Content levels
Trigger warnings
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Synopsis
Candy Quackenbush, a sixteen-year-old girl, is bored with her life and is desperate for something new. She lives in Chickentown, Minnesota, has a drunkard father, and is often made fun of by other kids. One day at school, a strange image enters her head, and she draws it in a textbook. When her teacher notices, she is furious, and Candy has the sudden impulse to simply walk out of school. She wanders around town before coming to a vast field with an old lighthouse, and wonders why there would be a lighthouse where there is no sea for thousands of miles. She soon has her answer. Candy is thrust into the Abarat, a fantastic archipelago of twenty-five islands: one for each hour of the day, plus one extra: the mysterious Time Out of Time. Candy feels as if this place is familiar to her, and makes many friends, but all is not well: Christopher Carrion, Prince of Midnight, is pursuing her. Candy must find her place in this strange new world.
Is Abarat appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 13 and up.
This imaginative portal fantasy features a teen protagonist escaping a troubled home life for a surreal archipelago. Expect dark fantasy elements and pursuit by a villainous prince, with Clive Barker's signature macabre imagery.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include child abuse, addiction, and abandonment.
Who'll love this
Teens will love this wildly imaginative escape into a magical world where each island exists in a different hour of the day.