Abarat

Rating:
Summary: A Warm-Welcomed Surprise!
Review: Approaching this book, it seemed just another nameless story in the recent trend for the quest to be the next "Harry Potter" or C.S. Lewis.

A different approach to Barkers usually dark disturbing literature, certainly there are undertones here and there... particularly with the intricate design of Abarat. But all together Barker has weaved himself a creative original story that really catches one attention and refuses to let go until the story is done!

The story follows the exploits of a likeable well designed protagonist named Candy Quakenbush. Living in Mid-Western town U.S.A, Candy sees little hope for the future particulary when it concerns her family. However when a whim causes her to run out of school in the middle of the day, she litterally finds herself running straight into a whole other world she'd never dreamed of. Yet, she also finds herself feeling strangely at home in this strange other world living right next to our own called Abarat.

Candy herself is a likeable protagonist without being overly perfect or underly annoying. Fitting just the right spectrum Candy allows us to both like her without being annoyed by her in a wonderful combination.

Though the plot sometimes takes a predictable turn, particularly when it concerns certain aspects of the pre-history of Abarat and the fate of a mentioned in name only character. Barker manages to not make this a focusing point of the story that annoyingly makes us obsess over what he's talking about, nor does he mention it once only to make us forget and drop it in our lap later.

What Barker has here is a great story, for all ages that both amazes this reader with his own hand painted colorful pictures that illustrate the book. Abarat is not one to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not his best
Review: As a longtime fan of Clive Barker, I was chomping at the bit to read this novel. I have to admit that though it was good, it was not his best. I loved the artwork and thought his characters were very well thoughtout but at the same time, the novel felt like it was a revisit to Gulliver's Travels and other such mythic quest novels. I liked it and felt it deserved four stars and will read more from the others in the series but still, if you want Clive at his best, try Cabal, Books of Blood, and Coldheart Canyon.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: I'm re-reading this book, not because I particuarlly liked the style of writing, but just so I could sort the plot out in my head, to get ready to read the next three- once my library gets them.
The illistrations, however are beautiful. In answer to the person who told clive barker to take art lessons- please. The man uses a unique style- it seems simple when you first look at it, but you're drawn in by the complexity of the colours.
The plot, is fine, if a pit predictable at times. It's obvious that Mr. Barker has a fabluous imagination, judging by the discriptions of the Abarat, and I'm hoping the plot will sort itself out in the next three books.
Go ahead and read, but be careful before spending [the money] on it.

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Clive Barker's "Abarat" is a wonderful story about a young girl, Candy Quakenbush, who would rather be somewhere else but home. She enters a field and finds she is no longer in her home town, but is transported to the Abarat.

Once she is there, she finds a strange world where evil forces are already after her. On her way, she meets a host of strange characters, some of whom are very interesting, and others which are simply too bizarre to be taken seriously.

The only real flaw with Abarat is that the stakes are not very high. Yes, Candy is sought after by the evil Lord Carrion, but neither character is developed enough for us to care about them too much. Granted, this is the first book in a series and Barker apparently did not want to show us everything in Book 1, but I did not feel the tension of the Harry Potter books here.

Barker's imagination is incredibly fertile and the paintings he includes in this work are worth the price of the book alone. The painting of the Abarat itself is marvelous! Overall, Abarat is a good book and recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Great for adults too...
Review: I was given this book as a gift, and found it surprisingly good. Originally I was skeptical, both because it was a new genre for Clive Barker, and because the book was written for a teenage audience. I do recommend it for adults however. The heroine in the story is a teenager, but the situations she gets herself in are decribed well enough to keep people at any age interested. It was an entertaining and fast read. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Candy Everbody Wants
Review: ABARAT is Clive Barker's best and most consistent book in quite some time. As with Barker's previous children's book, THE THIEF OF ALWAYS (which he wrote long before the Harry Potter craze), there's a simple purity about ABARAT that makes for a truly riveting and satisfying reading experience.

