Abandon by Meg Cabot

Last year, Pierce died - just for a moment. And when she was in the space between life and death, she met John: tall dark and terrifying, it’s his job to usher souls from one realm to the next.

There’s a fierce attraction between them, but Pierce knows that if she allows herself to fall for John she will be doomed to a life of shadows and loneliness in the underworld. But now things are getting dangerous for her, and her only hope is to do exactly what John says . .

Told mostly in flashbacks, Abandon is an interesting twist on the story of Hades and Persephone

Characters: I admired Pierce, she is not selfish in any way and always put the thoughts of others in front of her own. She also has a really strong desire to help animals in need. She is understandably shy in this book and I hope to see her develop and become stronger in the next books. John is still a little of an unknown to me, we only get bits of pieces of him in this story, but what we do see is kind of dangerous and brooding. My favorite character, we see even less of is Pierce’s mother, I really hope to see more of her in the series. She comes across as being a very strong and admirable woman.

Originality: As the retelling of myths seems to be very popular in Young Adult books these days and I have already read The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter I can’t say that I saw much originality into this story except “Hades” is a slightly different twist to his character as is the whole idea of the Underworld and how it is set up for this retelling. I have never read a book with so much of it being told through flashbacks, so although not “original” it was new to me.

Plot: I have to be honest here, I got lost a couple of times on what exactly was going on in this story. There was so much focus on the necklace and the tragedy that happened to a girl in Pierce’s past that I forgot about what the real story was supposed to be about : Pierce and John. I really feel that the story did not focus on them until near the end. Although pieces fit together in the end, I really did not see what the majority of the flashbacks had to do with the main focus of the plot.

Writing: As I learned that I am not a big fan of the majority of a story being told through flashbacks, I also felt because of this that the majority of the book was very slow and dragged. When the story of Pierce and John finally really got going (more than half way in) I finally got hooked just in time for the book to end. As we know Pierce escapes from John after she dies, but how she escapes was just not as exciting and drama filled as I would have liked. I’d think that after dying that a person would have to go through some trials or tribulations to get to come back, but the simplicity of her escape was lost on me.

 So I sound a little on the negative side don’t I? Well this is my very first Meg Cabot book. I am not familiar with her writing style and it’s unknown to me if she was trying something new with this retelling. It was really the flashbacks and the lack of angst that put me off of the story. I do however appreciate finishing the book because the ending was very anticipated for me to see where it was all going. I LOVED the twists at the end and it really saved the whole book for me. I fully intend on following through with the rest of the series as I really hope all the backstory is out of the way and we can really focus on the story of Pierce and John from here on out.