A review by jobinsonlis
Abarat by Clive Barker

4.25

This is top-shelf teen fantasy to me, the kind that existed before the YA boom made so many YA authors household names and led to blockbuster movies based on their works. If I had read this book when it first came out, I would have been an absolute fiend for it I'm sure, just like I was for Tamora Pierce and Christopher Pike. However I'm kinda glad I didn't read it when it first came out because it would have been maddening to me that it's still not finished over twenty years later. This would have been my Game of Thrones and I don't need that in my life. I'm a big Clive Barker fan in general but I don't think his books for children are well known compared to his adult horror and that's a shame because I think he's really good at it. He strikes a good balance between scary enough that you feel like the good guys are in real danger without being so scary that you just feel sad about it. Your mileage may vary on that of course. I could see people finding Carrion and his grandmother way, way too much for a young adult novel on the younger side of young adult. I liked it but I really liked Return to Oz, a movie that I think hits a lot of the same emotional notes of wonder and horror for me. Anyway, great book and I hope Barker finishes the series someday, preferably before I read the next two and get too invested in what's going to happen next.