will like it more than grownups will as there aren’t as many layers added within this one to reveal a glorious fully-flowered gem of a book. We have young Coraline (“Don’t call me Caroline!”) whose family moves into a new flat that is completely and unutterably boring… except for that doorway that’s locked… and then opens up to a bit of a brick wall…
What happens when the curious and up-for-something-ANYthing-different Coraline goes through?
She finds a world that is very much like her own, complete with neighbors who are just the same, but NOT. With parents who are just the same, but NOT. There are AWEsome differences: Dad doesn’t get all creative with food and recipes but serves Coraline things she actually likes. And the black cat that hangs around can talk!
But the mice are different, er, like totally (Creepy songs, anyone?)! And those neighbors, the thespian old ladies, have their own show which they perform to their Scottie dogs (Who speak, MOST enthusiastically!). They round out their performances by becoming something decidedly and unspeakably eerie.
And Coraline’s Other Parents, especially her Other Mother? Oh deeear: Coraline will have to battle it out once her real parents have been kidnapped, once she decides to save children from-other-times who’ve been trapped, whose souls are stuck, at the mercy of the Other Mother.
It’s up to Coraline and the saucy and wise cat to save the day.
I’ve already mentioned where I think the story fails, but here’s where it’s really great: Coraline is brave (Something her real father taught her/displayed for her), and she’s very resourceful. It’s her cleverness that I think would have younger audiences cheering and beguiled. A young heroine to root for, to worry for, to cheer on as she shows how smart and wily she is, as she forms plans and has the courage to plot and to implement.
I s’pose that was what was missing for me: I was never beguiled. Always just there! On the very verge of it! But never completely taken in by the story, kinda sorta always feeling like I knew exACTly how things would work out for all.
Still… Neil “freaking” Gaiman!
Can you ever go wrong with that?!?
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