Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot (Abandon Trilogy series #1)

Summary 
New from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a dark, fantastical story about this world . . . and the underworld.

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.

Review
When growing up, sometimes finding a place for yourself in society is one of the hardest challenges a young teen can face. Moving through the transitions of adolescence and young adulthood leads to complicated decisions and mixed emotions. Death and injury are also two very significant events that can heave a person and their family scarred. When it comes to losing a loved one at a young age, we all know how to properly grieve and set our dead at peace. The trouble is, we never expect our loved ones to come back from the dead.

Pierce Oliveria has deemed herself an NDE. An NDE is someone who has been through a near death experience. When faced with hypothermia and a head injury after slipping and falling into her family home's pool, she is left scared, tormented, and confused as to where she truly belongs amongst her family and friends in the living. When experiencing death and returning back to life, Pierce does not know what to tell the ones she loves what happened while she was on the other side. Most people claim to have seen a light, something that gives them proof that an afterlife actually exists. Pierce, on the other hand, did not see a bright white light, she saw him. 

The dark, ruggedly handsome, and muscled boy named John. He is the only proof that Pierce knows that what happened to her was real. All of the therapy sessions and 'shrinks' that her parents sent her too all claim Pierce is experiencing what is professionally called 'lucid dreaming.' This is no dream. John is real, but from the dead. 

As the novel works to unravel Pierce's thoughts and confused beliefs, I was able to see how deep and caring the main character is. Pierce dies at fifteen and comes back to life after seeing a boy who appears in the afterlife and in our present world, but she does not know what to make of him or her second chance at life. A morbid drama that is mixed with a young teenage romance, the difficult journey that adolescence provides and the ways in which the past is a concept that will always continue to appear in the present, no matter how far you bury the truth. I was entranced by the writing style of Cabot and how she allows you to truly feel as if you are in the immature and naive, but also deeply compassionate mind of Pierce and how as much as she cares for John deep down, she is still torn between focusing on a new start with her mom and a boy who continues to cause trouble for her new start. 

This series is a unique look at the journey of adolescence that is filled with obstacles and challenges that the average young girl or boy is not faced with. Death is not normally a concept that goes hand in hand with a young romance and critical family ties, but when it comes to Cabot's writing, I am a sucker for any new characters she brings onto paper. I was unable to put this book down as my heart strings were continually pulled towards Pierce and John and the connection they are working hard to create even though there are forces from both worlds working to keep them apart. 

Pierce is in love with the ruler of the Underworld and she just doesn't know it yet. 

Reviewed by Nicole Williams

Book Information
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date: 4/26/2011
Pages: 320

Review: Underworld (Abandon series #2) by Meg Cabot

Summary
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, the dark reimagining of the Persephone myth begun in ABANDON continues ... into the Underworld.Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn't dead.

Not this time.

But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.

Her captor, John Hayden, claims it's for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they've come back as Furies, intent on vengeance . . . on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.

But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there . . . and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.

Review
There are some beliefs in life that many people claim they would only believe if they saw it with their own two eyes. The only problem with this logic is that some things are never seen by the live person, some things are only seen after death. Death and religion are two entangled beliefs that do not have one set truth, but rather a mixture of beliefs told and retold again by any loyal and desperate person to have a sense of hope for the afterlife. 

As a population, we never consider the consequences of a person coming back to life after receiving the kiss of death. This is an obvious situation as our world has never seen the miracle of a person coming back to life after experiencing death. Death is a permanent fixture of mother nature that we do not have any control over. The only question is, but what if one sixteen-year-old did?

Pierce Olivieria is a sixteen-year-old girl, resident of the island home that covers the truth of the dark world beneath the surface of the Earth. Pierce is John Hayden's girlfriend an infuriating, but impossibly compassionate ruler of the underworld. She makes her decisions just as any young teenage girl would be expected to, by following her heart. Finding the balance between what she desires and what she believes is the right thing to do for herself, for John, and for her family. 

The only problem is, Pierce did not expect the sacrifices of living in the Underworld to be so overbearing. She is torn between returning to her home to help the ones she cares about most, and staying with the man she loves for eternity, in his own kingdom. The tragic climax where the young, naive, and selfish girl is to make decisions that not only change her life, but change her life for eternity. 

As Pierce decides to give the underworld and John a fair chance, complications arise when mysterious dark forces work to continually cause John pain as 'consequences' for bringing an outsider to the underworld for personal reasons. As the book reached a crossroads between the romantic circling of John and Pierce, vs the inevitable heartbreak Pierce will face is she does not help her family, it seems as though you honestly do not know which way the main character will lean. There is always a constant sense of unpredictability and suspense as the situations Pierce and John fight through together there is no sense of plausible conclusion or realistic measures that as the reader make you think Pierce should work towards. The bond between John and Pierce is electric and Cabot's influence over the chemistry and word play between John and Pierce's intimate moments is riveting. 

