YA Fantasy: Abandon by Meg Cabot (and a Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge)

Series: Abandon Trilogy #1
Publisher: Point
Date: April 2011
Format: ARC
Source: blog giveaway
Read: to clean out my TBR stack
Pages: 302
Reading time: between three and four hours

From GoodReads: 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: I'm of mixed opinions on this one. On the one hand, it's Meg Cabot, whose books I absolutely adored and devoured during my middle school and early high school years. Her writing is hilarious and her characters are easy to relate to. On the other hand, Abandon fell flat compared to my high expectations from earlier Cabot reads. There were sparks of the humor I remember with such fond memories, but Pierce seemed a bit silly to me. And, as a high school senior who had once attended a prep school and seemed to have made good grades, she was unaware of who Homer was. For once, I join with one of the elderly characters in this book in bemoaning what is taught in today's schools.

I also wasn't always very clear on what was going on or where the story was headed, but then, neither was Pierce herself. The romance was completely flat - the attraction was entirely one-sided until a kiss resulted in insta-love, and the "Hades" figure in this Persephone retelling was very Edward Cullen-esque. The twist on the original myth, however, grew increasingly more fascinating as the book progressed, though the ending wrapped up a little too quickly. While it will be interesting to see what the rest of the trilogy has in store, I don't think this is one series I'll be super-eager to complete.


Once Upon a Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge hosted by Cover2CoverBlog: 1. Which book are you most excited to read in the coming year? The Map of the Sky by Felix J. Palma. I read and absolutely loved The Map of Time last year, but I'm intimidated by its sequel due to its length and my absurdly high expectations.
2. Which book would you re-read if you had the time and weren't so busy reading ALL the other good things? The Mummy! by Jane Loudon (an 1820s sci-fi novel, which I'm sure just everyone has heard of). I've read only an abridged version of it, given as it's the only physical edition published within the last 100 or so years, but the original 3 volumes are on Google Books.
3. If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why? No clue. Maybe Pi from Life of Pi, just to ask him about that ending.