Abandon by Meg Cabot

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.

I actually really enjoyed this book. That sounds really bad doesn’t it… But the truth is I was a little backwards about coming forwards in getting this book, but I am glad I did.

I had some reservations on several counts. One thing is that I think I am growing out of the Meg Cabot YA selection. This has nothing to do with her writing! I still think she is a fantastic writer and can tell one heck of a story but I don’t really identify with the characters anymore and find most of their decisions irritating. And the second is because I love the story of Hades and Persephone and I always inwardly cringe where there is something based however loosely) on the myth.

That being said though, I thoroughly enjoyed this read (well…listen).

Although it is something that is used over and over and over again in YA novels I love the idea of a kid being lifted out of their home environment and dumped in a new school so whenever this is in a book it gets an extra brownie point from me. Maybe that is because I was stuck in the same place all my life and would have loved to have started over somewhere new.

So, this is what happens here. Thanks to an ‘incident’ that is revealed to us through the first half of the book Pierce and her mother have moved back to the island where Pierce’s mom grew up so that they can start over. But it doesn’t quite work out to plan. Thanks to the constant appearances of John – Lord of the Dead for lack of a better phrase.

And so we haveth the story.

I did love this book but there were some things that did grate on my nerves – just a teeny little bit. The major issue that I had was the reason for Pierce and her best friend Hannah breaking off their friendship. The reason seemed so trivial and childish. Pierce understood why Hannah reacted the way she did and yet she seemed to contradict herself with her own reaction to this… Yeah, I got a little cross eyed at that point.

SPOILER – Totally didn’t see the whole teacher/student thing coming. I mean I did as soon as ‘young, male teacher’ came into the mix. I was like ‘hello, hello, hello – PLOT POINT’ But what a creep. John should have broken more than his hand. And while we are on the subject (and any of you who have read this book I would love to see what you thought of this particular bit) WHAT was with Pierce’s dad’s reaction to the whole hand breaking thing. If my daughter was being molested by some sexual predator and she had broken his hand (which she didn’t because it was John, but her dad doesn’t know that)I would have been giving her a pat on the back and signing her up for lesson where she could learn to break more than that. But oh no. Not her dad. He goes and yells at her. *grumble grumble*

And I wish that Pierce had maybe been a little…brighter at points and not so much of an ‘idiotic teenager’ (thank you Mr Smith, you took the words right out of my mouth). She seemed just a tad ditzy and I wanted to shake her and tell her to get her act together all ready.

But there was plenty to like about this book!

In the Meg Cabot tradition it is filled with the laugh out loud one liners that would have had me looking a right idiot if I was sitting in the doctors waiting room while reading this.

And thank goodness! Finally a sensible teenager who doesn’t go and do something in her mother’s house (because of being coerced by her peers) without her mother knowing about it. Thank you mom for being do funky (this mom is majorly cool) and Pierce for being sensible enough for not doing something that had the potential to get very messy pretty quickly without having permission. THANK YOU! I will admit to leaping up and down with glee at that point.

Good, enjoyable, funny, sometimes serious, sometimes sad read.

Don’t read if you are expecting a faithful retelling of the Persephone and Hades story but give it a try if you like your variations (and don’t mind it being based VERY LOOSELY on the myth).

I could go on and on about the funky little plot point and parallels but I’ll leave it here.

Oh, and mega 'did-not-see-that-coming' spin.


Favourite character - Uncle Chris. I loved Uncle Chris, he was nice. 
Least favourite character - Pierce (her attitude grated on me something rotten!) and her father. I wanted to hit him!!! I think the attitude thing must be hereditary. 

Narrated by Natalie Payne
Length - 9hrs 12mins
Release Date - 26/04/11

This was fun t listen too. There were bits were I wished I was reading it because I wanted to get to the next bit. Natalie Payne was great as the narrator. She nailed the whole 'teenage' voice thing, although it did take me a little long to get used to, the voice grated on me a little at first but I got used to it. Thank fully.