Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Abarat
    Unavailable
    Abarat
    Unavailable
    Abarat
    Ebook458 pages7 hours

    Abarat

    By Clive Barker

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Clive Barker, author of The Thief of Always, delivers an epic battle filled with fantasy and adventure that readers won't want to put down!

    A journey beyond imagination is about to unfold...

    It begins in Chickentown, USA. There lives Candy Quackenbush, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future might hold.

    When the answer comes, it’s not one she expects.

    Welcome to the Abarat, a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day. Candy has a place in this extraordinary land: She is here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart—forces older than Time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered. She’s a strange heroine, she knows. But this is a strange world.

    And in the Abarat, all things are possible.

    Don't miss this first book in Clive Barker's New York Times bestselling Abarat series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 30, 2011
    ISBN9780062044013
    Author

    Clive Barker

    Clive Barker was born in Liverpool in 1952. His earlier books include ‘The Books of Blood’, ‘Cabal’, and ‘The Hellbound Heart’. In addition to his work as a novelist and playwright, he also iilustrates, writes, directs and produces for stage and screen. His films include ‘Hellraiser’, ‘Hellbound’, ‘Nightbreed’ and ‘Candyman’. Clive lives in Beverly Hills, California.

    Read more from Clive Barker

    Related to Abarat

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rock Hard

      Sep 10, 2020

      Rock Hard
      7 min read

    • Article

      Skein Is land

      Nov 6, 2019

      Skein Is land
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tempting Fate

      May 11, 2023

      Read about sailing all your life and you won’t find another book quite like Bound for Cape Horn, with its interesting subtitle Skills for Expedition Cruising. Any suggestion this might be yet another text book on how to do it is dissipated in the ope

      7 min read

    • Article

      Since Boats Was Boats

      Nov 5, 2020

      Monica Edwards First published 1955 (o.p.) Most recent edition ggbp.co.uk The sails were going up, warm red-brown against the grey. Rissa was at the jib, pulling it up to a cheerfully gasped rendition of ‘Hanging Johnny’. The mizzen was already up; t

      4 min read

    • Article

      Holding Power

      Sep 11, 2020

      Holding Power
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Tale of Captain Raisinfingers

      Sep 1, 2022

      The Tale of Captain Raisinfingers
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Eye Of The Needle

      Dec 9, 2019

      The Eye Of The Needle
      9 min read

    • Article

      Sailing In The South Pacific

      Sep 3, 2020

      Sailing In The South Pacific
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sabotage In Stormy Seas

      May 23, 2019

      THE SHADOW IN THE SANDS First published by Headline in 1998. Currently available via Kindle, £4.64 Gloria was thundering under bare poles into a night no less black than when I had last seen it. The wind felt softer, which is always the way when that

      4 min read

    • Article

      From The Summit To The Sea

      Aug 5, 2022

      From The Summit To The Sea
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Galápagos Mermaid

      Apr 1, 2023

      The Galápagos Mermaid
      9 min read

    • Article

      Baptisism By Fire

      Sep 26, 2023

      Baptisism By Fire
      10 min read

    • Article

      Queen Of Salt

      Feb 6, 2020

      Queen Of Salt
      10 min read

    • Article

      WILD EYES & RESTLESS WINDS

      Oct 4, 2017

      We’d taken refuge in the harbour. Westerly gales and westerly swell roared east across the Pentland Firth, the notoriously dangerous stretch of water situated just north of Scotland. Even the tide was emptying from Northern Atlantic to North Sea – ev

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Spotted People In The Water, Fighting For Their Lives’

      Dec 7, 2023

      Under reefed mainsail and engine we were heading westwards, close to the rocky cliffs off the French south coast, east of Marseille. In the distance I saw something in the water – some colours, I wasn’t sure what, exactly. I was skippering and helmin

      4 min read

    • Article

      Siren Song

      Aug 27, 2021

      Siren Song
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘They Want To Dream A Little Longer’: The Deep Appeal Of Mermaids

      Oct 26, 2022

      On a sunny Thursday in June, Tinside Lido in Plymouth was flooded with mermaids. It was a sea of metallic shimmer, candyfloss colours, seashell bikinis and long scaly tails. At a count of 378, this was the largest ever gathering of merpeople, accordi

      5 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of ...

