Abarat Books in Order

The Abarat series is Clive Barker’s sprawling fantasy for younger readers and adults alike, set in a world where time itself is mapped onto an archipelago. Twenty‑five islands make up the Abarat: one for each hour of the day, plus an island that exists outside time altogether.

The story follows Candy Quackenbush, a restless teenager from Chickentown, Minnesota, who feels smothered by school, home, and a town obsessed with poultry. After an argument in class, she wanders to the ruins of an impossible lighthouse and meets John Mischief, a thief with seven talking brothers living on his antlers. That encounter pulls her into the Sea of Izabella and deposits her on the shores of the Abarat.

In Abarat: The First Book of Hours Candy begins island‑hopping, meeting allies and enemies while slowly discovering that she has a deeper connection to this world than she knew. The second volume, Days of Magic, Nights of War, broadens the conflict, introducing the nightmare ruler Christopher Carrion and his grandmother Mater Motley, whose schemes threaten to plunge the islands into “Absolute Midnight.” The third book, Absolute Midnight, sees war arrive in full force as skies darken, creatures swarm, and Candy has to decide what kind of savior—or destroyer—she is willing to be.

One of the defining features of the series is that Barker painted hundreds of images before and during the writing. Those paintings are reproduced throughout the books in full color, making the volumes feel like art objects as much as novels. Strange creatures, landscapes, and portraits fill the margins and sometimes dictate the direction of the story, as Barker writes toward the images rather than simply illustrating finished scenes.

Tonally, Abarat mixes the whimsical and the macabre. Candy’s adventures echo older portal fantasies like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the stakes are high and the villains genuinely frightening. Themes of free will, memory, and the cost of power run beneath the talking fish, living islands, and oddball companions.

This page lays out the Abarat books in order, explains how they fit together as a planned five‑volume series, and highlights the unique role of Barker’s paintings in bringing the Hour Islands to life.