Creepy eyes

Hey, guys!!

Although I promise that I am not at a loss for new material to review, I am going to start dipping back into books I had to read for school. Because . . . well, why not?

I'm sure that many of you have probably already seen the major motion film Coraline. If you haven't, just don't tell me because I may hyperventilate. I mean, come on! It's Tim Burton!!

Anyway, Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a children's books with illustrations about a girl named Coraline who moves to a new flat with her parents and finds a door in the empty drawing room. The first time she opens it, the entryway has been bricked over to separate her flat from the one next door. The second time she opens the door when her parents aren't home, the door leads to a corridor.

Coraline goes through the door and comes out the other end into her flat as though she has gone in a circle. But, although the flat looks like her flat, and her parents look like her parents . . . except they're not.

Instead of circling back to her own flat, Coraline has entered another world where she meets her Other parents, who look just like her parents except they have buttons for eyes. Her Other parents are different in other ways, too: they cook delicious meals, the play fun games with her, and they don't work all the time.

Despite several warnings from her neighbors to stay away from the door, Coraline continues to return to the Other World. But the more she visits, the more her Other Mother wants her to stay. But the only way Coraline can stay is if she sews buttons into her own eyes.

And who wants to do that, right? You know what they say about eyes being the windows to the soul.

Unfortunately, when Coraline refuses to sew buttons into her eyes, the Other Mother isn't very willing to let her leave until she consents. During this time, all the fantastic marvels that thrilled and excited Coraline before are transforming before her very eyes into what they really are: the Other Mother's trap.

How will Coraline escape? Will she have to stay in the Other World forever?

Read the book and find out! Or watch the movie. Up to you.

Coraline is a children's book, so it is very easy to read and very short. I would recommend it for people of all ages. I had to read it for my freshman English class and write an eight-page paper on it to connect it to Freud's theory of the uncanny. So it is relevant academically. Just keep in mind that it is pretty creepy.

And if you don't want to read a book that is for children, I would recommend seeing the movie. Even though it is also a kid's movie, it still has a compelling plot, the animation is really interesting (Tim Burton, remember?), and it's also uber creepy.

Hope you enjoy Coraline (book and film) as much as I have.

Happy reading!!