Title: Underworld (Abandon Trilogy #2)
Author: Meg Cabot
Release Date: May 8, 2012 (hardcover)
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Pages: 336
Source: Copy provided by publisher

Overall: 4 Stars

Summary:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, the dark reimagining of the Persephone myth begun in Abandon continues...into the Underworld.

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:
After the exciting finish to Abandon, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Underworld and learn what would happen to Pierce next! Now that we understood Pierce and John's complex history together, the storyline could progress in chronological order this time around without so many flashbacks. Any confusion I had felt while reading the first novel faded away in Underworld, to my relief! Fans of Greek mythology will be definitely eager to continue reading Meg Cabot's re-imagining of the Persephone and Hades myth!

Pierce is in the last place she ever wanted to find herself again: the Underworld. However, her desire to return to the land of the living with her family is warring against her love for John and wanting to be near his side, leaving her completely torn. In the meantime, the terrifying Furies haven't given up trying to torment and kill Pierce, and with her out of their reaches in the Underworld, they're going after the people she holds dear in her heart back in Isla Huesos.

John is just as manipulative and overprotective of Pierce as ever before, desperate to keep her in the Underworld with him. He would do absolutely anything for her, but sometimes he's not afraid of withholding the truth too because a part of him still disbelieves Pierce could truly care about him. John's past was always such a great mystery in Abandon, but we get more answers in this book, learning the tragic truth of how he became a death deity so many years ago. New characters with ties to when John was still a normal human are also introduced in Underworld! They seemed to lighten the mood of the book with their very presence and I loved their loyalty to John, helping him sort departed souls to their final destinations.  

Whereas Abandon felt more more like an introduction to the trilogy, Underworld quickly launches into the storyline and entices readers from the very first page. Meg Cabot has once again delivered a dark, alluring tale brimming with danger and romance. I'm now desperately waiting for the final book in the trilogy, Awaken!

Thanks so much to Scholastic Canada for providing this review copy!