Thursday, April 28, 2011

Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

Abandon (Abandon Trilogy #1)
Series: Abandon #1
PublisherScholastic
Publishing date: April 26th, 2011
Pages: 320
Buy it: Amazon
Summary: 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.

Rating: 2 stars

WARNING: This review contains mentions of wanting to throttle, strangle and maim book characters, and includes potentially traumatizing pictures.

Just look at this summary. Go ahead, read it.
It's amazing, isn't it? And the cover. It's gorgeous. The premise is mysterious, intriguing and lovely. I was SO excited for this book, you don't even know. I think my entire twitter feed knew the instant it was out.

This is why I'm going to be a little hard on it. Because my expectations were high, and there weren't met. At. All.

About the narrator:


This is what I wanted to do to her for half the book. UGH. What a vapid, idiotic, insensitive, shallow, boring person. She's everything I hate in a character. No backbone, changing loyalties, and just this carelessness that I HATE.

    Sure, I'd been kicked out of school. I couldn't seem to go more than an hour without craving a caffeinated beverage. And a guy I'd met while I was dead had popped by unexpectedly and caused me to be slapped with a seven-figure civil suit.
    But I was feeling positive about the future.

... Excuse me???
LOL my daddy has to pay more than a million dollars to a guy but I don't care!



About the writing:

It draaaaaaaagged. She spent ages telling us about how she had been in the Underworld, and some bad "incident" had happened after she came back, but that the incident was different from the accident, and blablablablabla. My god, just get ON with it! The book is just so full of plot holes (like when Pierce loses her necklace, but somehow still has it around her neck?) and stilted, stretched out mock-obstacles.
Also, just like in The Goddess Test (which is also a retelling of the Persephone/Hades myth), the narrator keeps talking about "that". Apparently, spelling out the word sex is a capital offense.

Oh, and by the way, Pierce hates Greek mythology, because it's "complicated and weird and had nothing to do with reality." How the hell do you want me to empathize with her? Seriously? SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHO HOMER IS.

About the romance:

It was ridiculous. And the love interest? His name is John. I don't even know what to say to that. He's a one-dimensional, pseudo swoon worthy "dark" guy that we didn't get to know at all. He behaved all aloof-like and jerky and moody and suddenly bam! His lips came came down over mine etc etc. Of course, the rest of the world ~vanished instantly. Eye roll.

One thing I learned from this book: tassels?
BAD.


EVIL. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Needless to say, I would recommend this book to no one. I know it looks so good and you want to like it sooo bad, but... Yeah. No.

Abandon (Abandon Trilogy #1)

6 comments:

rameau said...

*clicks the little x*

It's removed from my Goodreads to-read list. Oh, that felt so good. If it had been just an issue with the myths, I might have still given this book a chance but one thing I can't handle is vapid narrators. Thank you for saving me ;)

Lisa (Reading to the Moon) said...

Thanks for the review. I was on the fence if I should read this. I really enjoyed The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (which is a Persephone myth retelling). Now I know to just skip this one!

Jennifer A said...

Oh. :(

Well that's a bummer! I really, really want to love this story!

Thanks for the honest review. :)

Jennifer of Little Shelf

Nomes said...

LOL.

this is hilarious (esp the first picture!)

it wasn;t on my wishlist or anything but i thoroughly enjoyed reading this review :)

Anonymous said...

I haven't read Abandon yet. Honestly, I didn't even hear about it until 2 weeks ago. Crazy right? Everyone was buzzing about and I didn't even know what the hell it was. After reading your review I'm kinda glad that I didn't hear of it though. The main character? Seems like a Bella. Just like Kate in The Goddess Test. They may not be exactly like her but the similarities are there. John. Really? JOHN? Of all the names... And tassels?! THANK YOU FOR WARNING ME! I shall run in the opposite direction upon first sight -_-

Oh yeah, Pierce lost her necklace then it was suddenly on her neck?? WTF. INCONSISTENT!!!

Brittany @ Nice Girls Read Books said...

I came over here via goodreads and I just wanted to say YESSSSSSS. You mirror my thoughts exactly and I even featured a link to your review in mine :)

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