Summary: Girl dies and goes to the Underworld. Girl meets handsome boy from her past, finds out he runs said Underworld, and is offered his eternal love. Girl runs away and escapes the Underworld. Girl wakes up back in her normal life, but isn't the same. Boy appears sometimes to save her when he feels her life is being threatened (but this is never shown - only hinted at). Girl moves; boy follows. Girl constantly, constantly thinks about him and how maybe she might love him but he's a wild thing and can she really deal with that when she can't even deal with herself? I believe harpies - or whatever works as security in the Underworld - want to kill her, but maybe not. And so is the entire first half of the book.
Reality Check: Completely main character monologue, with a vague, singular plot (girl deciding if she likes the boy), and no sense of linear time. It started slow, hinting at past excitement that I kept praying would be revealed in the next chapter. When some finally was (not the really juicy stuff, though), via flashbacks woven into the current timeline, they were too long and I forgot where we were in the present when we finally returned to it. Even with a completely character-driven story, the characters were way too mysterious - as in, I wondered exactly what they were like because Meg gave me nothing to work with. And in no way did I feel like I would be getting any more information any time soon. At the end of Book 3, maybe.
The one good thing I can say: Meg writes well. Grammatically.
Conclusion: I only made it through half the book, and despair that there will be an entire trilogy. This is proof that even a national bestselling novelist should not publish the story she dreamed of writing in high school. Abandon was all internal female angst and confusion, and frustration and confusion was all I felt reading it. Sorry Meg. I will, however, continue giving her work a try. Just not any more of this.
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy
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