Book Review: Abandon by Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot's Abandon:

I was disappointed with this book. To fully understand the depth of this statement, you must know that I've read about 80% of everything Meg Cabot has published. So, I would say that I'm a fan of her work. But this one didn't do it for me. The narrator/MC was boring, bounced around in her head too much, and spent half of the book trying to convince the reader that she wasn't crazy or saying that she didn't care that anyone thought she was crazy. I thought the narrative was poorly constructed. It was supposed to be suspenseful (I wonder what happened to Hannah? Why did she get kicked out of her old school? What really happened to her in the Underworld?) but it just fell flat.

Also, she was just unintelligent. She didn't connect that D-Wing=rejects of school. She didn't ever TALK to anyone. She doesn't know who Homer is and she doesn't care. She comes off as an unlikable selfish spoiled rich girl who is self-absorbed. Only when she spoke to the Cemetery guy (I can't even remember his name) did the story begin to make any sense.

And John. He could have been such a developed tortured character. He came off as flat and one-dimensional though.

One aspect of the book that I like though, was the quotation from Dante's Inferno at the beginning of every chapter. I didn't necessarily think that many quotations should have been included (a few separating the book into sections would have sufficed) but it was appreciated.

My only hope is that the second and third books will somehow redeem this good, if poorly executed, idea.

Rating: 2/5.

DFTBA and happy reading!
Nadia