      Apr 1, 2019

      Fifteen-year-old Tay lives on Rannoch, a distant planet covered with water, where undersea pods or living chambers provide life support for up to three people—usually two adults and one child. Tay learns that her parents are expecting another child a

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Selkie Moon

      Dec 3, 2020

      The Selkie Moon
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Island Of Many Colors

      Nov 1, 2020

      The Island Of Many Colors
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Shedful Of Adventure

      Jul 14, 2023

      A Shedful Of Adventure
      5 min read

    • Article

      Temptation

      Dec 28, 2021

      Temptation
      6 min read

    • Article

      Where The Land Screams ‘Snipe’

      Oct 14, 2020

      Where The Land Screams ‘Snipe’
      5 min read

    • Article

      A River is Calling

      Sep 5, 2022

      A River is Calling
      10 min read

    • Article

      More Things In Heaven

      Dec 10, 2021

      It’s the deep mid-winter, when sailors check their warps, settle down in lamp-lit saloons, top up their bogey stoves and pour themselves a dram. If they’re in tune with the outside world, they’ll also shut off the flickering screens, kill the music m

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Passage To Greenland

      Oct 16, 2018

      A Passage To Greenland
      8 min read

    • Article

      Life On The Wing

      Nov 12, 2020

      One of the happier surprises in a world of ever-increasing hyperbole is to discover an unassuming book written by a man who has no plans to be Yachtsman of the Year. His boat is unlikely to make headlines, yet his clarity of mind and joie de vivre br

      7 min read

    • Article

      Channel Crossing Mishaps

      Apr 23, 2020

      Channel Crossing Mishaps
      4 min read

    • Article

      Paul Heiney

      Oct 28, 2022

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Abarat

    4/5

    96 ratings47 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      My relationship with Clive Barker's books tends to run hot and cold. I will either finish the book and it will automatically become one of my favourites or I will enjoy it at first but at some point over the course of my reading it becomes tedious and I have trouble finishing it. Well Abarat is a first for me I enjoyed it and I finished it but it's not one of my favourites.Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown Minnesota is bored. She is sick living in an unhappy home, sick of the endless boring prairies and not to mention she HATES chickens. After a disagreement at school over an assignment about Chickentown (but not about chickens) Candy just gets up and walks out of class and out of Chickentown. Once outside the town Candy meets an interesting individual with eight heads (all named John) who gives her a key and charges her with keeping it safe from the creature who has been chasing him or them. Candy jumps at the chance to abandon her previous life and follows the Johns to the world of Abarat which is rapidly heading towards an apocalypse.The world of Abarat is probably the reason this book didn't make it to favourite status. Abarat is absolutly nothing like the world we live in and trying to picture the creatures and lands of this world continously pulled me out of the story. I understand there is an illustrated version of this book and had I read one that I'm sure my final grade would have been different.Candy is a thoroughly likable heroine and I'm looking forward to seeing her character grow over the course of the series. Although she is young and a bit niave she's also got some grit to her and takes everything that happens in stride. The secondary characters (or creatures) even the minor ones have all been very well fleshed out and have obviously come from a very fertile imagination.The plot is quick paced and alot of fun but like I said previously I probably would have enjoyed it more and been more "into" the story had I read the version with the illustrations.All in all I did enjoy the story and will definitly look for the second installment the next time I'm in the book store. If this is your first time trying Clive Barker I would recommend reading the Thief of Always first it is a stand alone young adult fantasy and in my opinion is far more engrossing story.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorites by Barker. The detailed worlds he created and the wonderfully illustrated pages which I flipped back to several times while reading just added to the overall fantasy feel.
    • 5/5
      I love Clive Barker, he is an awesome author, dark, complex and subtle plots blending from extreme horror to fantasy with a dark touch. My favourite Barker trait is that no matter what supernatural or plain unnatural beings are involved it is the humans, or at the least the human aspects that contain the real good and evil .It's at the moments when his protagonists are most like us that we are most appalled and awed by them, and that's a real talent. The Abarat books are childrens/young adult books, the lead character is a young girl and she is drawn out of dull old Chickentown into a strange world with an island for each hour fo the day. Quite aside from the fact that i know drive my fiance mad with the "hamster tree" song every christmas, these books are witty, affectionate, entertaining and dark! I recommend the hardcovers, i wouldn't normally but Barker's art does add something to these books. Go, buy, read, enjoy!
    • 3/5
      This isn't my favorite of Clive Barker's works, but I do love the imaginative world he's created and I enjoyed this book enough that I'll continue on with the next book in the series.

