Abandon Books in Order

The Abandon trilogy is Meg Cabot's modern take on underworld myth, told as a YA romance with a supernatural edge. It starts with Pierce Oliviera, a girl who has already done the impossible once: she died and came back. After that near-death experience, her life is split into before and after, and the "after" comes with strange new rules.

Pierce begins noticing things most people can't see, and the world around her starts feeling thinner, like the boundary between life and death has worn down. She's also carrying the kind of quiet trauma that makes everyday life feel slightly unreal. When her family relocates and she tries to start over at a new school, the past doesn't stay behind. It follows, sometimes literally.

At the center of the trilogy is John Hayden, a mysterious boy with ties to the underworld. The romance between Pierce and John is intense from the start, but it's also complicated, because loving someone connected to death changes the shape of your life. Pierce isn't just falling in love, she's being pulled into a system with consequences, rules, and enemies who don't care what she wants.

In this story, love is a door, and some doors shouldn't open.

Cabot's version of the myth isn't about ancient Greece in a distant place. It's about what it feels like to be a teenager trying to be "fine" while knowing, deep down, that you aren't. The underworld elements show up as both danger and metaphor: the weight of grief, the fear of losing people, and the temptation to stop fighting when things get hard. Pierce has to learn what she's willing to give up, and what she refuses to surrender.

The trilogy builds across Abandon, Underworld, and Awaken, widening from a personal mystery into a bigger conflict about power and choice. As Pierce learns more about John's world, she also learns that survival comes with a price, and that being "saved" can be its own kind of trap.

If you like paranormal YA that mixes romance with mythology and a steady sense of unease, this series is a good fit. Read in order, because the reveals and relationships don't reset between books, and the stakes keep rising as Pierce figures out who she can trust and what her second chance is really for. The pace is quick, but the mood stays shadowy, and the chapters like to end on a hook.