The Abarat series focuses on the adventures of Candy Quakenbush, a girl from our Chickentown, Minnesota. Through a series of strange circumstances, she manages to cross over into the magical archipelago of the Abarat, where monsters can become your best friend and each island is a different hour of the day or night. (For example, say you love taking a nap at 3 o'clock in the afternoon , well then you'd love to visit the Nonce, where it is always three in the afternoon. Plus, the thick foliage and shade will provide the perfect natural bed and the once an Hour storms will make sure you never oversleep.) With every new discovery, Candy not only learns more about this incredible, and sometimes dangerous, world, but also more about herself. And that she is destined to not only change the Abarat, but also Chickentown forever.It is hard to pick any one thing about these books that make them fantastic. The plot boiled down is a standard coming of age story. However, the way it is done and the settings make it so much more that other fantasy of it's ilk. The reader's expectations are often turned on their head. Characters and places that one would expect to be good are often not, and the same goes for the bad. This keeps the reader wondering whose side everyone's really on?If someone came to me and forced me to choose one aspect of the this series that keeps me coming back for more, I would have to say the characters. Well, one character especially. I am a big fan of Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight. Sure, he looks like Death and the embodiment of nightmares float in a glass collar around his head. But don't hold that against him; he's one of the most complex and compelling characters of the series. Sometimes he's the villain and other times the hero. He's an abused child and the abuser. When he falls in love, he'll move heaven and earth in the cause of love. How could one not love a character like that? Plus, you can't keep this guy down. Literally.For my complete review, come to my blog. Here's a link: [...] Trust me, it's far too detailled to put all here. Happy Reading!