      What would raised my rating of this book? First, a stronger plot - although there are tense moments, much of this book seems to be more about description of the Abaratian world and the characters who inhabit it than about any real action, but I imagine that will change in the next couple books. Second, I think Barker's imagination way overshadows his skills as a writer. Not that he's a bad writer (The DaVinci Code, anyone?), but he's not excellent, either. There are ideas and descriptions that spark my imagination and give me insight I haven't had before, but never turns of phrase or word choices. It's been years since I read Barker's fiction for adult readers, so I am curious if his writing was simplified for the young adult novel, but my husband recently read The Great and Secret Show for the first time and he was not impressed with the writing in that, either.
    • 4/5
      I started reading this book long ago…back in 8th grade. I had no idea there was a second book until a year or so later I was in a bookstore and ran into it. Now, as I wait for the third one (I’m almost out high school, hurry up Clive!) I grow impatient. I really enjoy the mysteries of the book, and even more the artwork. The stories can be a little weak, but I still like reading about all the different characters and the mystical past of the Abarat islands. My dad read the second book and didn’t really enjoy it, though my 8th grade History teacher liked it, so I can’t say whether or not it’s for adults. But either way it’s a great story for kids and can push those young ones who are scared to start a giant book. Great artwork, great characters, great ideas, great read.
    • 5/5
      I was a little thrown off by this book when I saw the cover. My mum bought it for me and I just kept it in a basket because I had no interest in it. Then I had read all my books in my room, except this one, and decided to read it. I saw the cover and thought it was interesting. Now, I love it and when I finished it, the secound book was about to come out, so of course I was over ecstatic! Definitly intersting. I love how Abarat upside down spells Abarat and how the oil paintings were made before the book!
    • 5/5
      Frightening, beautiful, erotic, and totally imaginative. The pictures alone are worth the price.
    • 4/5
      Let me just first say that the illustrations in this book are nothing short of amazing. But, Barker has always been one of my favorite artists, so that didn’t exactly come as a surprise. I get a feeling, though, that the paintings preceded the story, which is an interesting artistic choice in that the text almost comes to illustrate the images, but which makes the text a little lacking in that the story gets “forced” into fitting the images. I love Barker’s worlds - I have since the first time I picked up Books of Blood - and the characters are as imaginative as ever. The one thing I find a little hard to like is that the storyline is so meandering that you easily lose your place in the (sometimes clumsy) transitions and forget what each character’s goal is – and there are a lot of characters to keep track of! My main enjoyment out of the book was to see each new character’s description and the accompanying painting, but the main story didn’t captivate me enormously. It is a YA novel, though, and a YA reader may be a little more forgiving.
    • 4/5
      This book is the first book of the YA series "The Books of Abarat", written and illustrated by the brilliant Clive Barker himself.The series includes the following 5 fantasy novels:> Abarat (2002)> Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004)> Absolute Midnight (2011)> Kry Rising (work-in-progress)> Until The End of Time (forthcoming)In the first book, we're introduced to Candy, a lonely bored girl who decides to explore a brand new world: the exotic and fantastical islands of Abarat, where each island in Abarat represents an hour of the day and is populated with the most different creatures.There, she is hunted down by Lord Midnight, who has a mysterious interest on her, but she has no idea what kind of dark fate she just brought to herself.Abarat is Clive Barker's "children's tale" that has very little of "children" and a lot of dark fantasy & exotic creatures in the colorful yet dark world of Abarat islands.It's darker than Neil Gaiman's books, but can be placed together with his Coraline.It's both Barker's play with Surrealism and his gift to younger readers who, after reading this, will surely want to get a taste of the real thing whenever they can. =D
    • 3/5
      Please keep in mind that this is an adult rating of a children's book. Children have their own compass when it comes to what they do and do not enjoy. My 12-year-old daughter finished this one, but she didn't ask for the second in the series.
    • 3/5
      At first this book held my attention, but it really started to lose me toward the end. Some of the sub stories never really seemed to tie in with the rest of the story. Altogether the story seemed a little choppy, and I was a little disappointed with the flimsy ending.
    • 5/5
      What if your ordinary life turned out to be anything but? That's what happens to Minnesotan teenager Candy Quackenbush when she meets John Mischief in a field one afternoon. He seems normal - aside from having seven talking heads with their own personalities that is. Candy will soon follow Mischief to his world of 25 islands (one for every hour of the day plus a mystical 25th hour).

