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Friday 15 November 2013

Book Talk: the Abandon Trilogy by Meg Cabot

So last night, I finally brought an end to what has been an emotional roller-coaster ride second only to Lili St Crow's Strange Angels series. Oh. My. God. The cliffhangers at the ends of books one and two...no. Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?


Seven years old, Pierce Oliviera is playing in the Isla Huesos graveyard after being kicked out of the sexton's office at her grandfather's funeral. A tall, mysterious boy -- a giant, really -- spots her crying over a dead dove.

He revives it. Then walks away.

Fifteen years old, Pierce trips on her scarf, falls into her father's pool and drowns. She wakes up, cold, wet and afraid, in a cave by a lake. There are two long lines of people: her line, the quiet line, and the rowdy other line. Scared, confused, not realising what has happened, Pierce isn't really thinking when she runs up to the one person there she recognises -- the boy from the cemetery. John Hayden. He gives her a necklace just before the doctors revive her in hospital. When she wakes up, it's still there.

Now seventeen, and John is turning up everywhere she goes. This "dream" she had while dead is anything but fantasy, and anything but over. It's not like anyone would believe her if she told them, so she doesn't. But John's not the type of guy you can ignore. He wants to take her back to the place that haunts her nightmares. The Underworld. The only question is, why?


As with many trilogies, the first book in this series, Abandon, was by far the best. I loved the idea of having an NDE (someone who has had a near-death experience) as the main character, and as always Meg Cabot did not disappoint, even though my expectations were, after the Mediator series, incredibly high. The whole tall, dark, mysterious guy thing may seem like a cliche, but believe me, Meg Cabot handles it well. John Hayden is a complete, well-rounded, extremely interesting and three-dimensional character that you will fall in love with, even though in my opinion, it takes longer than usual. He's just so fascinating, though, that even if you don't like him, you still need to find out what happens to him.

I think it'll be hard to talk about Underworld and Awaken without ruining the end of Abandon, so I'll just say that they were full of suspense and fantastic, even though books one and two ended on EVIL cliffhangers! To contrast, book three felt almost too tied-up. So, as saying to little is better than saying too much, I'll leave you now to discover the series yourselves.

Star rating: 5/5

Till Monday!

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