Abarat

Rating:
Summary: The Amazing Abarat
Review: This was an AMAZING book. There is no other word that could possibly be used to describe it. I have (so far) read it 5 times (actualy I'm currently re-reading it, 5th time!) and I haven't gotten bored of it yet. I have fallen in love with the story of Candy Quackenbush and her adventures in the Abarat. The only part that I didn't like? The book is begging for a sequel. LUCKILY there will be one, at least that is the conclusion I derived from it's official website. (Its a good site- if youre at all passionate about the Abarat, check it out!) The illustrations are beautiful. ..., its fun to have pictures without losing quality in the writing. Though this book is simple enough for anyone to understand, even if you are reading at a college level, it casts you under its spell. Oh, I've thought of another bad part! Disney's making a movie, which I can practically guarentee will not live up to the potential. I am very disappointed in Clive Barker- this book inspired us to use our imaginations, and now, we will be told what to think about it from a half-baked movie from Disney. But thats just my opinion. Anyways, only more point about the magic of Abarat. Have you looked at the title, on the cover or front page of the book? Flip it over. Notice anything? This is a truly magical book- I guarentee you'll love it. And if you dont, sorry, but I think you have bad taste.

Rating:
Summary: Oh Woe is me, oh woe is me, I used to have a Hamster Tree!!
Review: This story is amazing! When I ordered this book, I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, it looked interesting enough, so I gave it a try. Boy was I surprised when I opened the book and found that it was filled with imaginative and colourful drawings, that helped me to no end while reading the story. There is so much imagination in this story and in its characters and settings that I think even I might have had a hard time understanding without the illustrations! Candy is a very likable heroine, and the jethrat Malingo, is my favourite character, although he isn't introduced until halfway through.

The ending is nice, and it is left with major strings untied, so it is obvious that this won't be the last book about Candy's adventures in the Abarat. This novel has depth, colour, and fun little rhymes speckled throughout and is amazing to no end. I highly suggest that you find yourself a copy and indulge in a good fantasy, and once you do, you'll be as impatient as I am waiting for Book 2 to come out!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: This was a good book with a discriptive story that takes you into another world. You really get to know the characters and their motives. I look forward to reading the continuation of this story.

Rating:
Summary: The Phantom Tollbooth: updated and improved a thousand fold!
Review: This book is amazing. THIS IS NEW. None of this has been tried before, although it is all so close to your heart when you are finished that it feels as if you have thought of it yourself. Clive Barker started painting. He let his ideas flow. He has now painted over 300 paintings, plenty of which were already finished by the time he even started writing.
Candy is like every girl I know in some way.
I was not reading a book. I was travelling through unknown territory. I hate the publisher for producing books only every two years, but I love them for publishing this book at all.
Do not listen to those who compare this book to Harry Potter. It is geared towards an older audience. It is incomparable. They are nothing the same, and AT LEAST equally fun to read.
Abarat is my dream come true. Abarat will be yours if you take the time to try it.

Rating:
Summary: Abarat
Review: The book Abarat is definitely the most interesting book I have ever read. There is always something exciting happening; I just could not put it down. I really love the creatures in this story, especially the Tarrie Cats and the Sea-Skippers, which are just some of the many interesting creatures you meet in the story.
Set in Chickentown, Minnesota (whether it is a place or not), you read as Candy Quackenbush begins her long adventure as she travels to Abarat on a wave and a prayer.
As the first book in the series, this is only the beginning of Candy's adventure through this new and different world.
The author, Clive Barker is an acclaimed artist who filled the pages of his story with color pictures. It took him four long years just to complete the illustrations-just in the first book! There are in fact over 100 of them. It really helps you envision these amazing creatures he has created. I think it adds character and its own originality to the story. Clive Barker makes the book colorful and even more interesting. If you're anything like me, you will be paging through the book pondering what the pictures could mean, thus, making you want to read it even more.
So far as you read this review, I would believe that you are thinking that this book seems childish and immature, but I assure you, it is really a fantastic book. I'm sure you can argue the fact that it's about a number of made up creatures in a different world, and it has color pictures! It that really such a terrible thing?
I wouldn't recommend this book for adults. I don't think they would really like it, but not necessarily for young children either because I think the context of the story would be much to complex for the likes of a younger child.
A fantasy story with just a touch of mythology makes this book something you would definitely want to read over and over again. Hopefully you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: So I bought this book for its cover...
Review: ...so call me shallow! But the roughly 100 colorful oilpaintings gracing this book's glossy pages are marvelous! It is certainly a beautiful book to look at.

Unfortunately, this only conceals the sloppy prose and absence of plot for the first third of the stoy. It was this first third I enjoyed most: the main character Candy Quackenbush doing research on her home of Chickentown, Henry Murkit's mysterious suicide, Candy's escape from classroom to prarie. I loved how, as she walks toward a windswept ridge, she begins to find pottery shards, shells and dry fish carcasses. An ocean in Minnasota?? But then...the book gets a bit weird. Umm, make that a LOT weird, as in hallucinatory drug-induced weird. Sea skippers? I can buy that. A 7-headed fugitive? Okay... But as for squid-goggles, crawling disembodied eyes and a glass-jar-headed villain??? Over-the-top craziness with no semblence of structure!

Arabat is a fantasy world with no rhyme, reason or rules. Anything the author can mentally conjure up goes. But what bugged me most was that the main character Candy had no motivation or quest in Arabat except to stay out of the way of Lord Midnight. She wanders (or floats) about aimlessly, wondering "why am I here?" The question is never answered...neither does she grow or undergo any sort of change for the better. I was starting to think she deserved to be sent back to Chickentown USA. Maybe an actual plot will be revealed in book two of the series, but I hardly have the patience to find out.