      You can tell throughout the story what an amazing imagination is present to build such an amazing world. Barker never writes what you expect to happen, and I love that quality in an author. Turning the pages of the Abarat is akin to floating through your own dreams in a half-wake state.

      The story and characters are amazing. A friend suggested Barker to me, and my view of sci-fi / fantasy has never been the same. Abarat holds you spellbound with this fantastical world, and even hoping against reality that it's real. The special editions contain wonderful illustrations.

      I will read anything by Barker because of Abarat. If you're looking for a break from the mundane and ordinary, hop on my sailboat and read along.
    • 4/5
      Do you think Alice in Wonderland is trippy? Think again. Only Clive Barker can write a young adult novel and make it this disturbing. He is a master of all the weird, odd, gross, and secret thoughts that might pass through anyone's mind. This is not as dark as his adult works, but you can taste it from here....Excellent. Looking forward to the second installment.
    • 3/5
      It seems 'too silly' is an odd complaint for a fantasy novel. Strict realism is never expected. Nevertheless, that's my gripe with this one. I wanted to like it. Clive Barker is usually pretty good. His The Thief of Always is one of my favorite ya fantasy novels. But this is, well, less than plot-driven. I'm not sure one thing in this book is ever fully resolved. And all of the characters have this odd, Dave McKean-esque, circus freak quality about them. More members of a dream cast, and less well-thought out denizens of a cohesive fantasy realm. Also, I'm never sure who authors are trying to appeal to when they use nonsensical fantasy words. Just because I'm reading a fantasy novel...I mean, honestly, at what point am I supposed to be able to say things like Yebba Dim Day (the name of one of the islands of Abarat), without feeling anything but utterly ridiculous? Not a bad book, but certainly not stand-alone. It feels like the product of some kind of unholy alliance between Dave McKean, Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton.
    • 4/5
      Abarat is truly a work of art. The setting of the novel is lavish and imaginative, weaving a world that effortlessly combines the surreal with the mundane. The entire novel has a dreamlike quality to it, creating a vibrant and varied universe and filling it with a menagerie of vibrant and diverse beings. Candy is presented as a sympathetic and likable protagonist. Although she did not seem to do much of her own volition within the novel (rather, she just went wherever the story took her), she evidently boasts some hidden strengths that will be developed in future novels and I certainly did not want to see anything bad happen to her.Although I have read this novel several times now and it remains one of my favourite Young Adult fantasy stories, I do have to deduct a star because of the plot. While engaging, it does inevitably build to nothing. The story is more a length introduction to the world of Abarat than a complete tale in its own right, and does not have any kind of satisfactory conclusion.However, this did not detract from the stunning originality of Barker's world and it certainly made me want to read more of Candy's adventures.
    • 5/5
      {WIP} {Warning: Spoilers}Candy Quackenbush isn't like the other residents of Chickentown, Minnesota. While her classmates are going to parties and her neighbors are tending to their lawns Candy is bored sick of her hometown. She wanders in the countryside outside of town, strangely drawn by the scent of the sea, despite being thousands of miles from the ocean. The tide comes in. Candy is swept away by a sentient ocean to another world, called Abarat. Helped out by her new friend, John Mischief, a strange man with his seven brothers attached to his head by tentacle-like necks, Candy is led into the mysterious Abarat, a whole other world on the other side of the magical ocean. The brave girl must escape capture attempts from the disgusting Lord Carrion, save her new friends, and discover what in her past has connected her to the Abarat. Candy's journey of discovery leads back to Chickentown, where her mother is lost in dreams of the stormy night that her daughter was born. Candy isn't just her daughter, she also carries the soul of the Abarat's murdered princess inside her heart, and with it the future of the Abarat.
    • 4/5
      A seemingly ordinary girl gets whisked into an alternate world full of bizarre creatures, which is under attack by the forces of evil, and discovers she's a "chosen one" that must help save the world.
    • 5/5
