Coraline
core novella 2002 Coraline
Record
| First published | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.13 (804,522 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780380807345 |
Synopsis
Coraline is a fantasy novella following Coraline Jones, an inquisitive eleven-year-old girl who has just moved with her preoccupied parents into an old house divided into flats. Bored and largely ignored, she explores her new surroundings and finds a small door that, ordinarily, opens onto a bricked-up wall. When she opens it again one day, it instead leads to an Other World that mirrors her own home and neighborhood in eerie, exaggerated detail. There she meets an Other Mother and Other Father who resemble her real parents but seem far more attentive and devoted to her, except for one unsettling detail: both have black buttons sewn in place of eyes. As Coraline is drawn deeper into this alternate world and its unnervingly perfect version of family life, she begins to sense that something sinister lies behind its inviting surface.
Where it sits
- Universe: Coraline
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Neil Gaiman
Notes
- Registered as `novella` per its own award categorization (2003 Hugo/2004 Nebula Best Novella wins) -- consistent with its actual ~30,500-word length, squarely within genre-standard novella range, even though it is commonly marketed and shelved as a children's book.
Sources
← Coraline dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.