Abarat is a real gem by the horror master Clive Barker. A modern day fairytale that has equal doses of magic and horror. The hero of the book is Candy Quackenbush, a teenage girl with heterochromia(her eyes are different colours) who is bored out of her mind about everything in her hometown Chickentown, Minnesota. After fighting with a her teacher, she leaves the school wanders to the edge of Chickentown where she sees the remains of a lighthouse which is extremely peculiar since there's no sea anywhere around. There she meets the strangest creature ever, John Mischief, who's pursued by a villain. By a series of weird events, Candy leaves her world and ends up in Abarat that consists of twentyfive islands, each representing/living in a different time of the day.
Magical places, beautiful creatures and bloodfreezing enemies fill this unique masterpiece. One book where you finally like the villain without him being a stud. I highly recommend it to both fairytale and horror lovers, it's a book that will suck you in and you won't be able to easily put it away. A pleasure as a read and as imagery as it is illustrated by Clive Barker himself.
The book has a sequel called Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, and will possibly be followed by three more.