The first in a planned quartet of self-illustrated children's books, Clive Barker's ABARAT tells the story of Candy Quackenbush, a young girl from a conservative Midwestern town who finds herself drawn through an oceanic portal into an alternative world called the Abarat. The Abarat is actually an archipelago of twenty five islands (one for each hour of the day, and another existing outside of time). As she travels from island to island, the precociously independent Candy makes many strange humanoid and not-so-humanoid friends and not a few horrible enemies. Chief among her foes is Christopher Carrion, the Lord of the isle of Midnight, whose powers include the ability to make nightmares real.

This lavishly illustrated volumes is beautiful to look at and is also a pleasure to read. Barker's imagination is in top fertile form. There are no missed steps or idle meanderings as there have been in some of Barker's recent efforts. This is a great book for all ages, and for all kinds of readers. A great celebration of the imagination.

Rating:
Summary: No magic
Review: Clive Barker was working too hard. He writes laboriously, seemingly *trying* to replace the vernacular with obscure language. While his language is overly pretentious, he childishly screams that Candy is bored with her town. Instead of giving a sense of monotony, he writes, "Candy was bored...chickens...chickens..." which seemed aggravatingly spelled-out. And the wonderful spark of childlike imagination and fun that dominates Harry Potter is lacking in ABARAT. I kept waking out of my reading state to look at the clock and get a snack, which never happens with the best books. It appears that Clive Barker sat in an office trying to find ideas, instead of letting them spring on him. His story structure runs the opposite way--instead of thinking, he brainstorms little hints that lead nowhere, in no order. He takes too long on descriptions. Where Philip Pullman would find one word, the perfect word, Barker gives you twenty words hoping you'll find the right one somewhere. Undefined audience--bored people with patience for writing like I've described--hardy enough to live through the first dull 70 pages.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: Candy Quackenbush has a terrible, boring life in Chickentown, Minnesota. Her father hates her. Her teacher hates her. Everything starts to go even further downhill when she is sent to the principal's office for talking back to her monstrously horrid teacher. But instead of going to the principal's office, she runs out the gate of the school, leaving her old life behind. Candy happens upon a field, and a strange man who houses all of his eight brothers on his head- and from there on out, everything she thought her life was begins to change.

The man with his brothers on his head, John Mischief, instructs her that she must bring light to a broken-down lighthouse- in the middle of a field- to bring the Sea of Izabella in before a less-than-a-man called Mendelson Shape shows up to throw a wrench into everything. Lo and behold, a sea washes through and carries them all away, and Candy is off to the Abarat- a collection of islands where every island is a different hour of the day, and legends are spoken of the 'Hereafter' (Candy's world) where time is 'rumored to go on forever'.

Between the beautiful illustrations and writing, this is definitely a good buy. To be honest, I enjoyed it more than Chamber of Secrets. (I reread them together recently) I like this book because it brings out the dream in all of us to escape to another world where we can 'start over'- with a new identity.

While Abarat is somewhat geared towards children, it might be a good idea to read the book yourself if you are considering buying it for a child under 13- some of the paintings and language are rather vivid and may be frightening to younger readers. (I loved it, but hey- like Candy, I have a morbid streak)

If you do buy it, when you get to page 224-225, don't miss the painting of the Abarat. It's a sight to behold. (I'm waiting for a poster)

Rating:
Summary: This Book is amazing!!!!!!!
Review: I cannot believe what all these people are talking about! This book is my favorite! Candy is a girl, bored with her small-town life, who finds a magic world. The characters are amazing, the pictures are amazing, the whole book is amazing! A must read!

Rating:
Summary: Let down
Review: This book has amazing imagery and beautiful language, no doubt. But at the end of the novel I felt myself wondering "Why did I read this again?". I enjoyed the use of tie-ins. I liked how all the characters revolved and related to each other. However, I felt that much of the language in the book was quite repetitive in nature. Most of the story line should have progressed a lot faster than it did. When I don't find myself finding time in my day to read a new book- it's usually not a good thing. Overall, this book is o.k. It's not making me want to read the next book in the series.