• Coraline

  • By: Neil Gaiman
  • Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
  • Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (9,067 ratings)

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Coraline  By  cover art

Coraline

By: Neil Gaiman
Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
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Editorial review


By Haley Hill, Audible Editor

CORALINE BY NEIL GAIMAN IS A QUINTESSENTIAL DARK FANTASY

I attribute the bibliophile I am today to my early affinity for scary stories—which led me to check out Neil Gaiman’s Coraline from my elementary school library. My first ever stand-alone novel (I discovered my love of reading with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series), this terrifying children’s tale scared the living daylights out of me so successfully that I even commemorated conquering my fear of flying over the Atlantic Ocean in my early 20s by getting the Other Mother’s spindly fingers tattooed upon my arm. In my mind, I had travelled through a portal leading to the unknown and made it back alive, just like the story’s brave protagonist.

From the novel’s beginning, I found it easy to relate to Coraline. Just like her, I am an only child, which I believe led me to develop an active imagination during the many boring, lonesome moments when I would fantasize about making new friends from within the confines of my backyard. (If you, too, are yearning for a set of quirky companions to help occupy your time, look no further than this audiobook’s marvelous full-cast performance!) Likewise, throughout my childhood, I had frequent recurring nightmares which typically resulted in me getting separated from my family. (Disclaimer: I do not particularly believe that these dreams were caused by my lack of siblings.) As Coraline’s journey led her to a parallel universe where button-eyed doppelgängers of her parents threatened to trap her forever, I am certain that my own anxieties coincidentally helped to make this eerie tale feel all the more uncanny, as if I were witnessing my worst fears unfolding on the pages before me. Despite feeling disturbed at the time, I will forever be grateful to Neil Gaiman for first teaching me about the power of stories to reflect aspects of ourselves within others’ narratives.

To this day, I am still just as frightened by Coraline as I was when I was a child. (If you have seen Henry Selick’s stop-motion adaptation of the story, you know just how grotesque and unsettling the tale really is. And, if you have not yet experienced Neil Gaiman’s original work, prepare yourself for the spine-tingling scenes which the director deemed too disturbing to include in his 2009 film.) But now that I’m older, I find that this listen unnerves me in entirely unanticipated ways, as it now makes me worry that I have come closer than ever to resembling Coraline’s real parents, who struggle to prioritize having fun against their demanding adult responsibilities.

Continue reading Haley's review >

Publisher's summary

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different...

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

©2002 Neil Gaiman (P)2002 HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Children's Literature, 2003
  • Hugo Award Winner, Best Novella, 2003
  • Nebula Award Winner, Best Novella, 2003

"An electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons." (Publishers Weekly)
"The story is odd, strange, even slightly bizarre, but kids will hang on every word...and they will love being frightened out of their shoes. This is just right for all those requests for a scary book." (School Library Journal)
"A magnificently creepy story...for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister, Coraline is spot on." (Kirkus Reviews)

Featured Article: The Best Neil Gaiman Listens of All Time


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What listeners say about Coraline

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it

a Wonderful mix of creepy, some sort of a child's determination, and grim wonder. Good story overall.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The best imaginable version of a great, dark children’s story.

Neil Gaiman brings back the amazing skill of performing one’s own work that is a mostly lost art, as I imagine Dickens may have done in the 19th century. The Tim Burton movie is good, but this is the definitive version of this great story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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I love his Writing

This Book is Exiting, Creepy, magical and Beautiful. It has Vivid Imagery and beautifully thought of characters. If you have kids they may find it scary but they will love the story so much they will go past that "Scary story" to see how it ends.
Gaiman himself narrating the story makes it even more Wonderfull and magical.

Happy Reading

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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The reader’s voice was so very good.

I felt a creepy sense throughout the story. Coraline was so fearless and brave. I knew she would solve the mystery. I also know why my young grandaughter was so frightened by this book.

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great book

I got this book right after I saw the movie. I loved the suspense of it all! This book was my first horror novel. It just scary enough! It was a short read it could've been longer I still have lots of questions. This book was so much fun to read. I totally recommend it 👌

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    4 out of 5 stars

A DEAD SPIDER THE SIZE OF A SMALL CAT

I'M YOUR OTHER MOTHER
I agree with audible addict, I question the age for this story and performance. This will cause nightmares in younger children. Once you get past that, this is a great scary, adventure story. A dark Narnia and Alice in Wonderland. Listen by yourself before sharing with younger ones, but don't ignore it, it is very entertaining.

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72 people found this helpful

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Perfection

This story is - without reservation - perfect !!!!
Creepy. Cozy . So much more - transcends genre. Something I look for and rarely find : a book I read over and over.

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Very Detailed

So in the one star reviews some of them say it is bland and only interesting when the animals talk. What I think is that this book is so detailed you have to actually pay attention. It may seem bland if you are only half listening. But this book may not be for some readers who want a quick and easy read, or listen to on this case. Overall this book is magnificent.

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amazing

amazing story telling and the presentation was wonderful and very interestingly done. never heard anything like this before.

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Excellent.

narrator was very good. I'd say I enjoyed the singing rats best. so eerie and matching the idea of their being "other" rats.

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