OOC: It's Coraline, not Caroline.
Though if you want to call her Caroline, I'm certainly not going to complain!

Coraline Jones comes from a (creepy as all hell) children's novel by Neil Gaiman, called, oddly enough Coraline. She's a young girl who lives with her often very distracted parents in semi-rural England, in a huge old house that's been divided into flats. She has a passion for exploring and an insatiable curiosity.

Coraline is pronounced Cora-LINE (to rhyme with horror wine). Many people call her Caroline instead, and it does frustrate her - but it amuses me quite a bit. Anyone who wants to get her name wrong, and call her Caroline, would make me a happy player!

She's currently fifteen, five foot one, very slight and small for her age (I've chosen Ellen Page for her PB, because the resemblance is quite uncanny) and when she was twelve, she had An Adventure.

The events of the book [HERE BE SPOILERS]

One day, bored because it was raining and she couldn't go outside, Coraline was exploring her new home and discovered a door in the drawing room, one that led nowhere. Now, Coraline knew that every door leads somewhere and, despite the fact that this one apparently opened onto nothing but a brick wall, she was soon proven right.

It led to another world, a shadowy, dark reflection of her house, created and ruled over by the other mother (see icon), a sadistic, pale, sharp version of her mother, with nails like knives and bright black buttons for eyes.

The other mother wanted to keep Coraline forever and ever, and sew buttons over her eyes, and to this end she snatched away Coraline's parents and imprisoned them. If Coraline didn't beat her at a game, she would be trapped forever, to have the life sucked out of her and be left an empty husk of spiderwebs and dried leaves, huddling in the dark, unable to break free because her soul is held captive by the other mother.

But, helped by a cat and using her wits, determination, and a stone with a hole in it, gifted to her by one of her house's odd tenants, she wins the game, overcoming the other mother and escaping back to her world.

Nothing is ever easy, though.

The other mother's disembodied hand, with nails like knives, scuttled into Coraline's world to seek the heavy iron key that would open the door again. Coraline, determined and careful and sure, tricked the hand, and it and the key were lost down a deep well.


What she's like

Coraline is quiet, determined, intelligent and self-possessed, but her defining characteristic is her curiosity, which combines with a certain calm bravery that gets her into - and out of - trouble. If told to stay away from something because it's not safe, she's likely to head right down and check it out, to find out exactly why it's not safe so she can stay away from it properly. She's cautious, but not afraid, and quite sure of herself. If she thinks she's right about something, she'll stand firm on it. She hates it when she's not taken seriously, whether because she's young or she's quiet, and she has a dubious opinion of the amount of sense adults make.

And she's not at all fond of rats. Or spiders.

Coraline is currently being made into an animated movie, with Coraline being voiced by Dakota Fanning. There's some interesting videos up here, and the book has its own webpage here.

If you're curious about her journal name: Mr Bobo, an eccentric old man who lives in the flat above Coraline's, is training a mouse circus. The mice send him with messages for Coraline, giving her advice which is startling accurate. So, advice from mice.