Abandon (ARC)

Abandon

Author: Meg Cabot

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Pages: 320

Read Time: One Day

Rating (1-5): 3

Tag Words: Greek Myths, Persephone and Hades, Death, The Underworld, Florida Keyes, Supernatural Romance

My Summary:

Pierce knows what it’s like to die, she’s seen the Underworld with her own eyes. Desperate to return home she turns her back on the one boy she has ever felt anything for.  Little does she know that she was safer in Hell than on Earth.

My Review:

I was so excited for this book; when it came in the mail I threw everything else down and read it cover to cover. Having finished I feel a little let down. The idea is still awesome and I'm hoping that this first book, which laid the groundwork- which was shaky at best- for the series will be my least favorite of the coming Abandon books. 

My main problems were:

Lack of present action, what I mean by that is the book exists mainly in back flashes, too many and too long to really build anticipation. The present day is 24 hours long, not giving Pierce enough time to do anything to press the story forward. Due to the lack of present action there was a...

...Lack of romance, because of the set-up for the novel John and Pierce had very little time together when he wasn't trying to kill someone. I never felt like Pierce had any real feelings for him. I also felt Pierce was a bit of a wishy-washy character. On the one hand she is described as this innocent bird, caring about people, speaking softly and on the other she is sentenced to D-wing in her school for rage issues. What rage issues?

There was no rising action, climax, falling action; in fact when we got to the "great reveal" I found it to be so unbelievable, very contrived and not at at all what I expected. I’m not about to spoil things for you... John is a Death Deity... which you would know if you read the back of the book. That was also suppose to be one of the great ‘Ta-Da!’ moments of Abandon, but when it came about (nearly to the end of things) I literally said out-loud, “Ya think?!”

Also, for those of you who read it, Coffin Night, what happened with that besides nothing. There were too many instances like this, leaving extraneous questions hanging wide open without tying them to the plot firmly enough to hold the readers intrigue. 

I am a HUGE Cabot fan, but she is going to have to work double time to get me to fall in love with this series in book two, Underworld. 

Notes on the Names: 

Pierce is a really good play on Persephone. For those of you who aren’t obsessed with the names from Greek myths like certain Name-Nerds who write this blog let me prn. it for you. Purh-seff-ah-nee. I can’t think of anything better for the character, though I’m not a fan of gender-bender names. The two popular kids bore two of my favorite names, Farrah and Seth, and John means, “God is Gracious.” Which is ironic for the character. 

Thoughts on the Cover:

Gah, I love this cover. It gets better when it’s right in front of you. 

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content: 

Mild.

Kissing without much detail. 

Affair between an off-screen student and her teacher. 

Pierce notices the bed in John’s room. 

One sexual innuendo. 

Language: 

Mild.

D- 2

H- 1

A- 2

Jesus- 1

Violence:

Moderate

Student who has affair with teacher takes pills and commits suicide.

Pierce dies by hitting her head on the side of the pool and drowning. 

A teacher is bludgeoned to death in the cemetery. This happens off-camera.

John arrives in time to save Pierce from her teachers advances and a jewelers fury. John causes the jeweler to have a heart-attack and the teachers arm-bones are smashed to pieces. 

Whispers about students being D-wing as a very mild form of bullying. 

Other Notables: 

Uncle Chris was behind bars for 15 years; something to do with possession, or distribution of drugs.