466 reviews for:

Abarat

Clive Barker

4.02 AVERAGE


Marvelous and yet also a little rocky. Very Clive. Very imaginative, with truly bright highs, and scary dark lows. I am still charmed by it. I'm glad the monkey pants is liking it too, since there are two more books to read. On we go!

At the beginning of the book, I read it like a parent, concerned about a girl who ends up in another world all alone. But by the end I didn’t care at all, I just wanted to finish and read something better.

It has all the makings of an epic adventure. Girl from Minnesota ends up in another land with fantastic creatures. But it’s weirdly boring. I didn’t care about the characters at all.

And it ends abruptly with tons of loose ends. What about the key? What happens to some of the “people” she meets. Why does she feel like she is from Abarat? Don’t know and I won’t be reading the sequels to find out.

There have been very few authors I have found that can pull off the name "Candy". This is an intriguing story that is filled with elusive and gorgeous detail that makes me want to dive right into the Abarat and sail across the Izabella. I loved the detail and fantastical characters, such as John Mischief and his seven brothers, Malingo, and Christopher Carrion. Not to mention the unique writing style and the original concept. However, I thought the pace of the book was a little slow. Perhaps it didn't quite pique my interest as the current time I read it, because it was a truly amazing book, but some parts seemed a lot more backstory than anything that moved the plot forward. Still, awesome book and I can't wait to read the second one!

I very rarely re-read books but I've read this one more times than I can count. This is one of those books that made me who I am.

I got the third book for as a present and decided to go back and red the first two, just because it had been a long time since reading them. Abarat was just as good as I remember it being! It takes you to such a magical world that is a bit more scary than the average YA books you find. I could not stop reading after I picked the book up, and still found myself on the edge of my seat when Candy was in trouble even though I knew what happened because I had read it before. I even liked how the book ends, because even though it is not much of an ending to all the problems it made me excited to start the next book in the series!
adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

3.5 stars

(2019 Epic Reads Weekly Challenge #48: Read a book with an illustrated cover.)
adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No