Abarat, by Clive Barker

The book Abarat is about a girl named Candy Quackenbush (hey, I didn't name her) who lives in Minnesota, in a little place called Chickentown (which I also did not name). She lives with her drunken, abusive father, her mother who seems to have given up on life, and her brothers, who never make an appearance but apparently fart a lot. Anyway, she goes to a school where she has no friends and suffers at the hands of a horribly over-the-top teacher, because nobody understands her.

One day Candy decides to walk out on her evil teacher, and in a field on the edge of town, she happens to run into a guy named John Mischief whose brothers live on antlers on his head (seven of them - the extreme version of conjoined twins octuplets. I can't help but wonder how bloody awkward sex would be, with all seven of those guys chattering away - which is why I will never ever ever look for Abarat fanfiction). Candy saves John Mischief's ass, and he whisks her off to a world called the Abarat. Then, of course, he decides that she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself in a world she knows nothing about, so he ditches her as soon as they get there.

For a while, Candy relies on the kindness of strangers, and not once does she ever get almost raped. Crazy. In fact, she only meets one stranger who's anything less than pleasant throughout the span of of the book.

But, to be fair, in spite of a terribly cliche plot (I bet you'd never guess that Candy's going to be the savior of the world, huh?) and a writing style that is frequently awkward, Abarat was a lot of fun to read. There's a simple reason for this: the setting. The world of Abarat is bright, colorful, and diverse, and seems live and breathe in its own way, even if the characters don't.

The varying islands of the Abarat hold countless possibilities for unique stories, and while it may not exactly be the next Great Novel, it's still really fun, and if Clive Barker's writing improves a bit, the sequels have the potential to be fantastic.