Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

Book Review: Abarat

By Nikita Gautam

There is always a question mark lying next to whether there exists another world beyond this or not.Everyone must have dreamt of an epic story of their own. Such dreams are where an unusual spirit or soul arises and creates a story. Fictional stories can be crazy, yet they contain ingredients that trick our minds and make us like and want more. Such is the case with Clive Barker's book Abarat- a young-adult fantasy. Abarat represents a completely different universe from that of ours, that is, an island with places approximately 24 hours different. In the story, there exists a 25th island that represents time out of time. The story is based on an ordinary girl with extraordinary powers of courage who lives in Chickentown, Minnesota. She feels that her life is messed up and wants to run away, which she does. Travelling through vast sea of Isabella, she discovers mysteries of life. This book comes in two editions. In the first edition, Candy travels to sea of Isabella with John brothers who share a single body but two heads. The main character of the story is Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion, who desperately is looking for Candy. In order to discover the charm in this particular human being's face. As Candy moves along her path, she is exposed to various situations where sometimes she fails to fight yet gathers real strength. Mandelson Shape, who is a prisoner of Carrion, captures her but she is able to escape. The first edition considerately presents a good mixture of terror as well as adventure. This book is the clasping into words of the fantasy world that Barker had imagined. This book literally takes us to that fantasy world. We can see the light beneath the dark clouds. Going through each chapter in the first edition, we can find ourselves along with Candy fighting Carrion. Although Candy, in this edition, is unaware of why she is in this strange place, she discovers it in the next edition. Summing up the story, it is the story of struggle, which ignites one's heart and soul, story that takes the readers to the fantasy world with strange creatures surrounding them. There is humor, adventure, infatuations, creativity, strength, love, resistance and a sense of realism in the novel. Definitely recommended!