Abarat

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Abarat is an as-yet unfinished Young Adult fantasy quintet (of which so far only the first three books, Abarat, Days of Magic, Nights of War, and Absolute Midnight have appeared) written and illustrated by one Clive Barker.

Yes, that Clive Barker.

The books follow the adventures of a young woman named Candy Quackenbush. She hails from the small town of Chickentown, Minnesota, a tiny burg with a higher population of its eponymous fowl than people. She longs for something more than her small-town life, but doesn't know where to find it. One day, a strange compulsion grips her, and she races to the outskirts of town. There, she finds a strange man named John Mischief, whose brothers live as heads sprouting out of his impressive antlers, who is running from a strange, gaunt man named Shape. But through the powers of a magical lighthouse, she manages to summon a sea from nowhere--and from there, she is carted off to the Abarat. The Abarat is an archipelago where every island is an hour of the day, and it is full of strange, wonderful creatures. But sinister beings lurk in the shadows, and they have impure designs on Candy...

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the books is that they are all lavishly illustrated by Clive Barker himself with hundreds of full-color paintings, on glossy paper. They're a visual trip as well as a mental one. While Vanilla Edition, non-illustrated print runs of the books have been made, the pictures are part of the fun.

Tropes used in Abarat include:
  • Abaratians Speaking English: Justified since it's the Common Tongue, although there are some other languages.
  • Abusive Parents: Candy's father is abusive to everyone in the household.
  • Adipose Rex: King Claus, after the death of his beloved daughter.
  • Aerith and Bob: Often of the normal first name, strange last name variety like Candy Quackenbush, John Mischief (and all his brothers), and Christopher Carrion. Then there are just the strange ones, like Tropella and Izarith.
  • Alien Sky: Despite seeing the antlered John Mischief and his seven brothers, the fish-human Sea Skippers, and the summoning of the Sea of Izabella, it's the unrecognizable stars in the sky that really hits home for Candy that she's in another world.
  • Amazing Technicolor World: The Abarat and its 25 islands.
  • And I Must Scream: The dolls that Mater Motley's dress are made out of are alive.
  • Anti-Villain: Christopher Carrion. Played with, as his Character Development makes him swing wildly:
  • Apocalypse How: As of Absolute Midnight, at least a Regional Catastrophe. Mater Motley releases the sacbrood, which blot out the Abarat's sky. The resulting darkness wakes a metric ton of Eldritch Abominations, which rampage unchecked over several of the islands. Thousands die. It's heavily implied over the course of the book that it's only going to get worse.
  • Artificial Human: Some of the stitchlings are fairly close. Also the Kid of Commexo.
  • Become a Real Boy: What Rojo Pixler wants for the Conjuration of Life for--to give life to the Commexo Kid.
  • Bigger Bad: As of Absolute Midnight, the Nephauree.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Princess Boa. People rhapsodize about her in glowing terms, painting a picture of someone who was incredibly kind, gentle and loving. In Absolute Midnight, the truth is revealed and it turns out that it was a MASSIVE ruse on Boa's part.
  • Body Horror
  • Cats Are Mean: The tarrie-cats. Nope, they were just trying to stop Candy from going into the evil wizard's house.
  • The Chosen One: Candy is the reincarnation of Princess Boa.
  • Cool Hat: The aquarium hats that are ever so popular in Babylonium. The magical hats of the Noncian Magic Circle.
  • Cool Ship: The glyphs.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rojo Pixler.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: It's suggested in the second novel that Carrion had this effect on Candy.
  • Creepy Child: The pale-haired and pale-skinned Tria, paired with Dissonant Serenity.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Not all denizens of the late evening hours are evil. In fact, a lot of them are pretty nice folks.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Christopher Carrion has his moments.
  • Demonic Possession: The Requiax to Pixler. However, the two of them agree on wanting to kill Mater Motley.
  • Disney Villain Death: Subverted with Shape. He survives his fall, and his true death is at the hands of the Sacbrood in Book 2.
  • The Dragon: Houlihan.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The second book is remarkably dark, grim, and frightening, but it ends on a fairly joyous and uplifting note. It's similar for the Absolute Midnight.
  • Egomaniac Hunter: Rojo Pixler--who boasts nineteen thousand specimens from fleas to Kiefalent whales back at Commexo City.
  • Eldritch Abomination: In the order of appearance:
    • The Sacbrood.
    • The Requiax, even to the point of being "creature of the Deep".
    • Nephauree, even explicitly stated to be one.
  • Eldritch Location: The 25th Hour, Odom's Spire.
  • Even The Gay Guys Want Her: It's outright stated that even Two-Toed Tom has a bit of a crush on Geneva Peachtree.
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: John Mischief does not harm Shape, and instead shoots the lighthouse light out. When Serpent asks him why he'd do this, he notes that he takes no pleasure in harming living things. And shooting out the light means Shape will have to follow them, leaving Candy safe.
  • Eye Scream: John Mischief's contribution in the battle with the sea dragon, before Nonce--he stabs it in the eye with a grappling hook.
  • Fantasy Gun Control: John Mischief actually carries an old-fashioned pistol, but generally Does Not Like Guns, so he uses it sparingly.
  • Fish Out of Water: Candy, at first. She assimilates pretty quickly, which the John brothers notice.
  • Friend to All Children: The blind card-reader at the start of Book 3, AKA Zephario Carrion.
  • Gentleman Thief: The John brothers. And boy, are they ever gentlemanly!
  • Giant Flyer: The enormous "corpse-moth" from the first book. A "behe-moth," if you will.
  • Great Big Book of Everything: Klepp's Almenak, though the Abaratians know you'd be wise to take everything Klepp writes with a grain of salt. It's good in a general sense, though.
