SOLVED. Fantasy Adventure: Very colorful and Dream-like [s]

[Evin]

This is a young adult book series. Not sure how many books are in the series. One of the books, maybe the 2nd one, came out around the time of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
I thought the author was Neil Gaiman but combed through all his books with no luck. It at least has the flair of Gaiman.

I read the hard covers and they were very colorful. The cover was almost like stained glass. The characters looked like they were pieced together from other pictures. All the illustrations had sharp angles. There would be pictures at the beginning of every chapter.

I can't remember if the main character is a boy or a girl but I'm leaning girl. She gets transported to a different world full of crazy shaped people and animals.
To get there she was on a beach or desert with a pier. There's a big person there in black? I think 2 more "people" show up arguing. The sea comes in filling the whole place. She ends up on a boat with a Cat? The cat is the 2nd main character I think or she stays with the cat for a while.

After that there's just a bunch of adventures. There's a dark undertone to the whole book despite its bright colors. The land has a name like Never-something, maybe.

I'll try to add more if I remember it. I've been dying to finish this book series for 14 years.

[Ficie]

Could it be Abarat? It takes place in an imaginary land full of islands, and there is at least one cat-like character who owns a boat http://abarat.wikia.com/wiki/Jimothi_...

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

It does sound like Abarat. And its not all that bad you not being able to find the series since

Abarat (2002)
Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004)
Absolute Midnight (2011)
Kry Rising (2014)

You would have a very long wait (I know I had) to be able to read them all but now they are already you out can just read them all :)

Well except for Kry Rising fingers crossed for a 2014 release

[Kate]

Here's one of the covers for Abarat:

[Evin]

Yes! That is it! Thank you guys, I never thought I would ever get to read it again!!

@Kagama Wow that wait time. I guess I found it just in time! I figured it would be over by now.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

This is a popular book - shelved 3 times now.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_...

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Tiffany wrote: "Yes! That is it! Thank you guys, I never thought I would ever get to read it again!!

@Kagama Wow that wait time. I guess I found it just in time! I figured it would be over by now."

Well yes...Clive Barker has a lot of other projects going on and while I do think he is passionate about Abarat a lot of people likes his horror stuff more.So maybe he has to devote his time to the stuff that pays the rent.
Just speculating though

Not to mention he has to do the paintings for each invidual book.

But for me that had to wait when that third book arrived in the mail. I was almost euphoric lol. Had been building up anticipation for some time.

[Evin]

Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: Well yes...Clive Barker has a lot of other projects going on and while I do think he is passionate about Abarat a lot of people likes his horror stuff more.So maybe he has to devote his time to the stuff that pays the rent.
Just speculating though..."

I was borrowing the books from a friend in high school but stuff happened and our friendship parted and with him went the book. Plus Harry Potter was out every summer so Abarat got lost in the shuffle.

I forgot Clive Barker was horror that's probably the connection I made with Gaiman.

You're pretty cool. Sent you a friend request :)