Continuing on the theme of works of art beginning with the letter “A” (for two hundred, Alex), I cannot highly enough recommend Clive Barker’s Abarat. I’ll have to wait for the next three books in the series before I’m sure, but Abarat<\/i> is a masterpiece.<\/p>\n
It’s a young adult novel but not in the alliterative silly-names genre of young adult novels like the early Harry Potter books; Abarat<\/i> is a great story that happens to be written with young adults in mind like Alice In Wonderland<\/i> or, dare I say, the later Harry Potter books.<\/p>\n
Abarat<\/i> was, as I mentioned, written by Clive Barker who is perhaps best known as an author in the horror genre. Abarat<\/i>, though, like Barker’s own Imajica<\/i> is not a work of horror but is instead a journey through a wholey unique world that Barker created hundreds of abstract-ish paintings in order to illustrate (and to facilitate the novel’s (novels’?) own creation).<\/p>\n
I said a “wholey unique world” and I imagine that some of you scoffed but, really, I’ve never encountered anything like this before. While fantasy worlds tend to be built around preexisting mythologies (e.g., Tolkien’s Middlearth, J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts and sundries, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials<\/i> trilogy, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman<\/i> and so forth) Abarat<\/i> seems to have been constructed from previously untapped images and ideas.<\/p>\n
The story, so far, follows a fairly standard Alice In Wonderland<\/i>-esque journey with a young girl, Candy, being transported from our world into a bizarre and magic other world. It’s the world that astounds, but I have to say that the thing that most sealed the book for me was the way that the characters were well-developed and realistic. From Candy herself, who has real-life problems (an alcoholic father as compared to, say, living under the stairs) and behaves in a real way. She’s smart, resourceful, and I think would make a wonderful role-model for girls because she’s anything but a passive airhead who stumbles around until some man comes along to save her.<\/p>\n
The supporting characters are equally well-drawn. There’s John Mischief, a man whose seven brothers live on the tines of his antlers. Each of those brothers has a distinct personality, as does John Mischief, and yet their symbiosis even on an emotional level is unmistakable. There’s Mendelson Shape, the fully fleshed-out dark servant that so many stories try for and fail to create (and I have to say that I think Mendelson Shape is one of the greatest names I’ve ever encountered). Then there’s Christopher Carrion, a great female ship captain, a sorcerer with seven hats, and the greedy overlord of 3 A.M.<\/p>\n
Ahem… I think I’m finished gushing, now. Suffice to say, I very highly recommend purchasing a copy of Abarat<\/i> and giving it a chance. The only thing I regret about the book is that fewer boys will read it because its main character is a girl..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Continuing on the theme of works of art beginning with the letter “A” (for two hundred, Alex), I cannot highly enough recommend Clive Barker’s Abarat. I’ll have to wait for the next three books in the series before I’m sure, … Continue reading