Rating:
Summary: Is this really for kids?
Review: Wow, this would have scared the bejesus out of me at any age under ten. The paintings alone could have done it. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book and think it gives some hope (albeit unrealisticly) to people living boring or difficult lives. It may just be to scary for little kids. Now if your into kids books that aren't really for kids or books that have multiple layers for kids and adults this is just the thing for you. At the very least it will hold you over until the next Harry Potter book.

Also, (...)All the pages are laminated and their are tons of color pictures. Why do most paper back books cost from $14 to upto $22 (House of Leaves, anyone?) and have plain paper and no illustrations? Other publishers could learn a lesson from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Sheer Artistry
Review: ..and I'm not just referring to the pictures. Clive Barker's book, ABARAT, is an extreme change in topic from his usual thrillers and horror novels. However, ABARAT makes you wonder why he took so darn long to write a fantasy.
ABARAT is a book that sweeps you away before you even realize it. The heroine is a normal, everyday girl who just happens to stumble across a lighthouse in the middle of the prarie while being pursued by a monster. Typical really!! She is swept off by an ocean that comes out of the sky to the islands of the Abarat, an archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day. This is where the true magic begins.
Clive Barker paints a very realistic picture of a girl lost in a strange new world. His descriptions are vibrant, his characters deep, their actions thought provoking. Every hour has a distinct feel to it, that is only heightened by the gorgeous paintings that pop out of every page. This is what ALL picture books should look like!!! The only disappointment in the whole book was the last page... "so ends the first book of the Abarat." The "ends" part is what sucks.... (tee hee)
Abarat is addictive, you'll want to buy a copy for every friend you know, so they can share the magic too. Can't wait for the second one!!!

Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the Abarat
Review: How would you feel if you were suddenly whisked away to a magical place separate from your own world? This is what happened to Candy Quackenbush in Abarat. In this magical world, the only land mentioned in the book is an archipelago called the Abarat. The Abarat is made up of 25 islands, each representing a different hour of the day, the 25th representing a "time out of time." After being criticized for her report in school, Candy runs away from school and out of her boring town. In the prairie just outside her town, she meets a strange creature with eight heads. He leads her into the Abarat, where she goes on numerous adventures to stop the evil Christopher Carrion from taking over all the Abarat.

I really liked this book and think it is memorable. I would give it 4 ½ stars. It was a great book, but wasn't the best book I've ever read. It has great description, especially of the weird characters, and crazy landscapes of the islands. This really helped me to visualize the strange world this book is in. Another thing that really made this book good was that it connected with our world. Candy Quackenbush comes from a small town called Chickentown, Minnesota. I like books that do this because it allows me to see where such a world would connect to ours. Further adding to the rich description of the book, in the early history of Chickentown, the sea, which is the connection between the Abarat and our world, was open, and people traded between the two worlds. Candy, the protagonist, is a very strong character. In the beginning of the book, she runs away from school. This is a brave display of insubordination. One of the reasons she did this was because she had been imagining about the sea for some time, but didn't actually know there was one until she met the strange eight-headed creature, later introduced as John. She also is calm even in such situations where her life is in danger. Candy is unique because she doesn't follow trends just because they are trends. In chickentown, the trend is chicken. Candy, however, doesn't like chicken. She thinks and knows that there is more to life than just chicken. That is probably another reason why she ran away. In conclusion, I would give this book 4 ½ stars.

One key scene in the novel is when she first meats John. They both then have to run away from a giant sword-bearing creature, and John is the main target. He instructs Candy to go up in an old skeleton of a lighthouse, which looks like it could fall apart at any moment. Candy goes up, shortly after followed by the giant. John tells her how to conjure the sea. The sea magically appears, and Candy and John barely escape with their lives. Another scene was when Candy was on one of the 25 islands of the Abarat. She met a man who turned out to be very evil. After a few drinks of alcohol, the man was subdued, allowing Candy and the man's slave to escape. But, once out of the house, there was trouble. Creatures called Terrie Cats, almost life size cats, were prowling around. It was much to Candy's surprise when the head of the Terrie Cats came up and introduced himself to Candy. Apparently, the Terrie Cats were friendly and were only evil to the man because they were guarding him under house arrest. Those two scenes really stuck to my mind because they were clever, well thought out, and fun to picture.

In conclusion, this was a very memorable book because it had wonderful imagery, flowing and rich descriptions, and a magical world just within belief. I would recommend this book for a reader who doesn't like fantasy. Even though this book is fantasy, there is something that makes it believable, perhaps the connections between the Abarat and our world. I myself hate fantasy and thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once again, this is a very memorable book that will make great reading material for any reader. So, next time you are hunting for a great book to read by yourself or for school, check out Abarat and look forward to starting even the first sentence.

Rating:
Summary: A Treat For All!
Review: I kept delaying buying this, kept looking at it in stores, turning it over and reading the dustjacket blurb. Finally I just took the plunge, thought "It's Clive Barker, what the hey" and bought it. Boy am I glad I did, and also glad I didn't wait around for the paperback to come out.
I became a little cautious reading the first page and started thinking maybe I was a little too old for this, but there was a connection with Candy Quackenbush - I knew what she felt like because I'd been there too, not many years ago. Anyway, I'm not going to go into depth about plot (others before have been kind enough to do that for me) but I will say this: it's imaginative, colourful, funny, disturbing, and a damn fine read.
The hardback is great to have, it was a pleasure to turn the glossy pages and unexpectedly be met with beautiful colour illustrations. I felt a great disappointment when I got to the end and realised that I had to wait for the next book to come out!
This is one of those books that you'll buy for your child only to find you can't tear yourself away from it! I hope the next instalment is just as enjoyable!