Abarat: Absolute Midnight (2011) by Clive Barker is the third book in the Abarat Quartet, a darkly fantastical saga that plunges deeper into the nightmare-tinged archipelago of Abarat, where each island represents a different hour of the day—and beyond.
The story follows Candy Quackenbush, a young heroine from Minnesota, as she battles the diabolical Mater Motley, the Crone-Queen of Midnight, who seeks to engulf all of Abarat in eternal darkness using her monstrous Midnight Folk. With the help of allies like John Mischief (a man with seven talking brothers on his antlers) and Christopher Carrion (the tormented Lord of Midnight), Candy must awaken her latent powers and confront her own mysterious connection to Abarat’s past.
Barker’s signature grotesque beauty shines in the lavish, painterly descriptions (he also illustrated the book), blending cosmic horror with fairy-tale wonder. Themes of identity, sacrifice, and the duality of light/dark crescendo in a cliffhanger that sets the stage for the long-awaited fourth installment.
For fans of: The Books of Abarat’s predecessors, Gormenghast’s gothic whimsy, or The Night Circus’s enchanted realms.
