Review: Underworld

UNDERWORLD
(Abandon Trilogy #2)

Meg Cabot
Paranormal Young Adult
336 pages
Scholastic Point
Available May 8th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.

Not this time.

But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.

Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance…on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.

But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there…and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.

And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.

MY THOUGHTS

Where Abandon introduced us to Pierce and catapulted us back and forth in time to help us piece together her relationship with a dark young man we really never got to know, Underworld grants us the extra time with John Hayden we were denied previously, allowing us to see glimpses of the man behind the Death Deity. Those who were slightly put off by the jumps in time in the first book will be pleased by the linear nature of this second installment, our time with John and Pierce spent entirely in the present as they attempt to sort through their feelings for one another as well as their roles in the Underworld. The focus of Underworld feels a bit more internal, the connection between John and Pierce moving to the forefront while the external threat of the Furies remains more static in nature, and as a result we’re given the opportunity to better know each of our protagonists as individuals.

Though it’s easy to like Pierce overall, her ability to take the fairly monumental changes in her life in stride something we can’t help but admire, our relationship with her can be rocky at times. She’s quick to speak her mind before fully thinking things through, often voicing a thought that hurts John by calling into question his life in the Underworld and the choices he’s forced to make as a result of his work, and she therefore spends a great deal of time apologizing to him for saying things she didn’t entirely mean. While anyone in her position would certainly have questions about John, his past, and his role in the Underworld, her continued inadvertent verbal cuts make the romance between the two of them feel extraordinarily one-sided on John's part, planting seeds of doubt in our minds as to whether or not they truly belong together. She says she loves him, but we don’t necessarily feel the intensity of those feelings the way we do with John, and we spend our time reading wishing she would provide proof of that love through gesture instead of word.

John shows a great deal of growth in this tale, finally allowing some personality to show through the brooding façade he’s so beautifully perfected as he charms Pierce and us with sweet teases and a rather dry sense of humor. He of course is still prone to rather volatile displays of temper when Pierce is threatened, but it’s obvious he’s making a concentrated effort to keep it in check as he fights every instinct he has and sends Pierce back to the surface despite the danger that awaits her there. He so badly wants Pierce to be happy with him, and while we can find fault with some of the methods he utilizes to protect her as well as his refusal to share too much about himself, we can understand his action-first talk-later approach given Pierce’s predilection for voicing her doubts about the two of them.
 
Overall, the plotline surrounding Pierce’s life in the Underworld and the battle with the Furies is secondary in this story to John’s history and his love for Pierce, giving us the feeling we’re not simply in the calm before the storm literally as a hurricane continues to make its way to Isla Huelos, but figuratively as well now that we know a little more about John himself.

Rating: 3.5-4/5

(I suffered from a bit of indecision when it came time to assigning a rating to this one. Some days certain things bothered me more than they did on others, so I'm giving a range:)