Title: Abandon
Author: Meg Cabot [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Point
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: criminal activity, language, death
Teachable Moments: near death experience, captivity, family dynamics, mental health, class structure, sexual abuse, suicide, mythology

“I’d told my best friend, Hannah, the day I’d come back after my accident that I’d protect her from the evil.  But I hadn’t.  Instead, hurt by the fact that she had called me crazy, still numbed by what I’d seen Joh do in the jeweler’s shop, and worried he’d come back someday and do it to me next time, I’d just lain back inside my glass coffin and waited for my handsome price to come rescue me.”

Summary (from the publisher):
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.

Bur if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

Opinion:
Abandon is a book that is all about the series setup.  What it lacks in plot movement it makes up for in plot development because  it’s all about getting everything in place for the next book.  We all know how I struggle with that, right?  Can I also mention that this book is a  slow read to boot? So working through the first three-quarters  took me a good long time because I just couldn’t connect with the story or it’s characters.  Everything is so far off and distant.

This is primarily born of the fact that Abandon is centered around a protagonist who is telling a story of how past events are influencing her current situation.  Much of what happens in this book is told in flashbacks — Pierce’s death, it’s aftermath, and numerous interactions with John.  Now, this in itself isn’t so difficult for me, I’m fine to bop back and forth between past and present.  Furthermore, Cabot wrote it clearly enough that I didn’t find myself confused about where I was and when.  But, it just made the whole thing feel so long. The story never felt like it was actually being told it always felt like it was getting ready to be told and despite what some say there is such a thing as too much build-up.  This book was the mother of all build-ups.

My struggles with the book were also a result of not being able to latch on to John as a romantic lead.  He was hard edged, generally emotionless and I imagine if I ever heard him speak aloud he’d be monotone.  So I’m unsure how Pierce really got to the part where she fell in love with him.  It was almost a little Stockholm Syndromish to me.

For her part, Pierce seemed to have a quiet strength to her most of the time.  She’d been through the wringer in any number of ways and endures it with a certain dignity and grace.  Having said that, I still find her a bit trying. This may have been more a result of the stories’ slow progression and the abundant use of  flashbacks though.  It was somewhat difficult to get a grasp on Pierce as a character because who she was in those moments before, during and immediately after the accident is different than who she is trying to remake herself to be in the present.  I do think, however, that a much more consistent picture of her personality will be portrayed in Underworld.  At least that is my hope.

The plot of Abandon is a telling of the myth of Hades and Persephone.  He, the man who held her prisoner for her love and she who escaped for a better life.  This was all evident through Cabot’s plot and while details here shift away from the original the premise is the same.  Additionally Cabot has created an ominous and dark setting as a backdrop.  The tropical locale allows for a sultry yet somehow mystical feel.  Seemingly one step away from the real Underworld it was certainly the right choice for Cabot to make.

Which brings me to the one thing about Abandon I really like, the end of the story.  Oh, Meg Cabot, how you hurt me so!  Because, even though I couldn’t get into the majority of this book you amped up the drama and action in the last couple of chapters.  Not only that but you put in that giant cliffhanger ending and now I have to see what happens.  Though I won’t feel compelled to rush to do so I will certainly be picking up Underworld to read.