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A review by cherrycicada
Abandon by Blake Crouch
4.0
Have you ever read a book that leaves you wondering if you're naive to think that the majority of people are good? This is that type of book. A group of hiking guides, historians, writers, and ghost hunters use a rare pass together to visit the mining ghosttown of Abandon in the mountains of Colorado. While everyone in the group is aware of the story of the entire town vanishing on Christmas day 1892, most of the group is not aware of the rumors of millions of dollars of gold that vanished along with them. And that gold seems cursed in the worst way. Nobody who touches it seems to live to tell the tale. The gold continues to inspire the worst traits of humanity in those who lust for it. I don't think I've ever read a book with so many despicable characters.
This has a different feel than the other books I've read by Blake Crouch (the Wayward Pines series and Dark Matter), but it will keep you turning all 521 of its pages fast enough to make your eyes ache after you're done. You get adventure as the group hike in and plenty of terror as you find out what the characters have in store for them. The storyline goes back and forth between present day and 1892. While this is not normally a storytelling device I enjoy, it worked perfectly here because the hikers encounter a place in one chapter and then it comes alive in the next chapter with people who lived there when Abandon was still intact and not a dangerously crumbling ruin. The ending is bittersweet. Eventually, you realize that there's at least a triple word play on the title of the book.
I probably would have given the book a higher rating if the characters weren't almost all such unbelievable terrible people.
This has a different feel than the other books I've read by Blake Crouch (the Wayward Pines series and Dark Matter), but it will keep you turning all 521 of its pages fast enough to make your eyes ache after you're done. You get adventure as the group hike in and plenty of terror as you find out what the characters have in store for them. The storyline goes back and forth between present day and 1892. While this is not normally a storytelling device I enjoy, it worked perfectly here because the hikers encounter a place in one chapter and then it comes alive in the next chapter with people who lived there when Abandon was still intact and not a dangerously crumbling ruin. The ending is bittersweet. Eventually, you realize that there's at least a triple word play on the title of the book.
I probably would have given the book a higher rating if the characters weren't almost all such unbelievable terrible people.