- Coraline Jones is the main character. She is a curious, intelligent, resourceful, and courageous girl. Coraline is often irritated by rain, her "crazy" grown-up neighbors, and not being taken seriously because of her young age. She is described as being "small for her age".
- Mel Jones is Coraline's mother. She is very busy most of the time, and sometimes inattentive, but she loves and cares about Coraline.
- Charlie Jones is Coraline's father. He cares about Coraline very much and is kind, brave, and helpful. He makes "creative" food creations that Coraline strongly dislikes. He is usually found working at the house on his computer. He, like his wife, Mrs. Jones, is usually too busy to spend time with Coraline.
- The Cat is a black cat from the real world. The cat acts as a mentor to Coraline and guides her through her journey. He is unnamed, as he explains that cats do not need names to tell each other apart, but the Other Mother refers to him as "Vermin". Unlike many of the characters in the novel, he does not have an "Other World" counterpart. He states that unlike other creatures in the world, cats can "keep themselves together." He moves freely from one world to the other and is capable of talking in the Other World. He has a sarcastic personality, constantly belittling Coraline, but befriends and helps her escape from the Baldam. He is defiant of the Other Mother, but trembles at the thought of being stuck in the Other World forever.
- The Beldam (also known as The Other Mother) is the main antagonist of the novel. She is an evil, inhuman sorceress and the ruler of the Other World. In her first form, she looks similar to Coraline's real mother but taller and thinner, with long black hair that seems to move by itself, black button eyes, paper-white skin, and extremely long, twitchy fingers with long dark red nails. During the course of the novel, she grows taller, thinner, and paler, having little physical similarities to Coraline's mother by the end, suggesting she has the ability to metamorphose. She cannot create, but only copy, twist, and change things from the real world when constructing her version of it. She collects children, whom she loves possessively to the point of eventual destruction, taking their souls so they cannot leave her world and caring for them until they pass away, but wanting to feel their happiness and joy afterwards.
- The Other Father is one of the creations of the Beldam, in the image of Mr. Jones, the Other Father is used to help trick Coraline to stay in the Other World. Like her real father, he has a study and sits there during the day and will not talk to Coraline for long. He does not work, he merely occupies the study, and is not permitted to talk to Coraline without Beldam's influence. He appears to be much more enjoyable than Coraline's real father and always tries to be cheerful and fun in front of Coraline. In reality, the Other Father is sad and somewhat nervous. The Beldam ends up punishing him for revealing too much to Coraline—she transforms him into a soft, doughy, grub-like creature, and orders the Other Father to trap Coraline so she cannot win her challenge. He voices his reluctance to harm her yet cannot refuse the Beldam's orders.
- April Spink and Miriam Forcible are a pair of retired actresses who live in the flat under Coraline's. They own many aging Scotties and talk in theater jargon, often referencing their glory days as actresses. In the Other World, they are youthful and perform continuously in front of anthropomorphic dogs.
- Mr. Bobo is a retired circus performer living in the flat above Coraline's and is commonly referred to throughout the story as the "Crazy Old Man Upstairs". Over the course of the book, he claims to be training mice to perform in a mouse circus, and often brings Coraline messages from them. His Other World counterpart trains rats and is made of rats.
- The Ghost Children are the spirits of three children, two girls and one boy, who were the previous victims of Beldam. The boy is described as having a dirty face and red trousers. One of the girls has brown hair, a pink blouse, and a pink skirt. The other has a brown bonnet and brown dress. They were trapped by the Beldam at different times before Coraline and reside in the dark space behind the mirror. After having their souls restored, they go to the afterlife.
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