CORALINE

I saw the movie a few months ago and really liked it, so of course I had to track down the book and see what was different. As usual, the book was better, although the amazing animation in the movie (which made the Other Mother even more terrifying than Neil Gaiman’s description) makes it a closer call than you might expect. The movie does have one huge difference, however: it adds a male friend for Coraline who (although he does serve a few interesting functions in the story) ends up detracting from her independence/bravery/self-reliance as shown in the book. I don’t think it was as much of a “Why does the strong female character have to get saved by a boy?” travesty as some fans of the book would have you believe, but I’m not sure such a big change was necessary. The book didn’t blow me away, but it was efficient and nicely Gothic-creepy, and had a great central character. This was my first Gaiman book (I know) and I’ll probably seek out more down the road.