Book Review: Abarat by Clive Barker
Candy Quackenbush hates her life in boring Chickentown with her alcoholic father and depressed mother. Candy has little to do but dream. One day, angry at and humiliated by her teacher, Candy leaves school in the middle of the day, drawn by a mysterious force.
With nothing but instinct to guide her, she walks far out of sight of Chickentown and finds herself in the company of a strange man with eight heads. The two have no time for pleasantries, though, because the eight-headed man is running from a deadly pursuer who looks and sounds like a walking nightmare.
Caught up in the events and not aware of what she is doing, she calls the seas of Abarat to a long-dead lighthouse outside Chickentown – a sea that whisks her and her new companion to Abarat, a world filled with incredible creatures and sights.
And she has the strange feeling that she has been there before…
This is actually the third time I have read this book, and you can imagine what kind of testimony that is to how much I like the book.
With Abarat, Clive Barker shows himself to be the kind of author I want to be – limitless, imaginative and unbound by conventional thinking. While we start off in the boring little reality of Chickentown, it’s not long before the magic of Abarat intercedes and whisks us off to an incredible land almost beyond imagining.
While Barker does occasionally indulge himself with description that slows the story a little, I honestly don’t care. I found it easy to immerse myself in the Abarat.
While Candy is somewhat flat for a main character, I give Barker some leeway because this is the first book. I can identify with not knowing who or what you are, and it does leave you a bit flat. I hope that Barker will take the opportunity to explore and develop her has a character in the next books.
I definitely recommend reading this book, but only if you don’t mind a bit of a wait (and then again, only if you like reading books meant for younger readers). While book one and two or long, Barker has thoroughly pissed off most of his fan base (even I am starting to get a bit cranky) by taking so very long to write the rest of the series.
I also recommend you buy or read the hardcover version of this book, as you will be able to enjoy Barker’s accompanying artwork for the book.
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