I enjoyed the sequel to the Abandon series for multiple reasons, but in the end it was the concept of love meeting death. It shows that there is no simple dramatic word play or rebellious behavior that was going to solve this battle. Sacrifices have to be made that are more than just personal, they are permanent. I recommend this book to anyone who is familiar with Meg Cabot's thrilling writing style and sense of morbid, yet dramatic adventure. 

Reviewed by Nicole Williams

Book Information
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date: 4/1/2013
Pages: 336

Review: Awaken (Abandon Trilogy series #3) by Meg Cabot

Summary
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, the dark reimagining of the Persephone myth comes to a thrilling conclusion.

Death has her in his clutches. She doesn't want him to let go.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knew by accepting the love of John Hayden, she'd be forced to live forever in the one place she's always dreaded most: the Underworld. The sacrifice seemed worth it, though, because it meant she could be with the boy she loves.

But now her happiness -- and safety -- are threatened, all because the Furies have discovered that John has broken one of their strictest rules: He revived a human soul.

If the balance between life and death isn't fixed, both the Underworld and Pierce's home back on earth will be wiped away. But there's only one way to restore order. Someone has to die.

Review
Kicking the bucket, biting the dust, meeting the grim reaper, and resting at peace are all expressions commonly used to describe someone who has died and passed on to their final resting place. It is ironic that death is the most complicated and fearful event of a person’s, but people use humorous and exaggerated expressions to describe an event that is uncontrollable and irreversible. Death itself is a creature with wild and dark actions and reasons that cannot be explained and cannot be questioned since there is no way to question it or find out what happens once one dies and leaves the living, forever.

Pierce Oliviera is a young woman who has not only met death and lived to tell the tale, but is dating a death deity or lord of the Underworld and now he is dead. Now Pierce is left with more than a sense of loss when losing John, the love of her life. She is left with an Underworld full of souls that are trapped because they cannot pass on without guidance to their final resting place, a family in the real world that is facing criminal charges and personal destruction, and the possibility that she cannot protect herself, the ones she loves, and bring John back all in time…before the Underworld becomes one with the living.

Pierce is a young woman who is faced with more challenges than the average girl and the fact that the novel is able to incorporate the normal adolescence experiences with that of the exaggerated experiences of dating a boy that has already died and is a permanent fixture of the Underworld. She is a young woman in love who has run away from her parents, is currently living as the consort and queen of the Underworld, and is faced with trying to find the balance between a life with her family above her boyfriend’s Underworld kingdom and a life permanently with John.

As if Pierce doesn’t have enough on her plate between the living and the dead, she is faced with Furies. Furies are evil spirits who take possession of the living who are weak minded. The problem is not that Furies have taken her boyfriend’s spirit through killing him, but that Furies possess the ones closest to her and she does not know how to save everyone including herself. It all comes down to the war between the Furies and the Fates.

This finale to the Abandon series is my personal favorite of all three books simply because the relationships between the main characters is extremely emotional as they are faced with the possibility that not everyone is going to be able to survive the storm that is approaching between the living and the dead. Cabot is able to write a series based on the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone without making the logic sound as if it is unbelievable or unrealistic; rather she transforms Pierce and John’s love into a romantic tale that follows the concept of love vs. death. Not only is this a unique concept that is battling for control over the fate of Pierce and John’s relationship as well as the fate of everyone they truly care about, but the plot is not about life vs. death, but rather the living and the dead fighting for a chance to be loved without consequences.

This book was incredibly detailed, fast paced, and deeply written in terms of the consequences that continue to haunt a person once they have made choices they cannot fix or take back. A sense of foreshadowing develops in the plot of the book as Pierce and John work together in the beginning to sort the souls of the dead and make sure they pass on to their final resting place while they are forced to live with their own decisions and remain as permanent members of the Underworld. The love between Pierce and John is intoxicating, while their issues in the Underworld are extremely unpopular and unusual for people Pierce’s age, but their circumstances in the world of the living are quite normal and expected for teenagers who are in love as much as Pierce and John.

I recommend this book as well as the trilogy to anyone who finds a complicated love story intriguing and enticing, especially when the challenges the main characters face are those that are not possible in most situations or expected. Cabot allows the reader to follow the in depth thoughts of Pierce’s mind and how she balances the difficult decisions between her teenage emotions and the emotional reactions of those around her, living and dead.

It has always been said that love conquers all. For Pierce and John that is the truth, but in the end, someone always has to die.

Reviewed by Nicole Williams

Book Information
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date: 7/2/2013
Pages: 336