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A review by alibrareads
Abarat: Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker
4.0
My feelings about this third book are all over the place but are still biased towards wanting to love it overall because of the immense goodwill I have for the first book. Of the three, this one has the darkest writing so far. There are some scary and disturbing imagery and scenes, so if you’re someone who scares easily or is disgusted easily, you might not enjoy this.
It still has that dreamy and otherworldly quality to it that I adore, and you have to just go along for the ride and not think too hard about it. That is definitely something that can be criticized about the book though: there is a lot of stuff happening, and some of it feels like it comes out of nowhere and the reader is expected to just accept it. Many things brought up in previous books are addressed here, so I have to assume that the same goes for this book: there are two books left in the series, and there are still unanswered questions that are almost off-putting because Clive Barker just moves forward without even vaguely trying to explain them (like, what the heck is up with the character Gazza?!).
Most of the characters are still 2-dimensional, except Candy. If you’re a character-driven reader, hopefully by now you’re not still trying to push your way through this series and have already stopped reading because Abarat is really all about the setting and the world-building.
And I’m really confused about Christopher Carrion to be honest! He started out as the villain, a little sympathetic which I liked, but his characterization fluctuates throughout the second and third book to the point where I don’t even know how to feel about him anymore. Who is he? What motivates him? Is he crazy or is he not? Am I supposed to like/care about him or not? And that was frustrating, because Carrion was my favorite character in the first book, and it feels like he was done dirty by the author not really knowing what to do with him.
And then there’s Boa: I’m led to believe certain things about her, and then they’re turned upside down in a confusing way and I still don’t understand what she’s about/why she is the way she is. It doesn’t feel good as the reader to not understand the characters you’re reading about or their motivations in this way.
There are some really cool and intense sequences that are gritty and dark and full of magic and excitement, so I did have run reading this overall. You have to be okay with the Alice In Wonderland type of story that this is: the dreaminess, the surrealism, the characters and the dialogue that aren’t particularly realistic. All I can say is I hope I managed to wait long enough to finally read this that I’m not left waiting a decade for the next book!
It still has that dreamy and otherworldly quality to it that I adore, and you have to just go along for the ride and not think too hard about it. That is definitely something that can be criticized about the book though: there is a lot of stuff happening, and some of it feels like it comes out of nowhere and the reader is expected to just accept it. Many things brought up in previous books are addressed here, so I have to assume that the same goes for this book: there are two books left in the series, and there are still unanswered questions that are almost off-putting because Clive Barker just moves forward without even vaguely trying to explain them (like, what the heck is up with the character Gazza?!).
Most of the characters are still 2-dimensional, except Candy. If you’re a character-driven reader, hopefully by now you’re not still trying to push your way through this series and have already stopped reading because Abarat is really all about the setting and the world-building.
And I’m really confused about Christopher Carrion to be honest! He started out as the villain, a little sympathetic which I liked, but his characterization fluctuates throughout the second and third book to the point where I don’t even know how to feel about him anymore. Who is he? What motivates him? Is he crazy or is he not? Am I supposed to like/care about him or not? And that was frustrating, because Carrion was my favorite character in the first book, and it feels like he was done dirty by the author not really knowing what to do with him.
And then there’s Boa: I’m led to believe certain things about her, and then they’re turned upside down in a confusing way and I still don’t understand what she’s about/why she is the way she is. It doesn’t feel good as the reader to not understand the characters you’re reading about or their motivations in this way.
There are some really cool and intense sequences that are gritty and dark and full of magic and excitement, so I did have run reading this overall. You have to be okay with the Alice In Wonderland type of story that this is: the dreaminess, the surrealism, the characters and the dialogue that aren’t particularly realistic. All I can say is I hope I managed to wait long enough to finally read this that I’m not left waiting a decade for the next book!