Abandon: A Novel by Blake Crouch

[gilda_elise]

A century-old mystery—and a desperate battle to survive—unfold in this standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion .

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote mining town disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone found.

Now, journalist Abigail Foster and her historian father have set out to explore the long-abandoned town and learn what happened. With them are two backcountry guides—along with a psychic and a paranormal photographer who are there to investigate rumors that the town is haunted.

But Abigail and her companions are about to learn that the town’s ghosts are the least of their worries. Twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they realize they are not alone.

The ordeal that follows will test this small team past the breaking point as they battle the elements and human foes alike—and discover that the town’s secrets still have the power to kill.

Having read several of Crouch’s books, I was taken in by the books’ blurb. The “town’s secrets still have the power to kill,” line, especially. And apparently Goodreads was, too, as it lists horror as one of its genres. Maybe it is, but not the kind of horror I was expecting. And wanting.

What it is is more of a mystery story, which I’m not fond of, mostly because, like this story, they can only move forward because bad things keep happening. Just when you think the hero (or heroine,) have finally caught a break, something else is thrown in the way. Because, hey, once the mystery is solved the book has to end.

There were some interesting characters, who unfortunately the reader knows at the onset that those characters don’t make it since every person in the town disappears and are never seen again. Except, it turns out, for two who manage to not share the same fate. Though one’s fate is actually worse. The other’s is never explained.

This wasn’t a bad book; and I imagine those who read these kind of books will like it. I did…sort of. Just not enough.




Made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro!

Mount TBR 2023 Book Links



Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.


1. Alexander's Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conquerer by Nicholas J. Saunders
2. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
3. Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1) by Chuck Wendig
4. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
5. After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory P. Downs
6. The Wolf's Hour (Michael Gallatin #1) by Robert R. McCammon
7. Bag of Bones by Stephen King
8. Substitute by Susi Holliday
9. Fairy Tale by Stephen King
10. Huxley: From Devil's Disciple To Evolution's High Priest
11. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
12. The History of Bees (Climate Quartet #1) by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (Translator)
13. The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
14. The Hunter from the Woods (Michael Gallatin #2) by Robert McCammon
15. The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir
16. The Humans by Matt Haig
17. Craven Manor by Darcy Coates
18. The Alpha Female Wolf: The Fierce Legacy of Yellowstone's 06 by Rick McIntyre
19. The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
20. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
21. The Magpie Lord (Charm of Magpies 1) by K.J. Charles
22. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated by Eric H. Cline
23. Wanderers (Wanderers #1) by Chuck Wendig
24. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
25. A Dog's History of the World: Canines and the Domestication of Humans by Laura Hobgood-Oster
26. Bethany's Sin by Robert McCammon
27. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
28. The Tea Party by Charles L. Grant
29. Seeker (Alex Benedict #3) by Jack McDevitt
30. Jizzle by John Wyndham
31. The Taking by Dean Koontz
32. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
33. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
34. Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell
35. Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
36. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
37. A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us about the Destiny of the Human Species by Rob Dunn
38. Sparta: Rise of a Warrior Nation by Philip Matyszak
39. Wayward (Wanderers #2) by Chuck Wendig
40. The Summoning God (Anasazi Mysteries #2) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
41. The Power by Naomi Alderman
42. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
43. Day Zero (Sea of Rust #0) by C. Robert Cargill
44. Dog Days by Ericka Waller
45. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
46. The Passage (The Passage #1) by Justin Cronin
47. Kallocain by Karin Boye, Gustaf Lannestock (Translator), Richard B. Vowles (Introduction)
48. The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) by M.R. Carey
49. Different Seasons by Stephen King
50. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune




51. Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner
52. Jackdaw (Jackdaw #1) by K.J. Charles
53. Blightborn (Heartland #2) by Chuck Wendig
54. The Harvest (Heartland #3) by Chuck Wendig
55. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
56. Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
57. The Change by Kirsten Miller
58. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
59. The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #1) by Anne Rice
60. Abandon by Blake Crouch

Comments

[justjo2u]

Oh that sounded like it had so much promise. Sorry you felt a bit 'meh' about it.

[gilda_elise]

Yeah, it seem to have so much potential, and it isn't badly written. I suppose someone who was coming at it as a mystery story would have enjoyed it more than someone, like me, who was thinking it was a horror story.