The Books of the Abarat are Clive Barker's latest endeavor for young adults, and are some of his most imaginative and frightening works to date.
The main character, CANDY QUACKENBUSH, is your ordinary troubled teen living in Chickentown, MN. Her Character NEEDS are fairly well defined, especially for a young character - she feels she doesn't belong at home, and despises her drunken father.
One day, when Candy busts out of school after getting in trouble, she is drawn to an open field. Suddenly, a vast ocean appears where dead grass once stood, and an unknown henchman comes after Candy. She quickly befriends drifter John Mischief and his seven brothers - who all live on the antlers on his head - who helps her escape into The Abarat.
Candy's DESIRE becomes to escape whoever is trying to capture her, and to journey through this new world, where she has a strange but strong feeling she belongs. Her Desire changes into finding out why she feels she belongs.
The Abarat is an alternate world comprised of 25 small islands, each of which is constantly a different hour of the day (with an extra hour that exists perpetually without time). The island of Gorgossium, at the midnight hour, is where OPPONENT Christopher Carrion resides and more or less rules the land with fear. He and his grandmother have been plotting war against the daytime islands. There have been predictions about a girl who would return to fight the war, and the Carrions suspect it to be Candy, who has a mysterious link with the Abarat's long-dead Princess.
Carrion is one of the most interesting Opponents I have read - in children's or adult's literature - in a long time. We learn that Carrion once fell madly in love with the dead Princess, who shunned him, forcing him into the life he now leads. He likewise wants to kill Candy as revenge and out of fear - but she becomes a love-object obsession of his, too.
Because the books of the Abarat are an ongoing series, Candy does not get to meet with Carrion face to face until the second book. Instead, she must outrun a number of horrifying sub-opponents in Carrion's Hierarchy of Opposition.
As in most mythical stories, with each victory Candy has a small but profound SELF REVELATION that allows her journey to continue. She slowly matures from the emotional troubled teenager into an intuitive, courageous and intelligent warrior.
The New Equilibrium, though we have not reached the end of the story, is a hopeful but ambiguous ending to Book One as Candy and Malingo take off for wherever the ocean decides to send them.
The main character, CANDY QUACKENBUSH, is your ordinary troubled teen living in Chickentown, MN. Her Character NEEDS are fairly well defined, especially for a young character - she feels she doesn't belong at home, and despises her drunken father.
One day, when Candy busts out of school after getting in trouble, she is drawn to an open field. Suddenly, a vast ocean appears where dead grass once stood, and an unknown henchman comes after Candy. She quickly befriends drifter John Mischief and his seven brothers - who all live on the antlers on his head - who helps her escape into The Abarat.
Candy's DESIRE becomes to escape whoever is trying to capture her, and to journey through this new world, where she has a strange but strong feeling she belongs. Her Desire changes into finding out why she feels she belongs.
The Abarat is an alternate world comprised of 25 small islands, each of which is constantly a different hour of the day (with an extra hour that exists perpetually without time). The island of Gorgossium, at the midnight hour, is where OPPONENT Christopher Carrion resides and more or less rules the land with fear. He and his grandmother have been plotting war against the daytime islands. There have been predictions about a girl who would return to fight the war, and the Carrions suspect it to be Candy, who has a mysterious link with the Abarat's long-dead Princess.
Carrion is one of the most interesting Opponents I have read - in children's or adult's literature - in a long time. We learn that Carrion once fell madly in love with the dead Princess, who shunned him, forcing him into the life he now leads. He likewise wants to kill Candy as revenge and out of fear - but she becomes a love-object obsession of his, too.
Because the books of the Abarat are an ongoing series, Candy does not get to meet with Carrion face to face until the second book. Instead, she must outrun a number of horrifying sub-opponents in Carrion's Hierarchy of Opposition.
As in most mythical stories, with each victory Candy has a small but profound SELF REVELATION that allows her journey to continue. She slowly matures from the emotional troubled teenager into an intuitive, courageous and intelligent warrior.
The New Equilibrium, though we have not reached the end of the story, is a hopeful but ambiguous ending to Book One as Candy and Malingo take off for wherever the ocean decides to send them.
Truby Breakdowns
Enchanted
Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix
Big Fish
The Truman Show
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Enchanted
Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix
Big Fish
The Truman Show
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
