For class this week, I ended up reading Coraline by Neil Gaimon, as a story I had a never read before nor ever saw the stop-motion film, I got intensely fascinated. I think this is perfect for this week because it follows the theme of contemporary urban fantasy really well.
I wanted to talk about the first chapters in order as I feel it best explains how this book fits into the theme. The chapter starts and the first sentence discusses how Coraline discovered a strange little door before even introducing us to the house, or anything else for that matter. It feels like a really interesting start to the book, almost feeling alien. The first chapter is just an introductory to Coraline, her family, her neighbors, and the very strange door that opens to a brick wall. By the end of the chapter we realize that this might not be the case with the black shadows that mess with her throughout the night.
The following chapter is her just exploring throughout the house. It interesting in the Laika film how they changed this, showing a montage of her first exploring the house which led to her finding the door, however in the book like stated before, it jumps directly into the small door. Coraline is a character that loves exploring just like most main characters centered around Urban Fantasy. This is probably why these characters are in these situations in the first place. they want adventure and they want to take risks, to get away from the mundane. While visiting her neighbors she gets a warning from the old man’s mice telling her to not go through the door. Forcible and April reading her future in the tea leaves reading her future that she’s in danger. In which Coraline thinks about maybe danger wouldn’t be such a bad thing, something she would learn to regret to think. Later that night, she went through the door everyone told her to stay away from. Where she runs into her “Other Mother” I noticed that this was happening around lunchtime rather than dinnertime like it was in the movie. No song was played by the dad either upon meeting. In the other world, everyone is different and Coraline is treated like she’s the center of the world, this is including all the material possessions she’s given and food. Everyone is a lot more interesting than they are back at her home, with constant performances, but feel almost like they're different people. Of course, it must’ve felt weird to Caroline to have another universe where seemingly everyone cares about her more than her own world. And when I read more into the story, the more and more it became clear to me exactly what this all was saying to children.
It all ends with the fact that in your everyday normal childhood life, your parents won’t be able to entertain you or show you love all the time. Even if you really need it. They won’t have everything perfect and they wont always have time for you. That just because some strangers who seem awfully nice and pretend to be close to us doesn’t mean that they are. Coraline is probably the best example of Urban Fantasy because so many kids and people can relate to how she is feeling.
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