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HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2011
ISBN: 978-0062094100
Available: New, Used, and digital
Abarat is the first book in a new series by Clive Barker. Clive Barker is a renowned master of horror novels, and has even made some wonderful horror films. Here he takes us on a wild, strange, and creepy ride through the magical islands of the Abarat. Seen through the eyes of young Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota – a place known for its business in processing chicken parts – the Abarat is a set of islands, or archipelago, in which each island exists at a different hour of the day. For example, there is an island called The Nonce where it’s always 3 in the afternoon, and another, called Gorgossium where it’s always Midnight.
In these weird and fascinating islands live such strange people as John Mischief and his brothers. The brothers Mischief are all master thieves, and seven of them live in John Mischief’s antlers. Christopher Carrion, the Prince of Midnight, wears a huge collar around his neck where his nightmares live: they’re his pets. Such strangeness fills the adventures of Candy as she learns that this is the land where she belongs, although its fate is in serious question, due to a fiendish plan of Christopher Carrion and his grandmother, Mader Motely. This book is Highly Recommended for readers of the strange, fantastic, weird and dark fantasy adventures. Warning: once you pick it up it’s hard to put down.
Contains: Violence, Scary Imagery, Profanity, Gore.
Review by Benjamin Franz