Abarat: The Abarat Trilogy, Book 1 - Clive Barker
Travelogue of the weird for kid fantasy fans.
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- Author:Clive Barker
- # of pages: 414
- Publisher:HarperCollins Children's Books
- Original Publication Date: 02/15/2004
- Genre: Fiction - Fantasy
- Hardcover: $24.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 10-14
- Read Aloud: 9+
- Read Alone: 10+
- ISBN: 0060280921
Parents need to know
Families can talk about the thin plot. Is the descriptive adventure satisfying, or do you prefer stories with tighter plots? What would you hope to see in subsequent books in this series?
Message
Social Behavior:
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Some drunkenness.
Violence
Fantasy violence, but some quite bloody. References to Candy being abused by her father. Not really, but Barker's imagination leans to the grotesque. Candy is often in danger.
Sex
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Amy Brotman
She soon discovers that this land is the Abarat, a chain of 25 islands, each existing in a different unchanging hour of the day (and one mysterious extra island), inhabited by a multiplicity of strange creatures, from John Mischief, who has seven brothers growing out of his horns, to Christopher Carrion, who wears a high translucent collar filled with nightmares swimming in blue fluid.
Is it any good?
Candy is pursued through this strange world by the minions of Carrion, but the plot, as in Alice in Wonderland, is mainly an excuse for an excursion through the fertile and bizarre imagination of the author, an imagination considerably edgier and more gruesome than Carroll's. This first book gives every indication of an author obsessed: he spins out ideas, creatures, and places with a reckless abandon that indicates he's just getting warmed up. In addition to more than 400 pages of text (including a 25 page appendix with information on each of the islands), Barker has created over 100 vividly colorful illustrations. When the book first came out there was a free poster-map of the world available at bookstores, and there is an interactive version on the website (http://www.harperchildren.com/abarat), though why they didn't print the map on the endpapers is a mystery in an otherwise gorgeous and lavishly produced book.
Such plot as there is meanders around considerably, and there are no characters vivid enough for readers to identify with or care much about. This is a book that appeals to children who like to be fascinated, rather than emotionally invested. Though the story lacks the heart (and the satisfyingly tight plotting) of the best children's books, children with a taste for the wild and grotesque will by enthralled by this travelogue of the weird.
Other choices
Also by Clive Barker:
The Thief of Always
Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War: The Abarat Trilogy, Book 2
Other Fantasy Travelogues
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Parents and kids say
All Reviews
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Adult Reviews
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