Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

Abandon by Meg Cabot

April 26, 2011
Point

 Received from RT Teen Day

From Goodreads:
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 Review:
To start off, I would just like to say that I love Meg Cabot! Her paranormals are all original and give me lots of giggles! I went into Abandon with high expectations and I am sad to say that the book did not completely fulfill them. There was barely any humor, if any at all, and that it what I go into a Meg Cabot book expecting. I also didn't like how the book seemed to pause in certain places and goes off track a lot. The timeline is really off. One moment we are in the present, the next we are reliving past experiences of Pierce's with no warning. I would have enjoyed it more had there been a sole chapter dedicated to the past but it just went back and forth too much. While there were some negatives to the story, I did like other parts of it.

Pierce has had a pretty wacky life for the past few years. When she was seven, she tried to save a bird but couldn't and it died before her eyes. Seconds later, in swoops a stranger who magically makes the bird come back to life. Pierce is mystified by this and can never forget him from this moment on. Fast forward to when she is 15 and falls into her pool in the middle of the winter. She gets caught in the pool cover and passes out. When she wakes up she is in a whole new world. She doesn't understand what is happening until she spots the same man who saved the bird! The speedy reintroduction between them causes Pierce to realize that she is dead and she does whatever she can to escape his world, even though there are consequences for both of them if she goes back into the world of the living...

I really did enjoy Pierce as the main character. She has many different layers to her that make her relatable and easy to connect with. While at times I did get annoyed with her and how she tries to deny all that is occurring around her when it is pretty obvious that it is real, I got over it. I really felt for her situation with her parents. They are going through a divorce and her mom blames her dad on Pierce's death. She has to pack up her bags and move with her mom to Isla Huesos, a small island off of Florida. She is expected to go to a new school and try to get her life back to normal. Her parents and everyone around her thinks she went crazy because she died and came back with crazy stories of John and what she experienced when she died. She lost her friend Hannah with her stories and she feels that nobody can understand her now. But then there is John who keeps showing up in the moments when she is in danger...

John was a bit of an enigma. He is always so closed off around Pierce and barely ever opens himself up around her. She never knows what he is feeling and it really frustrates her. In the rare moments where she can see what emotions lurk in his eyes, she feels connected to him. He frustrates her and acts like a complete jerk most of the time, but she can't help falling for him. I really don't know what to feel about John. I didn't feel like he got enough page time for me to really understand him. I think if I got more of a chance to know him, I would have liked him much more. I enjoyed seeing how Cabot weaved him around the Greek myth! It was very interesting!

While I did enjoy some parts of Abandon, I felt that the story was a bit too choppy. At the beginning, the story goes back and forth between the past and present with no warning. By the time I was towards the end of the story, I could kind of start following where it was going. The end of the book leaves off with many loose ends so I will definitely be reading the sequel to Abandon. I would recommend Abandon if you love reading about Greek myths!

My Rating: