Abandon

Rating:
Summary: Great Book ...
Review: ...I truly enjoyed the novel; it makes you work to put the story together, and the author throws in twists and turns every step of the way. If you enjoy movies like: American Beauty, American Psycho, eXistenZ, Johnny Darko, Seven, or other movies that don't provide a straight forward, easy to digest message and challenge you to create your own - then you will enjoy this novel. I cannot think of a single novel to compare it to.

... and it provides hours of discussion because it is so interesting to work through as you try to pull together what did or may have happened. Is there a ghost? Is the story a lie? Who is the narrator? Who died? Did they really die? It is a dark novel, but it is fun.

Rating:
Summary: A bore
Review: Abandon is a wannabe ghost story set in College. It is filled with half a dozen characters who are all very self-indulged, who all speak the same and who all act the same. The plot crawls by at the speed of a turtle and then turns to pure cahos in the end, as Desomnd tries to write a shocking and thought-provoking ending while instead writing a very confusing and completely cahotic ending.

The novel's narrator is a very confused senior who is trapped between the love of two women and who still feels guilt from his ex-roommate's suicide. But now, things are about to get even more crazy when he begins seeing the ghost of an ex-student everywhere. His craziness grows to the point where he'll no longer be able to see clearly between what is real and what isn't.

The plot itself has its moments, but there isn't enough material here to sustain an entire book (and the novel itself barely has 250 pages). It takes nearly 100 pages for the plot to really begin and when it does, Desmond's style becomes very messy. It's almost as if he doesn't know if he wants his novel to be a dramatic exploration of the hectic campus life or if he wants it to be a ghost story. Both stories are okay, but the mix does not mesh well once it is all blended together.

I have to admit that I was very disappointed by this book, especially after hearing so many great things about it. Hopefully, Desmond will find his voice (and a good editor) with his futures tries.

Rating:
Summary: Abandon...hope all ye who pick up this novel
Review: Abandon sounded promising. I was prepared for a quick, scary read. But what I got was neither.

I'm normally a very quick reader, flying through books. So I knew there was something wrong when it took me a week to read Abandon. The problem wasn't me, it was the book. Almost nothing happens in the novel. It's slow moving and, quite frankly, boring. Much of the narrative is repetitive, focusing on the inner turmoil a narrator we don't know enough about to care. Characters are poorly developed, the action isn't well plotted and the entire book moves in fits and starts. And as our narrator describes his "descent into hell" things only get more confused and more boring.

Desmond's attempt to write a more literary horror novel fails in almost every respect. By the time I reached the last page, I just didn't care anymore. The verdict: don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: Abandon...hope all ye who pick up this novel
Review: Abandon sounded promising. I was prepared for a quick, scary read. But what I got was neither.

I'm normally a very quick reader, flying through books. So I knew there was something wrong when it took me a week to read Abandon. The problem wasn't me, it was the book. Almost nothing happens in the novel. It's slow moving and, quite frankly, boring. Much of the narrative is repetitive, focusing on the inner turmoil a narrator we don't know enough about to care. Characters are poorly developed, the action isn't well plotted and the entire book moves in fits and starts. And as our narrator describes his "descent into hell" things only get more confused and more boring.

Desmond's attempt to write a more literary horror novel fails in almost every respect. By the time I reached the last page, I just didn't care anymore. The verdict: don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: So-So Poe
Review: This is one of those walk-the-line supernatural/psychological horror stories, a la Henry James or Edgar Allen Poe, in which you can never quite be sure whether ghosts are influencing events, or the protagonist of the piece is psychotic. It's a tough genre to pull off, and Desmond half succeeds - which means he half doesn't. I probably would have liked this book more, if it: a. wasn't so hallucinogenic that it's hard to follow; b. was told in something other than first person, so it wasn't so hard to follow; and c. was clearer on what was going on, so it wasn't so hard to follow. It doesn't help matters any that I'm a jaded reader of this very genre, and recently read Graham Masterton's Trauma, which is very similar but much better written and more effective.

That said, Abandon does at least tell a coherent story, once you go back and re-read a few things and puzzle it out. It meanders a bit, and it becomes fairly clear early on that the protagonist is less influenced by ghosts than he is simply criminally schizophrenic - put more simply, I never believed any ghosts were present (even if some nominal doors are left open for that interpretation), and was far ahead of the surprise plot revelations the whole way.

The greatest problem this book has is that none of its characters are really sympathetic. The most sympathy that can be evinced is for the victims, not because they are likeable (or unlikeable either, for that matter), but simply because they don't deserve to be murdered. None of them are developed enough to have any feelings about, one way or the other - they merely exist as ciphers for the crazed protagonist to deal with. The protagonist (who is never even given a name) tells the entire story in first-person narrative, and is so painfully self-absorbed that an unbiased presentation of the victims wouldn't be possible anyway, even if he bothered to talk about them more.

This would make a good movie, if the plot were presented more comprehensibly. However, the slated upcoming Paramount film sounds actually more confusing than its source material - it turns the protagonist into a woman (Katie Holmes), which, given some of the plot turns of the novel, is going to be problematic at best...though it sounds, from early reports, as if it's all been pretty thoroughly rewritten into a completely different piece, anyway.