Awaken (The Abandon Trilogy, #3)

by Meg Cabot

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

This is one of those series that definitely does not get better as it moves along. Awaken was an extremely boring, and kind of pointless, ending to a lackluster series. It was pure curiosity and determination that made me read this conclusion. Mainly, I wanted to know what the heck the plot was! Well, what I thought may have been the plot in the previous book may not have been, and a new plot was revealed in this one. I don’t understand why it took until the third book of a trilogy to have a solid plot, but then again this entire series takes place over the course of a few days. Maybe a week. The Furies are still after John and Pierce, but now there is chaos in the Underworld! What’s causing it? And why was this even added in?!

There wasn’t much that I liked about Awaken–or any of these books, really–but I did kind of enjoy the addition of Thanatos. At least in theory. John dies early on, and of course everyone is freaking out because how does a dead man die?! Well, it turns out that Thanatos, the god of death, actually exists and has his soul. I was kind of excited about this prospect, but then we meet Thanatos and it’s kind of lame. Then everything regarding this is resolved super quickly and as if nothing happened at all. Everyone just moves on. I was majorly disappointed! The author has some really good ideas revolving around this god, but absolutely nothing came of it. In fact, this mini plot makes no sense and doesn’t even add anything to the overall story. It just gives Pierce and her friends something to do during the hurricane.

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Pierce got even more annoying in Awaken. She wasn’t too bad in the previous books, other than declaring her undying love for John after two days and one conversation. For starters, she uses the term “boyfriend” at least 100 times within the first few chapters. We get it, you and John are together! I still find it weird to refer to a 184 year old man as a boy though. Then there’s her obsession with her bird, Hope. Every single time someone mentions hope, as in the feeling, she’s like “Oh, where?!” and starts looking for her bird. She also says “oh” a lot. I rolled my eyes at most of her dialogue. Her cousin, Alex, also got on my nerves. There was way too much of him, but apparently he was important to the plot.

One more thing: the drug storyline involving the Rector’s and Pierce’s mom and uncle was so unnecessary. I thought this in Underworld, but it gets even more ridiculous in Awaken. Who cares if your parents got high 20 years ago and played with some human remains on the beach?! It added nothing to the story except for another eye rolling moment. Why was this included? The Rector family being terrible people had no baring on the story whatsoever. Seriously, I don’t get it.

Awaken was just anticlimactic. A lot of stuff happens over all, but almost none of it was actually relevant to the plot. In fact, I’m still a bit confused as to what the overarching plot was. The Furies coming after Pierce to torture John? The unbalance in the Underworld (which was only introduced in this final book)? Good versus Evil? I have no idea. I will just come out and say it: this series is bad. I do not recommend it. It has some moments that keep it from being dreadful, which is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1. But really, this covers a few days in the life of Pierce Oliviera, in which she falls in insta-love with a death deity, attacks her grandma and other old people with a diamond and a whip, then lives happily ever after.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.