ABANDONED: The true story of a little girl who didn't belong

Product Information

This book was such a... mess. There is no other way to phrase it, it was a complete and utter mess. Now, here's the thing. I LOVE Meg Cabot. In fact, I'm practically a swooning fangirl. Even the books that most other people didn't like, like Jinx and Pants on Fire, I adored. I've always found that her heroines have a very unique voice — snarky, sassy and fun. Even when the world is going to hell in a handbasket, you can count on a Cabot heroine to make you laugh. Meg Cabot and Princess Mia were my introduction to the world of YA, and they'll always have a special place on my bookshelf. That being said, Abandon is one of the biggest disappointments I've faced this year. (I'm not including CoFA here because it met my every expectation, and more!) I fear that Meg Cabot has fallen to the dark side, my friends... the YA PNR pod person has got her in its grasp. *swoons* Hear my pleas. Can you do me a solid and provide more alcohol and chocolate if I continue to run into these books?

Thank you to the author and @greyspromo for providing me with a copy of this to read. This is my honest review. When I moved house I considered my criteria for de-cluttering my shelves (see post on decluttering). And I give away books that I give up reading (see my post from 2014 Abandoning books). Very few of the books review on Bookword get passed on, mostly because I only review books I value enough to tell people about. I am always hoping that the books I pass on will find happier readers. Where do I begin? I liked both main characters but I think i needed more non-physical interactions between the two of them or equally less-shallow exchanges in parallel with all their friends with benefits stuff. I felt like their 'Sort of relationship' began and then centered only on one another's attraction and had not increased from that point. Considering all what was going on in Jupiter’s life with her abusive father and the tragic death of her mother add to that the male's MC and the baggage he was carrying from his past, in my opinion more sharing/talking was needed. When I first read the synopsis for the book, I nearly fainted from excitement. The premise seemed so enticing; and I was sure it was going to be as amazing as The Mediator series. The reality? The synopsis is actually hundred times more exciting than the book. I feel really deceived! Nothing actually happens throughout the book. Most of the book is about how Pierce landed in the Underworld and how she escaped from it; and her previous meetings with John. I kept waiting for something even remotely exciting to happen, but the book finished and nothing happened. Cabot does a wonderful job of taking that story from Greek mythology and implanting it in today's teen society. The MC, Pierce, is authentic, as she's not only trying to normal--with a death deity longing for your loins, that's not all that easy--but fit into a new school with the typical high school cliques and head games.

Librarian note: AKA Jenny Carroll (1-800-Where-R-You series), AKA Patricia Cabot (historical romance novels). It's probably not a good sign for a reader to finish your novel and not have a single clue what the point was. Not even an inkling for what you were trying to accomplish. And believe me. I wanted so much to understand and like this book, but the narration ran circles around my wee little mind. The entire first half of the novel has Pierce alluding to several past scenes as if the reader knows what was going on. Pierce would say something like, "Oh and I don't want anything to happen like it did that one time." And I'm sitting here thinking, "Oh yeah? What? What happened?! Tell me already!" I get what Cabot was trying to do, but it didn't work for me. And it definitely didn't need to go on for majority of the book. That was just cruel and wrong. It made me incredibly frustrated. Now, the parts that did manage to make some type of sense were cancelled out by Pierce's sheer stupidity. Saw dust for brains. I really don't want to say it, b-b-but.... BELLA! *gasp* And that, my friends, brings me to the anger.

The most probable cause for people shelving this book is because everyone in it is awful. This is exactly what people were saying when it was first published. Plus it was written in a different era, so contemporary readers might see it as dated and irrelevant. When Should You Quit a Book You Don’t Like? Which brings me to the other major problem with Abandon, which is Pierce herself. Note that the girl on the cover appears to be asleep. This is all too accurate. Pierce frequently compares herself to Snow White: she tells us she’s as rich and pretty and tender-hearted as a princess, and that after her near-death experience, she went into a metaphorical glass coffin and drifted aimlessly through her days. Trouble is, Pierce is still in that glass coffin. She has little in the way of initiative or curiosity. Much of the book consists of Pierce being maneuvered around town by various characters and having information unloaded upon her. About the only thing she does on her own initiative is try to push her cousin and her new friend into eating with some bullies (she doesn’t know they’re bullies yet, but she has reason to suspect). As for curiosity, I’d have been vastly happier with Abandon if Pierce had spent more time looking into mythology and Isla Huesos history for herself instead of having to be told everything in one long expository scene. She loves referencing to things that have happened in her past, but she never really gets to the point. She is petty, selfish, and unrealistic, but that's apparently okay, because she has neurological issues. This entire book makes light of people who actually have real psychological issues.

How to Vote

Somehow the cemetery sexton gets involved and Pierce opens up and confides in him. She goes on and on about how he randomly has shown up in her life, how he scares her, how he's a nightmare, how bad things happen when he's around, etc. Do you know what he says to her after that? Pierce died. She died and discovered that bright lights are not the only thing a person can encounter after they take their last breath. The thing though is that Pierce grabs her own second chance and when she wakes up she learns that not everything was a dream and that John is indeed real. Sounds intriguing right? Well I bought into it and I am sad to say that my description, as plain and short as it is, in my opinion is way more interesting than most of this book. I am really interested in Greek mythology so when I find a book, which seem to be more and more these days, I want to devour it and see what new spins and fun I can read about. I am so disappointed in this one because I can really see a great story in there somewhere, Ms.Cabot just fills the book with so many boring and mundane subplots that the real story gets left behind. This was a wonderful, heartwarming story with some extremely likeable characters. I’m looking forward to reading more about the Powell’s.