      Clive Barker's illustrations alone would make this a compelling book for young adults raised in this digital, visual age. Creepy, yet compelling, Barker has created yet another setting where strange monsters like the terrifying Mendelson Shape and the strange, many-headed John Mischief interact with the young woman Candy, who is almost driven to her mundane life in Chickentown. The completely weird archipelego of Abarat is inhabited by more strange beings than most of us imagine in a lifetime. This is the first in a series of a possible four books. I enjoyed this trip into a dream of a book - dream as in the disjointed images and twisted reality that populates a typical night or nightmare. Barker has made his mark in young adult fiction!
    • 5/5
      I really love this book, the illustrations are very colorful and catch your attenion, depicting the scene right before your eyes. it is very fantasy and at times, a little disturbing, Clive Barker, you had better hurry up writing the next two books!
    • 5/5
      Unlike some other reviews, I thought this book was fantastic. The world that Barker has created is new and fresh and has an untold amount of potential. When I read the first book, the second one was already out so I could not wait to finish one and get to the next. The characters are deep and interesting and the tension between Candy Quackenbush and Lord Carrion is thick. It may seem like the first book does not finish much, but this is a four part series and the second book alone ties a lot up. I am eagerly awaiting the 3rd volume.
    • 4/5
      This is the first children's book I have ever read by Clive Barker. I know that he is much more well known for his works of horror. However, I was very impressed by this book.I listened to this book on audio book. The audio book was very well done. I think the guy who read the audio book must be the same person who read Stephen King's Dark Tower series on audio book. At least they sound very similar since I keep getting flashbacks to when I listened to the Dark Tower; maybe it is just that Clive Barker and Stephen King have a somewhat similar writing style. The only bad thing about listening to this on audio book is that I missed out on all the neat color pictures. I have the paper version at home so I still got to see the pictures, just not while I was reading the book.The tone of this book reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland and is, initially, a similar premise. Candy Quackenbush lives in Chickentown, MN and, during an assignment for school to write a paper on interesting things in Chickentown (a decidedly uninteresting town), runs into a mystery concerning a man who committed suicide in a hotel room. A strange nautical device is found in the dresser drawer of this hotel room. Candy finds herself obsessing about the symbols on the device. Candy is fed up with her boring life in Chickentown, her beaten down mother, and her abusive father. After a particularly bad scene in class at school, where Candy gets sent to the principals office, Candy decides to just leave school and go walking. She finds herself in a vast prairie outside of Chickentown. While there she runs into an 8 headed man, John Mischief, and ends up helping him to light the lighthouse in the prairie (which Candy thought was an abandoned building). Following some crazy events Candy finds herself swept off to Abarat and swept into a crazy adventure there.This was a really great book. It is wildly imaginative and full of non-stop action. I loved the way Candy accepted her adventures with ease (since *anything* is better than Chickentown). I also loved the numerous quirky characters that Candy ran into along the way. Candy seems to have a knack for getting people's attention and getting drawn into trouble. There are tons of interesting good and neutral characters in this book. There are also some very interesting villains. The villians in this book are particularly special. There are numerous levels of evil, making you wonder who the *real* villain is. All of the villains have a lot of depth to them, you can see multiple sides to their character. This makes them seem somehow less ultimately evil but more scary and unpredictable.The description in the book is wonderful. The plotline rolls along gracefully taking Candy from one adventure to the next. Even though many different characters are introduced and interact with Candy, none of it seems forced.The only disappointment I had with this book was that I thought that the storyline with John Mischeif didn't get much closure; I am sure this storyline will be revisited in the next book. I am also curious as to what is happening back in Chickentown; does Candy's mother know she is missing?This was a great book. I would read it to slightly older children though since at times it is very violent and it deals with issues of suicide and torture at points. Great book, I am excited to read the next one.
