Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

Abandon, Meg Cabot

Release date: 1st May, 2011

Publisher: Point
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal
Pages: 304

Series: Abandon Trilogy

1. Abandon

2. Underworld (publication date unknown)

3. TBA

She didn't fall into his world. She was taken.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce knows what happens to us when we die.

That's how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who's made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible.

Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her.

What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows... just like she knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven. But she can't stay away from him, either, especially since he's always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears the most.

And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her: The Underworld.

So this story is about Pierce, who mysteriously died a year and a half before and had a weird experience. Her story is slowly revealed as more clues are uncovered.And by 'uncovered' I mean this book is a mess of the rpesent and the past. Like, Pierce can go to her house, and then describes a big event that happened ont he way to the house ten pages later. This book confused me and I found myself re-reading some chapters.

I have a thing with Meg Cabot: her writing style is very similar in most of her YA books. She writes in first-person, and it's gotten to the point where the personalities of the leads have melded into one because they all sound like one another, if you know what I mean. I was really happy that Abandon is completely different. It's a completely different style to the other YA books that Meg's written. This is a lot more serious and less comedic than most of her others, and I really like the writing.

I got a bit confused because there were a few mysteries in this book that got explained towards the end, and I know some authors like to keep their readers on their feet, but the whole hinting at something huge that's happened in the past and slooowly revealing it thing gets on my nerves. Seriously, is it that hard to just tell us what happened in the beginning? I mean, yeah, gotta be mysterious, but to me it just looks like the author is trying to make her readers finish the book just so they know what huge thing/accident/event happened that made the main character move/change personalities/whatever. It bugs me so darn much!

Other than that, I liked this book. It's a kind of re-telling of the Persephone/Hades myth from greek mythology, but the mythology took kind of a back seat, you know? It was barely mentioned. The part of the myth that I was waiting to happen happened in the last five pages, so i have to wait to the next book and hopefully it might be better.

I know a lot of this review criticises the book, but this book isn't bad at all. I give it four stars because it kept me interested and it's Meg Cabot, who is one of the goddesses I worship.

My verdict: While this book has its bad points and seems like a step down from some of the great YA series and novels that Cabot has written, it's interesting and I liked it. The change of writing style was what surprised me the most, but this novel needed a more serious sort of approach, which Meg Cabot aced.