So, apparently, on the outside, Coraline’s house looks the same. Except for the huge neon lighted billboard for Misses Spink and Forcible’s theater flat.
Oh, fun. The cat showed up. Just good old Cat because there’s no Other Cat. Also, apparently he’s just Cat because cats don’t need names because they’re not like humans and don’t suffer constant identity crises or something.
Oh, right. Cats can talk in the Other Mother’s world. (The more I think about it, in the context of this book, I wouldn’t be surprised if cats can talk in Coraline’s part of the real world, too, but choose not to.)
Is this cat some distant feline relative of the Marquis de Carabas? Because I kinda feel like that now that I’m older and have read Neverwhere.
The cat’s glad Coraline brought protection into the Other Mother’s world but wouldn’t explain what he was talking about. Because, y’know, cat reasons.
And now Cat’s running off to go hunting for what seems like an invisible mouse but is probably one of the rats from the Other Upstairs Flat.
So now Coraline’s going to check out the theater in the downstairs flat.
OK, so, apparently dogs can talk here, too. Talking animals are a thing in general here.
One of the dogs from the downstairs flat is the ticket taker at the theater, and he’s letting Coraline into the theater even though he’s annoyed that she doesn’t have a ticket. Also, the theater’s full of Misses Spink and Forcible’s other dogs and then some.
OK, what even is this vaudeville show that’s going on? Yeah, these Other Misses Spink and Forcible are kinda weird.
And apparently dogs in the Other Mother’s world don’t get sick when they eat chocolate.
Yep. The Other Mother definitely being creepy already. And a little bit too touchy.
“Wanna stay forever, Coraline? We’ll… I mean I’ll… make it super fun like this all the time for you. You just gotta let me give you these button eyes.” “LOL, no thanks, I just wanna go home now.” “OK, see you later.”
OK, so the builders of the city of Ember was planned to be lived in for at least 200 years.
And the lead architect left instructions for how to leave the city after the 200 years to reenter… whatever civilization is left after the apocalypse the architects are preparing for.
The box with the instructions apparently is time-locked, and the mayors of Ember are supposed to pass the Instructions Box to the next mayor.
And then there’s this corrupt mayor who lived during the plague in Ember, and he kept the Instructions Box for himself. And he thought the Instructions had a cure for the plague.
Joke’s on him. The Instructions box got forgotten and chilled in the back of a closet until the time-lock ran out.
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