  • Half Human Hybrids: Lots and lots of them everywhere around--Izarith the part-Skizmut, the half-dragon priest Deetha Maas.
  • Head Pet: Candy briefly has a squid as one. He dies of exposure, sadly.
  • The Hecate Sisters: The Fantomaya. Mespa is the Maid, Joephi the Matron, and Diamanda the Hag.
  • Hufflepuff House: Many of the islands, other than the ones we spend the "most" time on.
  • Impossible Thief: John Mischief and his brothers, who managed to steal the tattoos of a criminal named Monkai-Monkai while he was in prison.
  • Instant Expert: Candy, who adapts quickly to Abarat. The strangeness of this is discussed--people from the Hereafter have gone mad from trying to adapt too quickly, since their imaginations couldn't handle the strangeness of Abarat. In comparison, not only is Candy still sane, despite being hunted by Christopher Carrion's minions, she performs magic as well.
    • It's because she has Princess Boa's soul inside her.
  • Interspecies Romance: Several. Candy and Gazza, mostly shipteased Candy and Malingo. Princess Boa and Finnegan Hobb are this, too.
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Two-Toed Tom (who tells off John Serpent for an apparently bigoted comment) and his (thus far offstage) love interest Tidal Jim.
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: Shape likes to use these to intimidate people, though they're more openly sinister than tunes from our world, having apparently been written by Card Carrying Villains. There are some innocent nursery tunes too, though. For example, the lullaby Zephario Carrion sung to his son, Christopher.
  • It Got Worse: Book 3. In. Spades.
  • Kill the Cutie: Malingo, but he gets better.
  • Lighthouse Point: In the middle of a field. In Minnesota. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Finnegan Hob's love for Princess Boa causes him to commit mass genocide against all dragons when a single dragon kills Boa.
  • Magitek: Most of the Pixler Company's inventions, the Sublime Verities.
  • The Man Behind the Man: As of the second book, it seems like Mater Motley is the real Big Bad of the series and always was.
    • ...and then we are introduced to the Nephauree, who have given Mater Motley the capabilities to conquer the Abarat.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Boa turns out to be quite a large one in Absolute Midnight.
  • Meaningful Name: A lot of them.
  • Mismatched Eyes: Candy has two different-colored eyes.
  • Monster Sob Story: Christopher Carrion's backstory. His entire family, except for his grandmother and absent father, died in a massive fire, he was brought up to be a perfect villain by his abusive grandmother who had sewn up his lips for saying the word love, fell in love with a princess who used and then shunned him...and his life didn't get better since then.
  • Morality Pet: Maratien to Mater Motley in the third book. She's one of the few people who Motley's shown actual kindness and concern for, even more so than her own son.
    • ...and then she kills Maratien and sews her soul to her dress.
  • Multiple Head Case: The John brothers, who share a body, but different heads.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Christopher Carrion, who even wears a glass collar for his embodied nightmares swim in.
    • A mild case with Candy. She apparently got it from her grandmother, who loved to go to strangers' funerals.
  • Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Chickentown.
  • Ocean Punk: The Fisherman's Ghetto in the Great Head of Yebba Dim Day.
  • Oh My Gods: "A'zo and Cha!", "Lordy Lou!"
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Mater Motley would be as happy destroying the islands as she would be ruling them.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Actually, the dragons in Abarat are more of a Reconstruction of the classical dragon. They are hermaphrodites, though.
  • Pardon My Klingon: Abaratian is full of unique swears.
  • Peace and Love Incorporated: The Pixler Company.
  • Place Beyond Time: The Twenty-Fifth Hour, which is always surrounded by a thick fog. Over the edge of the world.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: Malingo gets one when Christopher Carrion messes with the course of the glyph through his mind.
  • Retired Monster: Zephario Carrion, who was a monster in his youth, but realized the error of his ways and became a fairly gentle old man.
  • Sentient Cosmic Force: The Skein, the Thread.
  • Shallow Love Interest: Gazza is one of these to Candy.
  • Split At Birth: Inverted. Maybe. Princess Boa's spirit was reincarnated into a just-about-to-be-born Candy. However, prenatal Candy had a soul of her own. So Candy as an adolescent girl is referred to as the "Two in One", and realizes that "Candy" and "Princess Boa" are two halves of the same whole within her--hence, fused at birth. It's not exactly clear, just roll with it.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Carrion is of the more malicious sort. Gazza gets disturbingly close, too.
  • Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The House of Midnight has spies everywhere. Everywhere.
  • Tyke Bomb: Christopher was explicitly designed to be one.
  • Ultimate Evil: The Requiax, the "enemies of love".
    • And as of Absolute Midnight, the Nephauree.
  • Vanilla Edition: There are two paperback editions of each book--one that has the pictures (and is still pretty expensive even by hardcover standards), and one that doesn't. Interestingly, the Vanilla Edition tends to get shelved in either the teen or adult section of most bookstores/libraries, while the regular ones tend to get shelved with the kid's stuff--Illustration Age Ghetto, perhaps?
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Kiss Curl Carlotti, eaten by the sea dragon.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Christopher Carrion cemented by the happenings in Absolute Midnight.
  • Yandere: Christopher Carrion. After Princess Boa rejected him, he sent a dragon to kill her.
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Apparently, seeing the Nephauree's true form is so horrifying and traumatic it makes you want to stab out your own eyes. Mater Motley tried. It was a mistake.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Quite normal for the Abaratians. The Commexo Kid's design does have blue hair.
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