    • 4/5
      The first time I started to read this book I was twelve years old and it scared me so badly I had to stop. Now that I'm older, this book seems a lot less frightening, but just as interesting. Barker's inventiveness in creating characters to inhabit his fictional land is awe-inspiring, and his illustrations fit the story beautifully. Most compelling is the character of the villain, Christopher Carrion. Though this books serves as little more than an introduction for the world of Abarat and a set up for the rest of the series, it is very entertaining in its own right.
    • 2/5
      My middle school students love this book, and the library's teen advisory board elected it a "Best Book," but I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan. The book works along similar lines to The Phantom Tollbooth, in that a disaffected young person ends up in a fantastical land that follows a sort of surreal logic. Clive Barker does not make as much use of the imaginary world's logical frame (islands that each exist in a certain hour of the day) as he might, and as a result the series of adventures don't seem as coherent as The Phantom Tollbooth's does. Still, the imaginative creatures and the illustrations that accompany the text really intrigue young readers.The writing is a little inconsistent as well. In several places there are random vocabulary words thrown that don't fit in with the surrounding language, and the reliance on some stereotypes (the unsympathetic teacher, for one) does not allow for as much acute social observation as other books for young adults (like Tangerine).
    • 5/5
      The Abarat is an odd sort of world, a world where anything and everything is possible. Candy Quackenbush, the main character, ends up in the Abarat, seemingly by accident. The book covers her adventures through the world. The paintings distribuited throughout the text are wonderful and add tremendously to the quality of the book. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that this is one of the best books i've read all year.
    • 5/5
      Born from the wicked imagination of Clive Barker, Abarat more like a fantasy than a horror story. It's a pity because my favourites are his older horror books but whatever.... Abarat IS a gerat book with great characters and great story.
    • 4/5
      i gave up on clive barker for a while. abarat grabbed my attention. i'm glad i picked up this slightly surreal adventure.
    • 4/5
      One of the most creative books I've read in quite some time. The illustrations really do add a lot to the story and help one to vividly imagine the world being described. Very enjoyable and I look forward to continuing the series!
    • 1/5
      I started this book with mixed feelings. The cover and the illustrations inside didn't agree with me. The first chapter of the book was situated in the fantasy world of Abarat and serves as a teaser. What follows is the first part of the book. Here we return to Earth and meet Candy Quackenbusch, a young girl living in Chickentown, Minnesota.Now I have to admit I stopped reading after the first two chapters. This doesn't happen often, but the style and the creatures that start to appear about then didn't do it for me. It is supposed to be a good book, but it isn't my taste. Try it for yourself and make your own judgement.
    • 5/5
      Characters: Heck yeah. Imaginative, deep, and interesting. Even (and especially) the main villian is interesting and multi-dimensional.Setting: See above.Illustrations: Simply amazing. Barker is amazing.Plot: The only reason that I dinged Abarat a 1/2 star was because the plot takes a bit to get into (though the beginning makes a bit more sense after reading the second book), and, at times, you can lose track of what exactly the protagonist's goal is.Overall: Highly recommended, am looking forward to the next book.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those rare post-Harry Potter fantasy books that can stand on its own; it's a great read! Abarat has a great combination of real life emotions and unique quirks in all of the characters. Candy Quackenbush, the heroine, is completely believable and her adventures through the land of Abarat just drew me in.Clive Barker has created such an amazing magical world: the realms of Abarat, a collection of islands. Each island has its own personality-- and time of the day-- which makes the land truly original.Recommendation: This book is a thrilling read for any fantasy-lover, and the wonderful illustrations make the book a good family-read-aloud book. Enjoy Abarat!