I mentioned Meg Cabot’s latest release Abandon in my “Most Anticipated Books of 2011″ post. In that post I discussed how I felt a bit apprehensive about this release. Here are my thoughts on the story.
From Goodreads.com
New from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a dark, fantastical story about this world . . . and the underworld.
Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can’t help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she’s never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
But now she’s moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can’t. Because even here, he finds her. That’s how desperately he wants her back. She knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven, yet she can’t stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.
But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.
This book confused the crap out of me. The way in which Cabot wrote this book had me often wondering what was going on. I had to read it twice in order to follow the plot–this has never happened before! There were two reasons for this befuddlement: 1) There have been three times in Pierce’s life when this “mysterious figure” has made an appearance. The author doesn’t explain all three of them until the second half of the book. 2) The encounters are only vaguely referenced before they are detailed. This made me confused about which encounter Pierce was talking about at times.
The perplexed feeling was made worse by the author’s mixing of flashbacks into the story. The fact she frequently went from present to past with little warning left me lost. I often found myself several paragraphs into a memory before realizing I had gone into the past. I would then have to reread the last page or so to catch back up.
I did feel that the plot was a bit “Twilight-esque”. [Spoiler Alert] The novel centers around a dead young man in love with a young woman who can not get keep out of trouble. [/Spoiler Alert] I could not help notice the similarities between the main characters of this book and of Stephanie Meyer’s novels. That being said, Cabot tells a story around these characters that is entertaining, and I found her use of the underworld to be original. In the end found myself enjoying the story–once I understood it–despite being reminded of Meyer’s characters.
Review: After finishing my first read of this novel, I felt disoriented, thus making me feel disappointed with the book. It’s unfortunate as there was much to like about this story. After my second reread I found the plot was quite entertaining. Cabot created great suspense leaving me wondering what will happen in the next book in the series Underworld. I wished that I could have enjoyed these things the first time.
The first book I want to review is Thin, Rich, Pretty by Beth Harbison. The story is told from three alternating points of view that rotate between the present and past as the story unfolds. By using this technique each narrator only divulges small pieces of the story. The reader is able to use all of these tidbits to create the full plot. This approach helped the tale develop slowly until everything was revealed at the end and left room for interesting twists and turns. The resulting story was quite enjoyable.
Jennifer Weiner uses also uses flashbacks and multiple narrators in Fly Away Home. I found this to be much less successful. The author’s use of flashbacks was less structured and sometimes left me feeling confused. I often wondered if I was in the past or present. Another disappointment was the fact that I found one of the women narrators to be boring. Her story lacked anything that would make it interesting to me. My final issue with the story was that the conclusion of the book left me with no resolution. I had 
There was no disappointment when I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I found all three of Larsson’s novels–Hornet’s Nest plus The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo–to be interesting and entertaining. All three novels in the trilogy started slowly, but soon were impossible to put down. This was a series that had sat on my shelf for several months. I ended up blowing through all the books in a week in a half. The characters were complex; the story was original. I’m glad I finally read this series.
I have no idea how Water for Elephants ended up on my bookshelf. It has probably been there for two years waiting for me to read it. It finally got picked up this weekend as a result of being the only book left unread on my shelf. I had very few expectations when I started reading this book. I ended up discovering a book that I would pick up again for a re-read. Recently I have found myself reading mostly YA stores and tales of women in their early 30′s. This story, told by a male narrator alternating between life in his 90′s and early 20′s, was a refreshing change. I loved how the plot focused on the life of a member of the traveling circus. I had never before wondered about such a life, but now feel inspired to know more. I don’t know how this book ended up in my life, but am glad it did!
Like Water for Elephants, Hook Line and Sink Him has a male narrator. In Water for Elephants the author captures a man speech and thought in a way that I felt was realistic. The author of Hook Line and Sink Him creates a man who comes off as a stereotype. I hope that the men around me think of things other than constantly bedding women and the local sports teams. My inability to believe in the main character meant that I could never really get into the storyline. It was entertaining but not enthralling. The result was a book that I will probably forget about in a month or so.
Girls in Trucks is a book I can’t wait to forget. I picked it up at Target after reading the book’s description. I found the book to be disappointing. Starting with a seventh-grade girl named Sarah, the novel jumps unpredictably through her life. These jumps were not executed well, often leaving me feeling jarred. Characters came and went with no rhyme or reason, making me feel as if I had missed something. There was no resolution to one story before being thrown into the next. The only constant was the main character’s habit of smoking pot, which just irritated me. Upon finishing this book I felt like I had wasted a lot of time. Very disappointing.
Suburban soccer mom Amy has always wanted to stand out from the crowd. Former child prodigy Linnie just wants to fit in. The two sisters have been estranged for years, but thanks to a series of personal crises and their wily grandmother, they’ve teamed up to enter a national bake-off in the hopes of winning some serious cash. Armed with the top-secret recipe for Grammy’s apple pie, they should be unstoppable. Sure, neither one of them has ever baked anything more complicated than brownie mix, but it’s just pie-how hard could it be?
The basis of the book is that four girls–Emily, Aria, Hanna, and Spencer–lost contact with each other after their childhood friend disappeared. They start receiving messages from a mysterious “A” years later. These messages reveal secrets that only their missing friend–Alison–knew. “A” then starts sending texts and e-mails about the four girls’ current scandalous activities. The quartet must now discover what happened to their friend in order to stop their stalker.
The ridiculous plot points had me rolling my eyes as I read. The main story line involves A’s ability to follow the girls at all times, which isn’t realistic. I did exercise some “willing suspension of disbelief” to go along with the point. I did feel that since this one aspect was over the top the rest of the action should be a bit more believable. This was not the case. The pages were full of crazy scenarios: A seventh grade student kissed her 17-year-old sister’s boyfriend; a high school junior hooks up with her teacher; a mother sleeps with a cop in an attempt to get charges dropped against her daughter. Do these things happen in real life? Yes. Do these things–and more–usually happen to a small group of friends? I find that hard to believe. All of these situations create a framework for a story that was just to much for me to handle. It’s not good when the “mysterious stalker who knows all your missing friends secrets” is the most believable plot point in your book.
The crazy plot lines were not the only thing I disliked about the books. I was not a fan of the frequent depiction of underage drinking, often with little consequences. The reaction of the parents to various situations their daughters were in was also quite disturbing. These reactions were sometimes more irrational than the circumstances their daughters found themselves in. I must admit that it has been many years since I was a teenager. It is also true that my experience as a parent is limited to a newborn. These two facts lead to me having little knowledge in the areas of teenage behavior these days, and their parents reactions. It may be possible that the behavior depicted in this story is accurate. My experiences with the many other YA novels I have read leads me to believe this is not the case. These factors contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the series.
It should not be a surprise that I do not recommend this series. The author is successful in creating suspense, a factor that could not save the rest of the story. It was only due to my determination to get my questions answered that I survived through the first four books. A look at the Wikipedia entries detailing the plot points of the next four novels convinced me this was the right move. Shepard was able to top herself with outrageous plot points in these next novels. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time on the stories.
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
by David Koenig 
by Beth Kendrick
by Heather Dixon
by Jay Asher, Carolyn Mackler
by Jennifer Weiner
by Megan McCafferty
