Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War » (Reprint)

A diversely talented and always chilling writer-artist, Clive Barker creates worlds that turn humanity's baser qualities inside out, hold them in front of a funhouse mirror, and transform them into the stuff of nightmares.

Candy Quackenbush's adventures in the Abarat are getting stranger by the hour. Why has the Lord of Midnight sent his henchman after her? Why can she suddenly speak words of magic? Why is the world familiar?

Candy and her companions must solve the mystery of her past before the forces of Night and Day clash and Absolute Midnight descends upon the islands.

A final war is about to begin. . . .

The Washington Post - Bill Sheehan

His heroine is a likable, credible figure who grows and changes under the pressure of events. Her presence provides the chaotic narrative with a stable human center. But it is the Abarat itself -- a protean creation overflowing with grotesque, beautiful visions -- that most engages Barker's febrile imagination. The 25 islands allow him to create an array of colorful landscapes and populate them with a gallery of creatures that are utterly sui generis. The Abarat Quartet is shaping up to be, among other things, Barker's bestiary. No other writer -- and no other artist -- could have conceived or created it.