Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

Today I am reviewing Meg Cabot’s book Abandon, which is the first in the “Abandon” trilogy.  The cover art and description are from Goodreads.

Title: Abandon

Series: Abandon Trilogy #1

Pages: 304

ISBN: 9780545284103

Author: Meg Cabot

Description: New from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a dark, fantastical story about this world . . . and the underworld.
Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.
But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

My thoughts:

- The cover: I am in love with this cover, it’s what drew me in at first, and I had seen ratings from other bloggers that said it was a great read.  The way Pierce (at least, I assume it’s Pierce) is laying in the dirt, probably dead, is such a good tie in to the storyline. 

- The characters: Pierce sort of bothers me as a character actually.  I couldn’t really relate to her (of course, I’ve never died), she spends most of the story somewhat depressed.  Although I can’t really blame her since she died, and now she’s got this creepy guy following her wherever she goes. 

John, the death deity, is cold.  He always looks menacing in his black outfits, and hurts people that try to hurt Pierce.  It’s nice that he’s looking out for her and all, but it’s not really great that he hurts these people in front of Pierce.  She does stop him from killing the people that try to “hurt” her, but John is constantly warning her about the dangers she’s getting herself into because she doesn’t think.

- The story: I don’t like that this book doesn’t have chapter numbers so I can’t pinpoint when anything happened in the book.  The story was confusing for the majority of the book.  It’s told from Pierce’s point of view, so it’s messed up because she’s messed up since she died.  Pierce keeps having flashbacks that are randomly thrown into places where they don’t really make sense, and it took me a few lines to realize that it was a flashback and not something to do with the conversation she’s in the middle of in the present time.  Also, a line repeats itself (I guess in Pierce’s mind) a LOT in the story “Check yourself before you wreck yourself”which sometimes makes sense, and other times it’s more like “why in the world is she thinking that?”  Pierce has this amazing, and apparently uber-valuable necklace that John gave her that changes colors to warn her of danger.  Unfortunately, she can’t figure out how the thing works until sometime near the end of the book.  The fact that this is the first in a trilogy makes me think that the rest will get better, and I truly hope they do.  Abandon itself got so much better in the last 70(ish) pages of the story.  Things started making sense and the storyline actually seemed to go somewhere at this point.  I am looking forward to Underworld (which I’ve posted the teaser for at the end of this post because it’s at the end of Abandon). 

- Overall:  I wasn’t too impressed until I finished the book today, the last 5 chapters were fantastic.  They totally made the rest of the book make sense, and left me wanting more.  Pierce really wasn’t a great character to follow, but toward the end she started opening up more and became an okay character overall.  I give this story 4 stars because at least ½ of the book was unimpressive to me.  The end did make up for it a little though, so I am excited to read Underworld.  I liked finding out, in the author’s note, that a lot of this book is based on fact, and some mythology.  Things that I thought were straight out of Meg Cabot’s head because they sounded a little ridiculous to be true, were actually things that happened on the island the book takes place on in real life.

Overall Rating: 

*Underworld Synopsis/Teaser*:

“Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.

Not this time.

But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.

Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear.  Some are so unhappy where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance… on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.

But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there… and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.

And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.”

Look for my next review on Catalyst by Marc Johnson, next weekend.