Abandon by Meg Cabot

Abandon has a fresh and interesting premise – seventeen-year-old Pierce hits her head, drowns and dies, during which time she experiences the afterlife which happens to be eerily similar to the Ancient Greek version but manages to return back to her life, although at a cost - she comes back different and is haunted by an exceedingly good looking guy who may or may not be the ruler of that version of the afterlife, and who may or may not be wanting her back to her rightful place…

Before I say anything else, that cover is stunning, and I fall a little bit more in love with it every time I look at it – the contrast, colours and design are beautiful. I’m loving this wave of books featuring Greek mythology, but I also hate it when said Greek mythology is butchered to suit the needs of the novel – Cabot, I get artistic licence, but there were only THREE Furies in Greek mythology who were SISTERS, not just every bad person in the afterlife… It also seems like Cabot is jumping on the bandwagon with having quotes from half-related books at the start of each chapter or at the beginning – in this case from Dante’s Inferno, which is admittedly about a journey to the Underworld, but I found the quotes are utterly unrelated to the events in the chapter it introduced.

I really like Cabot’s ‘Queen of Contemporary-style-writing’, but it really feels different in this book – like brackets and such, usually the mark of a bad author were completely overused, as was the start-a-new-line-for-dramatic-purposes ploy – and for once, the protagonist was completely unlikeable – Pierce is moany, selfish and in my opinion didn’t really deserve to come back from the dead, but then we wouldn’t have Abandon!

Aside from my slight moanings, it was a fun and interesting read, with some nice twists – Cabot knows how to give you just enough mystery to leave you confused but intrigued, and as long as you don’t look too deep, expect another Mediator-esque series and don’t take it too seriously, then Abandon is very enjoyable, and I am looking forward to Underworld, the sequel to see where Pierce's and John's story heads.

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[SYNOPSIS: The first book in the brand-new dark and dangerously seductive trilogy from bestselling teen author 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...]