Point, April 2011
paranormal young adult
ARC received from publisher (thank you!)
Summary:
Moving to a whole new island might help Pierce forget what happened after she drowned at a pool’s bottom… or it could just bring her even closer to it. Because that’s exactly where Pierce re-encounters John, the mysterious, brooding young man who first took her to the Underworld—and then brought her back to life. As Pierce faces a shocking murder among the confines of her new community, she’ll have to find out exactly what John wants, and what Underworld horror is out to get her.
The cover:
On the front, colours are dim and there’s too much gold for it to act as a decent accent colour. But the back cover uses white (the girl’s dress fading out), gold (the flowers taking over from a dark corner) and white text in excellent juxtaposition.
The book:
Firstly -- flashback alert. Seriously, all the most gripping and pivotal scenes are in the backstory. (I kept feeling like there was a previous book in the series I hadn’t read yet.) Why not take the background and make it the story? I can totally imagine a way to incorporate the main conflict in Abandon with the backstory.
Secondly, what’s up with Pierce? A: her name continuously makes me think we’re talking about a boy. (Sorry, girls out there named Pierce.) B: she is such a girl. I know Meg Cabot’s forté is chicklit (don’t even get me started at the trademark abundance of capitals and italics), but it doesn’t excuse Pierce’s character. Heck, she even admits herself that she acts like a “scared little girl”!
And dudes, where is the plot? Half the novel is composed of flashbacks, a quarter is some old guy explaining the Underworld and Persephone’s and Hades’s myth, and the last quarter is a murder and an enemy, both out of nowhere. And supposedly this is the Persephone myth retelling. Yeah, the old guy literally re-tells the myth.
Lovers of the paranormal genre (a.k.a. not me) may be satisfied by the romance, but yo, what seventeen-year-old girl actually finds true love?
(Sorry for the snark. Paranormal is seriously getting on my nerves.)
Rating: 1.3 out of 5
