Abandon - A Teens' Top Ten 2012 Nominee

June 05, 2012

Seventeen-year-old Pierce didn’t have a near death experience two years ago when she fell into a pool and drowned in the middle of winter. She didn’t see a bright, white light. She wasn't overwhelmed by a sense of peace and love. Pierce didn’t experience any of that before she was revived by the doctors at the hospital. But she can’t tell anyone that. Because who would believe that she actually went to the Underworld and was taken captive by the overseer of this in-between place where the dead are sorted for eternity, and a guy who calls himself John Hayden? And who would believe that John Hayden, Death himself, now keeps showing up on Isla Huesos to rescue Pierce and entreat her to return with him below?

Meg Cabot first had the idea for Abandon when she was introduced to the Greek myth of Persephone in high school. In this book (the first in a planned trilogy), Cabot has put a modern spin on the story of the death deity who takes a living, young woman captive to the Underworld to be his bride. Unlike Persephone, who succumbed without much of a fight to her new place by Hades’s side (her mom, Demeter, is the one who really rages about the whole situation), Pierce is sassy, smart, and determined not to fall back into John Hayden’s (get it? Hades/Hayden?) grasp. But something dark is stirring on Isla Huesos (a fictional island that’s directly inspired by Key West, Florida, where Meg Cabot currently lives), and the lord of the Underworld may be the only one who can keep Pierce safe.

Erin’s Bonus Features for Abandon

Genre: mythology; magical realism (again—must be a popular trend)
Mood: tumultuous
Song: "Temptation Waits" by Garbage
Readalikes: Mythology by Edith Hamilton; Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
Website: megcabot.com/abandon

This blog is part of a series on YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2012 nominees. Voting for TTT starts in August; more information can be found here.

~Erin D.
Parkville Branch