Reviews

Abandon by Meg Cabot

renatalynn's review

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4.0

Fat easy to listen to book, looking forward to the next one.

ladytiara's review

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3.0

Abandon's heroine Pierce Oliviera doesn't have the easiest life. Two years ago, she died and then came back from the dead, and everything has been wrong ever since. Her mother blames her father for her death, and they are in the midst of a messy divorce. There's a mysterious guy named John who is connected to her death and who shows up whenever things seem messiest in her life. Her mother has uprooted her to a small island in Florida, and Pierce is trying to start her life over again, but she's dealing with a lot of baggage and John is there once again.

Abandon is a bit hard to review. On the one hand, it's by the ever reliable Meg Cabot, and it has some good moments. But there were some flaws that got in the way of my enjoyment of the book.

The first half of the book is mostly flashbacks, gradually telling the story of how Pierce died and what went wrong after she came back. Sometimes I enjoy flashbacks, but in this case, the format didn't work for me because there were so many flashbacks that I didn't really feel connected to the characters in the present. When the action returned to the present, I didn't feel all that interested. Then there was a huge info dump that slowed down the pacing. However, once that was over, the book really picked up steam, and the last 100 pages were much better. At that point, I didn't want to put it down.

Pierce is a good main character, and I cared about her struggle to fix the mess that her life has become. The romance has potential, although there's a slightly creepy aspect to it (although it did feel less creepy toward the end of the book). Despite the flaws in this book, Cabot has laid a good foundation for her story, and I will definitely read the next book in the trilogy.

(I received a copy of this book from Amazon Vine.)

ptothelo's review

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2.0

Like the first book of a traditional trilogy, this one is just a lot of build up. There are interesting bits and I will be waiting to see where she takes it.

4saradouglas's review

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1.0

This book was pretty awful. When I heard it would be a new take on the myth of Hades and Persephone I literally yelled "OMG YES!!" But.... yeah, it didn't live up to that excitement even a little. There's no chemistry between the characters at all. The guy shows up to save the girl a few times, but they don't really talk. The girl spends the whole book complaining about the guy but suddenly he confesses he loves her and she gets all teary and happy. Whatever. The writing was just horrible. Constant blatantly annoying foreshadowing and flashbacks. An actual quote: "My voice trailed off, because when I glanced up into his face, I saw that his mouth was pressed into a flat line… like the one my heart had gone into the day I'd fallen into his world." Absolute garbage!

good1kenz's review

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5.0

Abandon was an absolutely fabulous book. It left me begging for more, can't wait to read the next one. Meg Cabot NEVER disappoints me!

charms1976's review

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3.0

I am a fairly new reader of books by this author. I have read Insatiable by her and loved it, but I haven't read any of her other books before that one. When Abandon arrived to me for review, I jumped into it excited to read about how she was going make a story based on Greek mythology. Seeing how I never actually paid attention in high school -- and my grades will confirm that -- my mythology is a little rusty. I did however recognize the great writing that the author used in the book!

While I am not a huge fan of the story, I can see the appeal and desire to read the book. I liked how the author made the characters seem so real. While she didn't go overboard on descriptions, I still felt the characters come alive in my head while reading the book. Yet, while the author kept me interested in the story, I kept finding myself wishing it would have revealed some things sooner rather than later in the book.

For instance, we don't even find out what what actually happened to Pierce and the event that is questioned through out the chapters until well over half of the book. I can understand needing it for the wow factor, but the constant referring to it and not revealing much kept me feeling frustrated. I also didn't like how it was slow going for a long while, and then near the end a ton of stuff happens with not enough resolutions. I can understand the author wanting to leave you with a cliffhanger, but I also expect some things to be resolved before I finish the last page.

Would I read the next book in the series? Absolutely. I want to see how the author is going to work out some of the problems from this book and hopefully structure the plot better to make it more appealing to the reader.
If you are a big fan of this author, you will more than likely enjoy her take on the lore and mythology that this book contains as a step up from what the author usually writes. If you are a new reader to this author, you could enjoy it based on the fact that it has the elements that this genre is well known for as well. You will just have to be patient with the story and be willing to see the book through and future books in the series.

sandeeisreading's review

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3.0

We all wonder what it would be like in the afterlife.
Will be taken to heaven, hell or will we remain in the in between.
Pierce had a glimpse of what lies after we die.

