Coraline Review: Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News
Alice D. Harris; “Girl Disenchanted with Parents Enters Porthold to Parallel World in ‘Coraline'”; Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News; July 28, 2002; pF7.
Coraline, a modern fairy tale that is both fascinating and frightening, is the story of a young girl who is bored with her ordinary life and preoccupied parents. One day after her parents have disappeared, she finds a door that leads to a brick wall she goes through to the other side.
At first things seem better there, but there are another mother and father who want Coraline to stay with them. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline finds other children trapped there, and her parents too, and soon she is in a desperate battle with the witchlike other mother to save herself and the others.
The story builds in menacing sequences, and Dave McKean’s sticklike illustrations heighten the suspense.