Abandon

A Novel

By: Blake Crouch

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani, Jennifer Jill Araya, Timothy Jackson, Max Meyers

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Part journey into old-West history, part nail-biting survival thriller, Abandon is a bloody, darkly surprising tale as only Blake Crouch could deliver.

©2013 Blake Crouch (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Blake Crouch’s novels are . . .

“Gloriously twisting.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Mind-blowing.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Action-packed and brilliantly unique.”—Andy Weir

“Relatable and unnerving.” —USA Today

“Jet-propelled.”—NPR

“Wildly entertaining.”—AV Club

“Masterful.”—Harlan Coben

Had to return. Tortuous to listen.

Normally love his books but the plot and characters could not grab me. Narration was fine but story is boring and blah.

Just ok

Readers were great but story was a little boring. Left room for a sequel. Anybody want to go get that gold?

Couldn’t get past chapter 8

This is definitely not like other Blake crouch stories. Disappointing overall. Loved dark matter and recursion. Thoroughly confused and not able to follow the story across timelines and already too many characters. I gave up.

A bit tedious

A story of poor choices. Also pain fro injuries seemed to come and go which added a measure of disbelief to their ability to survive.

too many characters and too many twists

remove like 3 storyline and the story as a whole stays the same. the character development only occurs moments before they die. and the twists are unnecessary and confusing rather than anticipated and suspenseful. so far, my least liked Blake Crouch book by a long shot.

Very bland. Not his best work

Im a huge fan of Recursion and Dark matter but the story here is just too slow. I’m 6 hours in and I’m still not remotely interested in what’s happening or any of the characters. The old timey prose sounds so cliche.

It’s just not interesting.

Nothing Like His Other Work

I found Blake Crouch several years ago and have enjoyed most of his works, however this one feels nothing like his other works. I kept waiting for the huge turn in the story and it just never came. I fought through it thinking something would happen but it’s one of the slowest books I’ve ever listened to, even at 1.3x speed.

Weird western adventure, did not stand up to the caliber of Blake Crouch

The female’s performance was pretty terrible, he voice fading in and out, forced mocking of a male voice and extremely boring. As a matter of fact the whole book was pretty boring. Seemed line it was going to be some sort of ghost story a d wavered on to something much less exciting after that.

Depressing

It’s been years since I’ve read any of his books and while I greatly enjoyed some, I forgot how bleak he can sometimes be in a few of them. I don’t need sunshine and butterflies but this often veered into trauma/torture p*rn.

Crouch’s worst and most unfocused novel

I love Blake Crouch. He can write horror, crime, and science fiction with the best of the genres. This book, however, is just baffling. Two stories, neither one interesting, neither one featuring any particularly strong characters, and neither one featuring any momentum at all. Just a bland, confused book. Without question his worst work.