Pierce died.
She caught a glimpse of what it was like in the Underworld.
She was supposed to stay there until she successfully escaped.
She thought everything would be back to normal.
But she was wrong.
She hasn’t been normal since.
Pierce and her mother moved to Isla Huesos where they thought they’d get a new start.
But the more Pierce tried to run away, the more she gets pulled towards the world that she has escaped.
The man that she was avoiding.
The man who she thinks she maybe falling in love with.


This book was definitely better than the other book I read.
I decided to read two myth-inspired books last week and was extremely disappointed with the other book. (Fury by Elizabeth Miles).
Anyways, what do I think about this book?
Definitely better than the other but not best, not outstanding, it was just okay.

This is a YA-Paranormal Romance novel right? Because if it is, the romance part was kind of lacking for me.
It was good that Pierce and John were not all lovey-dovey because that was getting old.
But a little more spark between them would have been good.
It was lacking something.
Chemistry maybe?
Pierce was I dunno a little dull for me.
So was John.

This would be my first Meg Cabot book.
It was good.
Not really really good that you’ll never forget this book.
It was a bit boring for most part.
A bit dragging.
There were loads of flashbacks but I thought the transitioning was good.
It wasn’t confusing which was good because most of this book was about the flashbacks.
Anyways, I am giving this book a 3.5.

ines2914's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

darastar's review

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2.0

So, this book is fairly infuriating.

Spoiler
The main character, Pierce, is simultaneously very smart and independent, and then completely idiotic and clingy. She doesn't seem to have much of a personality, and when she dies (this part is not a spoiler, because it happens at the beginning of the book) - it's for a dumb reason, and the explanation of it is even dumber. Seriously: she's running around her family's pool in the winter chasing an injured bird, trips on the scarf she is wearing (which - is long enough to trip over?), and falls on the pool cover and drowns. I don't even understand.

And then later, when we discover that the entire ridiculous situation described above was contrived by her Fury grandmother to kill her - uh, what? Seriously? You knit your granddaughter a too long scarf and tempted her with an injured bird in hopes that she would trip on it, hit her head, fall into the pool and die? I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE HOW STUPID THAT IS.

But back to Pierce. Her relationship with John is also one of the dumber things I've ever read. From what we're told, her entire contact with him is thus: 1) She meets him as a 7 year old for like 5 minutes, and he's nice to her because she wants a bird to come back to life (also her recently deceased grandfather). 2) She recognizes him in the underworld, and is more concerned for him and his horse than she is for herself (and also is not scared?). And thus he falls in love with her and decides to keep her with him (Guys - it's Hades and Persephone). And since she's like, 15 and doesn't want to stay in the underworld forever, she runs away and comes back to life (WHAT?). And because she's wearing a necklace he gave her, when she's assaulted twice, John swoops in twice - never really saying anything to her, or she to him - and saves her. So that's 4 encounters so far, only one of which lasted more than say...5 minutes.

Pierce goes to the cemetery where she first met him to give back the necklace (which is an enormous diamond? how are people not going HOLY CRAP WHERE DID THAT ENORMOUS DIAMOND YOU ALWAYS WEAR COME FROM?), and they fight for like 20 minutes and break up except not really, and then we go through 2/3 of the book, and he finally shows up again, and she reiterates that she's not interested in him, until he pulls her down on top of him and they start making out.

And that's it. The greatest love story of our time. Making out with a stranger who kidnapped you, who is a death deity, who you HARDLY KNOW.

And then who kidnaps you again later "for your own good", and the book ends. Because how else will you stretch out a super thin plot into a trilogy in order to sell more books?

The number of questions that were answered at the end of this book? Maybe 1 or 2. The number of plot points that were left hanging in the air, unresolved because that would make too much logical sense? About 100.


I get it - supernatural romance YA is super popular (or was when this was written). And glomming onto the plot of greek myths is a great idea. But this was just poorly executed, with a main character who I kept vacillating on liking or wanting to smack upside the head, and ended up just wanting to punch in the face for being so wishy-washy.

2 stars for some inventive ideas...but failing completely in the execution and in getting me to emotionally connect to or care about any of the characters.

(except Kayla - she is the only reason I would continue reading. I kind of want to know what her story is.)