The Other Mother is about family and coping with death, learning to speak about the subjects we're afraid to speak about but should discuss, and that living is never easy, especially when you lose someone you love.

In Coraline's case, the Other World inhabitants are Other Father, the Other Mr. Bobinsky, the Other Mice, the Other Spink, the Other Forcible, the other Spink and Forcible's Scottish Terriers, and the Other Wybie. The Other Wybie is the only Other inhabitant that is completely sympathetic to Coraline and shows no willingness, even when coerced, to harm her. In the film, one of the Beldam's victims was the Sweet Ghost Girl. She was the twin sister of Mrs. Lovat, whose grandson is Wybie, Coraline's frenemy, and eventual friend.I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but the twist of it was disappointing and left me somewhat confused. I finally saw where the twist was taking me, but it seemed so far fetched that I just couldn't get into it. The book had a lot of promise, but I just couldn't buy into the ending or the way things tidied up. From the author of the internationally bestselling The Lake of Dead Languages comes a gripping novel about madness, motherhood, love, and trust. The Beldam is a powerful entity, capable of many powers and abilities. Possibly due to witchcraft and control over the other world.

Overall, I found the book to be dull. I could see some people liking this if you want a heartwarming story told from the perspective of a 13 year old boy. When the Beldam speaks to Coraline, she sometimes refers to herself as "your (Coraline's) mother", most notably after she revealed her true colors to Coraline. As suspenseful as it is touching . . . A queer generational saga set in academia? Sold.”—Sophia June, NYLONThe Other Wybie shoves Coraline to the tunnel so she could escape and closes the door behind her, sacrificing himself to save the latter] I requested this book because I had read – and adored – the author’s previous book: Memoir of an Imaginary Friend. In fact, I would say that is one of the best books I’ve ever read and is definitely one of my favourite books. You can guess what books I prefer to read when I read the blurb and thought it had a supernatural/horror element to it. I do feel like Naomi was not as frantic as I felt she should have been, and I could do without the infidelity, but without it we wouldn't have had the unreliable characters that gave us some twists and made for a fast paced, suspenseful read. I wasn't overly in love with the last little bit, though.

The story is told through Michael's POV. I assume that Michael has ADHD and possibly something else. You get to read about the strategies he is supposed to do before reacting to people. And you read a lot about his temper and how he has hit others when he is angry. That said, you feel for him. He lost his father when he was 11 and we slowly find out about a secret that he has been harboring the past two years. He doesn't understand why his mother remarried Glen especially since she has to work so hard to support everyone. He loves his siblings though they also drive him up the wall. When the next door neighbor Sara and him start to spend time together, Michael wonders if he has found someone to confide in finally. Daphne (a former children librarian) is eager to get away from her controlling husband and establish a life on her own. She applies for a new job as an archivist with a famous author, Schuyler Bennett in the Catskills--under Laurel's name and credentials! She gets the job. She takes her baby and together, they help the author, (who also happens to be the daughter of the former medical director/psychiatrist of Crantham Mental Institution), organize old papers and write a memoir.Coraline’s dragonfly hairpin could also be a reference to an old real-world myth about dragonflies, namely that they sew shut the mouths, eyes or ears of naughty children. The legend originated because the dragonfly resembles a sewing needle, but it also closely mirrors the way the Beldam sews buttons on her subjects’ eyes (and even sewed the Other Wybie’s mouth shut). The two main characters are Nala, Florrie’s mother, and Jane, her friend and the woman who should have collected Florrie. In her interactions with her friends, husband and the police Nala’s feelings seem relatively unengaged with the horror of Florrie’s disappearance for several days. Jane, who has been impersonated by the kidnapper when she is late to collect Florrie, while distressed, is also engrossed by her other responsibilities. Other characters’ stories are woven throughout and seem to vie with the main narrative for precedence. This didn't grab me like another thriller I won off Goodreads last year but it intrigued me enough that I was curious how it would turn out. The suspense gets amped up sometime after Daphne gets admitted to the mental hospital but nothing that had me scrambling to finish it as soon as possible. Perhaps her most distinctive trait is her "love". At first, the Beldam seems to genuinely love her victims, caring for them and giving them a world that they cannot afford in the real world. When she reverts to her true nature, the Beldam still claims to love her victims but in a much more perverted and disturbing way. Her love, thus, could be described as how as a parsimonious miser loves his gold or in a more serious and accurate comparison, how a child predator loves his/her victims, considering the ages of her victims. Get ready: this book is a crazy, bewildering ride. It will also always have the distinction of being the novel I was reading on an airplane trip to San Diego when one of my five-year-old daughters threw up. Twice. So it will be memorable in several ways. :)