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A review by haley_j_casey
Abarat: Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker
3.0
Eh.
This could have been a really cool story laced with Candy's confusion and emotional state after she's torn from Boa and realizes that pieces of herself weren't her after all. Instead, Barker skipped past all that nonsense and didn't dwell on it for an instant. Something that could have brought depth to his amazing heroine was abandoned in favor of instalove--a trap Candy had NOT fallen into yet in the series which made her even more awesome.
I felt like this book, much as I love Barker's writing and magic and other worlds, left behind the epic fantasy of the rest of the series without much explanation and expected cool magic to fill in the gaps. I had higher hopes. It lacked the emotional depth it should have had in everything from love to loss.
Also, literally no one ever dies. Not the good guys, not the bad guys... I'm a little exhausted by the constant, miraculous, magical escapes from death's clutches.
The cover under the dust jacket is very pretty, however, and that makes me feel a little better. As does the fact that the first half of this book was excellent, as does the fact that there is a fourth book in the works that will (God willing) answer some questions and do it well.
This could have been a really cool story laced with Candy's confusion and emotional state after she's torn from Boa and realizes that pieces of herself weren't her after all. Instead, Barker skipped past all that nonsense and didn't dwell on it for an instant. Something that could have brought depth to his amazing heroine was abandoned in favor of instalove--a trap Candy had NOT fallen into yet in the series which made her even more awesome.
I felt like this book, much as I love Barker's writing and magic and other worlds, left behind the epic fantasy of the rest of the series without much explanation and expected cool magic to fill in the gaps. I had higher hopes. It lacked the emotional depth it should have had in everything from love to loss.
Also, literally no one ever dies. Not the good guys, not the bad guys... I'm a little exhausted by the constant, miraculous, magical escapes from death's clutches.
The cover under the dust jacket is very pretty, however, and that makes me feel a little better. As does the fact that the first half of this book was excellent, as does the fact that there is a fourth book in the works that will (God willing) answer some questions and do it well.