Absolute Midnight

June 24, 2002
Like The Thief of Always, Barker's first book for children, this tale finds a bored protagonist venturing into a fantastical world. The novel begins with a rather cryptic scene of three women on a "perilous voyage... from the shelter of the islands." The action then shifts to Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minn., who hates her life as the daughter of an alcoholic father and a depressed mother. One day, humiliated by her teacher, Candy skips out of school and heads for the prairie, where she stumbles on a derelict lighthouse and a creature with eight heads, John Mischief. The opening scene and the thrust of the novel gradually connect, as Candy begins an adventure to a mysterious archipelago called Abarat. Skilled at fantasy, Barker throws plenty of thrills and chills at readers. Candy becomes a pawn between Mischief and the man (Christopher Carrion, "Lord of Midnight") from whom Mischief has stolen something of great value. However, by the middle of the novel, readers may feel that Barker pulls out too many stops; he floods the pages with scores of intriguing characters and a surfeit of subplots (some of which dead-end, perhaps to be picked up in one of the three planned sequels). The author's imagination runs wild as he conjures some striking imagery ("Dark threads of energy moved through her veins and leaped from her fingertips" says one of the three women in the opening scene) and cooks up a surreal stew of character portraits (rendered in bold colors and brushwork, they resemble some of Van Gogh's later work). But much of the novel feels like a wind-up for the books to follow and, after this rather unwieldy 400-page ride, readers my be disappointed by so many unresolved strands of the plot. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)FYI:A national marketing campaign is planned for the Abarat series, for which movie, theme park and multimedia rights have been purchased by Walt Disney Pictures.

June 1, 2012
Gr 7-10-Candy Quackenbush is having a bad day in the third book (HarperCollins, 2011) in the series by Clive Barker. She shares her body with the soul of the evil princess, Boa, bent on killing her. Candy's father, back in the hereafter (Earth), has turned into an evangelical nut bent on killing her. Candy's arch nemesis, Mater Motley, is determined to cause absolute darkness to fall over the Abarat...and wants to kill her. Fortunately, Candy not only has a host of peculiar friends who help her but also comes into her own magical power and strength in this installment. The text is overly wordy with descriptions that interfere with the dialogue and bring the action to a crawl. The plot is a bit of a mess. Dozens of times, Candy comes to the very abyss and is inexplicably saved from destruction. The introduction of a love interest rings false. Richard Ferrone's narration is the bright spot. He gives each character a distinctive voice and wrings every bit of humor and pathos out of the text in an astonishing performance. Listeners must have listened to/read the first two books in the series to understand this installment. Despite its flaws, the series has a following. Add this audiobook to your collection if the library is already circulating the first two titles. Two more books are planned.-"Tricia Melgaard, formerly Broken Arrow Public Schools, Tulsa, OK"

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011

The long-awaited third book of Barker's series has finally arrived.

This middle volume has the strengths and flaws of its predecessors. Heroine Candy Quackenbush and evil Mater Motley continue to take center stage, and both continue to be vehicles rather than fully fleshed characters. Mater Motley furthermore turns out to be a pawn for the Nephauree, a Lovecraftian race of tentacled creatures from elsewhere who have in mind the utter destruction of the Abarat. Candy gets a love-at-first-sight subplot devoid of emotional resonance, based as it is in neither conversation nor interaction. The sometimes lovely, often purple prose is peppered with corny dialogue (declarations of love while facing death; "comic" bickering between John Mischief and his brothers, who are heads on his antlers). True moments of terror (Candy's alcoholic father as the preacher of a church powered by Abaratian evil) vie for attention with the flora and fauna of Abarat and the adventures of a chosen one who conveniently always has the right spell, in what is either an homage to fantasy tropes or a glaring example of the stereotype. Barker's powerful, often unpleasant illustrations continue to play off the text, sometimes confusingly—captions and more careful placement of images would help readers make the connections.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2011
Grades 7-12 Fans have waited five years for the third book in what is now slated to be a five-book series about the adventures of Candy Quackenbush in the bizarre archipelago world of Abarat. Here, Candy and her sidekick, Malingo, take on merciless Mater Motley as she extinguishes the suns, moons, and stars to bring on Absolute Midnight. Before the book's end, three generations of Carrion evil forces are reunited and wreak havoc that only the imagination of Barker and his surreal paintings could conjure. Deaths abound, but don't count anyone down; this is a world of magic and redemption. While the first books focused on introducing the abundant characters and settings, this plot moves ahead at full speed. Still, the ride is tempered by serious moments, especially those of Candy's introspection, as well as humorous ones. Add in thematic plot strands about the cost of freedom, a budding romance, and hints of the next adventure to come, and readers will agree with Candy: So much still to do: to explore, to solve, to feel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
Candy Quackenbush discovers that her inner voice is Princess Boa. After Candy frees her, Boa becomes her newest enemy, along with vicious would-be empress Mater Motley and Candy's father. Barker's surrealistic world, shown in his "vast array of paintings" interspersed throughout the story, is imaginative. However, the book is visually and conceptually crowded; there's too much going on to follow or care about.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)