From the Publisher
Praise for ABANDON"Meg Cabot is arguably the queen of contemporary teen novels . . . Her retelling of this old myth is smart, sassy, and of the moment." — NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS"Pierce is an endearing and amusing heroine, and John is an ethereal yet ardent lover who should elicit a few sighs." — BOOKLIST ONLINE"Readers will love Cabot's newest venture into mythological lore." — TEENREADS.COM
School Library Journal - Audio
12/01/2013
Gr 7 Up—Pierce Olivera is adjusting to her life as Queen of the Underworld, coping as best she can with abilities such as being able to raise her cousin from the dead. With her first sorting of souls, the Furies attack and kill her boyfriend, John, the ruler of the Underworld. Thanatos, the Greek personification of Death, has taken John's soul, and Pierce must hunt him down. In addition, Pierce's Uncle Chris was wrongly accused of killing her guidance counselor, and she wants to clear his name. Pierce will have to battle Furies and a teenage boy with the ability to steal souls plus face a hurricane to save John, her family, and the Underworld. With the help of the Fates and her bird, Hope, she just might succeed. Natalia Payne does an excellent job of capturing Pierce's stubbornness and innocent hopefulness along with the attitudes of the secondary characters. Cabot's novel (Viking, 2012) features a great supporting cast of characters, including a group of 18th-century sailors, a spunky best friend, a Fury grandmother, and a couple of dead souls. This is a perfect ending to the series, and a helpful afterword explains more about Greek myths and the lives of the characters. An interesting twist on the Persephone and Hades story; readers of Greek myths will be attracted to the series.—Sarah Flood, Breckinridge County Public Library, Hardinsburg, KY
School Library Journal
11/01/2013
Gr 7 Up—Pierce Oliviera is one powerful 17-year-old. She's got the love and devotion of John Hayden and with that comes tremendous responsibility-by loving him back she's agreed to live forevermore in the Underworld as its queen. Everything seems to be going pretty well, as well as it can be going in the Underworld, until the Furies exact their revenge and John ends up dead. No one thought he could die, and maybe he's not all the way dead, but the problem is that the Furies have returned and the fates of both the Underworld and Isla Huesos, Pierce's home on Earth, are at stake if they aren't stopped. Pierce must leave the Underworld along with some assorted buddies to get John back and stop those pesky Furies before everything and everyone she loves are destroyed. This fun and engaging take on the Persephone/Hades myth will definitely appeal to devotees of Greek mythology, tragic love stories, and paranormal tales. Cabot does a great job of bringing readers up to speed, and although it would be beneficial to have read the earlier books, there is enough backstory for those who just pick up this title on a whim. The author offers a story that is full of nail-biting, heart-racing moments, but that has bits of humor peppered throughout and brings the characters to life. Sex is alluded to a couple of times throughout the story, but never specifically or graphically described. Fake curse words like "fudge" and other nonspecific stand-ins for the words are used liberally, but there's nothing gratuitous enough that would make the book inappropriate for younger teens. Recommend not only to those who love the other books in the trilogy, but also to any readers who enjoy a little romance with their myths.—Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR
Kirkus Reviews
The third in Cabot's kinda-sorta reimagining of the Persephone myth takes the trilogy to an appropriately Sturm-und-Drang conclusion. As the story opens, 17-year-old Pierce has embraced both immortal boyfriend John, lord of the Underworld, and an eternity by his side. All is not well in the land of the dead, though, as the Fates who watch over the Underworld have apparently abandoned it, leaving it vulnerable to the malevolent Furies. A gumming-up of the movement of recently deceased souls through the Underworld to their final destinations has resulted in a "pestilence" that threatens both the land of the dead and Pierce's mortal home, Isla Huesos (an alternate Key West). And then John is killed….With a posse that includes her kickass friend, Kayla, and her recently killed-but-resurrected cousin, Alex, along with some of John's Underworld cohorts and a few doughty, newly dead souls, Pierce ascends to the surface to try to set things right. Plotting is not this book's strength, as the rules governing the Underworld and the web of vendettas that fuels Isla Huesos' maladies feel more than a little arbitrary; moreover, the frequent descents into classic paranormal-romance angst tire rather than titillate. But Cabot's characterizations are mostly sharp, and when she indulges her talent for snappy dialogue, the book wakes up. Though unlikely to win new fans to the trilogy, this closer offers its enthusiasts some moments to enjoy. (Paranormal romance. 14 & up)
