As a young child, I was drawn toward the story of Coraline. I don’t know how I stumbled upon the novel or began reading it, but I can still recall the cracks in the spine from its constant use. My personal copy of Coraline was the graphic novel version, an illustrated copy of Neil Gaiman’s original drawn by P. Craig Russell. As a young girl, the story was compelling. A kid with a wild imagination searched the crevices of her new home and investigated her bizarre neighbors. She made up stories, relied on her creativity, and was so sure of herself. In these aspects, the story was a sweet tale of girlhood. If you went deeper, however… the story was an introduction to horror.
Neil Gaiman is a prolific writer in the horror genre. His previous scary novels have included The Graveyard Book and Snow, Glass, Apples. He’s even penned short horror stories like the tale of Click Clack the Rattlebag. Coraline marked Gaiman’s first appearance in the children’s genre. His story captivated audiences and drew horrible connections between the body and mind through the eyes of a child. It is these moments in his writing that still draw attention today. While there are many children present in mature horror stories, the children’s genre is largely kept separate from horror. Because of this combination, Coraline brought a new way of looking at horror, utilizing many fearful techniques and scary themes to scare and excite children.
Through Children’s Eyes
A young main character within a horror story comes with built-in helplessness. Children are often not believed and frequently overlooked. In Coraline, when danger brings itself to the young girl’s home, she finds herself lost to her own age. The consequences of youth bring her to an isolated and terrifying position of needing to face her fears head-on.
Young readers of this tale were introduced to the thought that characters just like them could be placed in these positions. Their understanding of the world and their relationship with their family is called into question while Coraline dives further into the Other World. They are met with the granting of all their wishes: What if mom agreed to everything? What if mom made your favorite food, or built your dream bedroom? Coraline gets everything she wants, but it’s not everything she imagined. This realization leads to crushing discomfort and fear.
Psychological Horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of the horror genre that centers on terror of the mind. This means that our characters often feel as though they’re going crazy or the logical walls of reality that surround them are not sound. The most popular examples of this type of horror are The Yellow Wallpaper, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The psychological horror in Coraline works within two parts: in the characters that introduce this horror and in the subject of this horror. The twisted characters in the Other World that bring this terror to Coraline’s doorstep are made in the image and likeness of real people in the real world. Needless to say, this means that Other Mother looks like Coraline’s mother. Coraline derives a level of comfort with this, despite Other Mother’s button eyes. She finds comfort in being around figures like her mother and father within this new world. The same goes for her neighbors, with all their quirks. Thus, when these figures begin to tangle themselves into beings of terror rather than comfort, the horror is bound to Coraline’s own psyche.
She has been identifying these individuals as her mother and her father — beings of great connection and relation to her — so their turn against her is doubled. Not only do they commit this act of betrayal and violence toward Coraline, but they do so in the face of her parents. This creates a difficult separation of Other Mother and Mother herself, adding weight to Coraline’s psychological state.
This worsening psychological state is only amplified by the young girl’s age. Not only does Coraline find herself isolated in the Other World and its terror because of her real parents’ disinterest in her travels, but Coraline faces isolation because of her age. Due to her youth, she is not believed and left helpless in many situations. This only adds to her isolation, weighing yet again on her psychological state, because of her inability to enact significant change on the horrors around her.
Body Horror
When a child nears Coraline’s age, there is a huge change going on. Puberty is expected at that age, but it can also be very intimidating. Because of puberty’s introduction to change to the body, young kids can be very frightened. It shows that childhood is coming to an end, and it marks the first time that change is occurring physically, it’s scary. This change is especially intimidating and terrifying for young girls who are expecting their first period with this change.
In this way, the individual’s body becomes the object of fear. Further, it’s an object of fear that is outside of a young person’s control. With this in mind, body horror is a logical technique Neil Gaiman uses to scare audiences.
Body horror is a specific subgenre of horror that relies on frightening acts done to the body. These are typically overly grotesque or violent acts that terrorize the body and make it the source of the audience’s screams. These are best characterized in films like the Saw franchise or the Terrifier series or in books like Tender is the Flesh or What Moves the Dead.
Coraline is a YA novel that tells the story of a someone who is at this pre-pubescent age. When she is introduced to this horror of the Other World, it is through body horror. Other Mother assures Coraline that she’ll be able to stay in the Other World as long as she completes this final task: sewing buttons into her eyes. This offer of violence — served up to Coraline on a literal platter — builds upon this fear of change and body metamorphosis. Not only would Coraline be offering up her eyes, but she’d be offering up her life to be committed to the Other World. Similar to this permanent change that puberty brings to children, this ultimatum attaches itself to the reader’s fears without outright penning a story about growing up.
The Aftermath
Gaiman brought the children’s genre into the horror world to tell a story about change. At its core, Coraline is about accepting change. Coraline is presented with a great change at the start of the story (a new home), along with the changes that come with her prepubescent age. Gaiman expertly translates and communicates these aspects of Coraline’s life through the horror genre to write a terribly twisted tale. Wrought with themes of familial relationships, growing up, and change, the tale uses magical means to bring horror to the normalcy of life. Gaiman’s ability to create frightening characters and scenes from aspects of life that are familiar to us generates a story that leaves us rereading and rewatching it every year.
Do you adore horror? Is macabre your passion? Then you’ll want to hop over to Bookstr’s article LGBTQ+ Authors Who Contribute to the Frightening World of Horror to find your next read!
If you’ve got a young reader at home and are looking for the perfect selection of books for them, look no further! Bookstr has compiled a list of great reads for young ones interested in science fiction and fantasy.
