Book Review: Abandon

TITLE: Abandon
Book 1 in the new Abandon Trilogy
AUTHOR: Meg Cabot
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: retelling, paranormal, romance
SHORT PREMISE: A modern retelling of the myth of Persephone
MY REVIEW: Pierce has died and come back and what happened in that short time she was dead still haunts her two years later. Because someone wants her back...
Abandon isn't so much a retelling of Persephone as it's a reimagining. Personally I liked it. It's not the best of Cabot's work. But it's still very intriguing and a good start to an interesting looking trilogy. I liked the different take on the underworld and the mythology. She still respected the original mythology but put her own spin on things and even more great, didn't ignore the fact that hey, not everyone believes in this particular religion so what about them? She also didn't ignore the darkness factor of the Persephone myth namely that hey he DID kidnap her you know? One thing that has always irritated me about Persephone retellings is they focus on the romance and tend to ignore the fact that he essentially kidnapped her against her will and that Hades is not an altogether decent guy (yes, Goddess Test, I'm looking pointedly at you). Cabot doesn't ignore the wrongness going on with that and I appreciate it.
Now the issue is this is very much a first book and thus it feels like we're only getting a prologue to a much larger story. But luckily that prologue is enough to really interest me so I'll definitely be reading the next books. No this is not the best of Cabot's ability but it's still a very nice start to an interesting looking trilogy that I'm keeping an eye out for.
WHO SHOULD READ: Cabot fans, fans of the myth of Persephone, mythology fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five apples