** spoiler alert ** So it's about 6am. I woke up sick at 4 and decided to finish reading "Abandon" before school. I had hit a point in the story when last I picked it up, where I knew something was going to happen...mostly because I had read more than half of the book and not much had happened in progression of plot. That sounded harsh, but, up to that point the story was mostly flashbacks, which packed a punch, and were mysterious and lovely...but the actual here-and-now plot was trudging along. I knew it has to break though, soon...soon the backstory and the present would come together in some wonderful Meg Cabot way.

I'm sort of still waiting.

I very much liked the book, the concept was really REALLY cool. I even liked the main characters...mostly because John seemed like he was always 3 seconds from taking a hissy fit, and at times I thought maybe he should be on bi-polar meds...but it made him interesting at least, damaged. Not just your usual YA Paranormal Romance bad boy thing, but endearing almost...and slightly wacked. Pierce was very low-key of a character. She lacked some of the spunk that is usually present in Meg's leading ladies, but overall likeable.


The concept, as I mentioned, was great, but that's also the part that left me underwhelmed. I think perhaps it was due to the disjointed writing style. Flashbacks, while really good for estasblishing backstory (and in this case very well written) do have their drawbacks. They did cause the plot to feel slow-moving (and not in that wonderful gothic impending doom way.) Muddled. That's how it felt. When we finally get into the details of the story. Who John is, what he is, how he is what it is, who is the bad guy if it's not the emotionally unstable dead boy in the cementary, where do people go when they die....all the goodies...well, they are answered, but not really in detail, and mostly one character just matter of factly explains it all, neat little plot bow and all. The actual idea behind what happens when people die seemed scattered to me as well...not what happens to Pierce, but the vague oh you know this is ONE UNDERWORLD, but there are many others, so some people get lights, others get boats...is it based on your belief system...because Pierce, pretty sure, would be Christian, with her talk of Angels so why does she get sucked up into Greek Diety world? Is it just based on prominity? I'm so confused. Mostly I wanted more details...or more commitment on that side of the story.

John and Pierce...well they have potential...I am not sitting here thinking about how wonderful, or even drama-filled their realtionship is....only one moment really stood out for me especially. It wasn't a hissy fit, or a kiss by a moonlight pool...but strangely enough it was when Pierce was kidnapped the second time, and John sat down and completely ignored her and read a book while she ran about kicking doors down. Is it strange that THAT is what stood out for me as relationship moments? But it gave me hope that the interactions between these grow to be classic Meg Cabot as the series continues.

I hate rating this a 3, it was more like a 3.5...often it's hard for a first book in a series to pack it's full punch. Authors sometimes take the "all mysterious, where is what is happening now but I can't explain WHY until the next book" approach, or the "I am going to spend 500 pages explaining every little detail about the backstory and have no time to further the plot" approach. I must give Meg credit for actually doing something DIFFERENT...she didn't go one way or another with this story. She allowed equal amounts backstory and plot progression (it's just the backstory was more interesting for me, so the here-and-now felt flatter.)

I enjoyed this book, and I think the things I whined about above will fall away as the series progresses and it will redeem it'self as a overall wonderful Meg Cabot read. I have complete faith in this, as part of the whole storyline...but right now I'm just really liking this one, but I'll probably love the whole story arch when it's complete.