I recommend this book to EVERYONE because it's really great and steers away from the cliche YA novels, in my opinion. It has a little bit of creepiness, 80% romance (which I did not really enjoy, to be honest but they are great characters nonetheless), and mysterymysterymystery. I craved for those parts of the book.
Summary: "Our main character, Mara Dyer, experiences a traumatic accident that kills her friends, leaving her the only one to survive. This event caused memory loss; Mara could not recall the events leading up to the accident. She and her family move to a new place as per her own request. In this new home and new school, Mara meets a handsome boy named Noah Shaw, who seems to take an interest in her. Despite being in a new area, she slowly but surely recalls the events on the day of the accident; as well as experiences strange things that are happening around her..."
So just a quick display of some of my thoughts about this book; I liked the writing, I thought it was very lyrical and beautiful in some of the most creepiest parts, and I definitely did get attached to the characters while reading. While I wasn't a fan of the romance, I did admire the strong bond that the two were forming.
If you like mystery, supernatural phenomenons, romance, and YA, I would definitely recommend this book!
This book is filled with a lot of twists so it provides for a very enjoyable read!
I can't really say much about the book without spoiling it so I'm just going to end the spoiler-free section here. So go read the book now if you haven't! :)
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Characters
Okay, here's the spoiler-y part!
Like in my other reviews, I'm just going to touch on some parts that I liked/disliked or what I wanted to discuss. I guess I'll start with the characters.
I didn't like Mara all that much...about half-way or so through the book. Near the part where she was falling in love in Noah. In the beginning, I thought she was a pretty cool heroine and a lot less annoying than Cadence in We Were Liars. I don't know, I guess I don't like YA romance in general (something about sappy YA romances...well not sappy, really, but it's just the feel of it that I don't like.) And another thing I hate is that love seems to always be a foil to a character. Not always, but most novels I read that aren't centered on romance have a little romance in there that makes the character impossibly dumb instead of being their badass self. About 3/4 of the way in the book, this was how Mara Dyer was to me, tbh.
Now before everyone starts hating and bashing on me, I did eventually accept the romance and even like it a little, it's just that from the premise, I was expecting a little more plot involved than the romance. Hopefully it's like this in the next book. I do like Mara and still do, it's just that I liked her less when she was contemplating about leaving Noah because I'm sitting here all like, "GURL WTF WHY ARE YOU LYING TO YOURSELF."
As for the lovely Noah Shaw, I started to think that he was the typical male love interest until Mara described his appearance and I'm like, damn, he must be really hot to look good even when he's really dishelved. For both Mara and Noah, from reading the book, I realized that both of them are not typical. They both have their own issues but despite that, they can still find solace in each other. I thought that was nice.
I also appreciated some of Noah's comebacks, and appreciated him as a character.
That part where they saw a chicken(?) being killed and Mara was complaining about it, Noah commented, and I loosely quote, "No one likes a hypocrite, Mara." She was eating pork with him, and yet she surprised that they were killing a chicken. I totally agreed with Noah at that moment. You're eating meat and yet you can't stand the sight of an animal being killed for food? So hypocrital, Mara, so hypocrital.
Onto the most important character ever....JAMIE. He is so so important. Why aren't people talking about him more? He's probably my favorite character in the whole book. So sad to see him go, though. I really hope he makes a cameo at least, or plays a part in the next book. All his witty comebacks and his attitude and his willingness to help Mara; I thought it was really sweet. Too bad Noah had to cockblock him from his sister, I mean I know, overprotective big brother but still, REALLY, Noah, REALLY? That was one of the moments I really detested Noah because WOW. B*tch move, imo.
Just a side note, I'm not going to cuss a lot in my other reviews, I really don't know what's going on with me today.
Anna(please tell me that's her name) and whatshisface were stereotypical popular-high-school villans. I found the whole feud between them and Mara, Jamie, and Noah pretty stupid
I thought Mara's family was sweet but it was pretty obvious that things had changed, and the atmosphere was different, etc. and that just broke my heart. Whenever Mara described how Joseph looked at her whenever she got sent to the hospital just absolutely disintegrated every piece of my heart OH. MY. GOD.
I just wanted to mention how nice it was that the main character had an Indian mother. I just thought that was different from typical YA novels where the girl is White and pretty much always assumed to be White unless the cover shows differently or it's stated in the novel. I don't know what heritage Mara's father is though.
Now onto the plot!
Plot
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer definitely took me for a surprise in terms of plot.
I kind of guessed that Mara's power had somehow caused people's death whenever her emotions were at it's peak (and that she had to picture their specific death.) I just wasn't sure if there were conditions to this power or limits.
The end of the book pretty much answered my question. It seems that if she deliberately tries to use her power, it backfires and could end up hurting someone she didn't mean to hurt. Also, she made someone else commit the murder, so that lady ended up being a victim as well. There would be, of course, a chance that the lady would have shot the defendant and her father anyway but who knows.
The hallucinations that Mara had definitely tripped me up. Sometimes I couldn't tell if what she was experiencing was reality or something she had imagined. The hallucinations of Rachel, Claire, and Jude interacting with her in present day, and not in her memories of the accident, puzzled me. I figured that Mara was just simply going crazy but then THAT ENDING. Jude is freaking alive. What. the. heck. I didn't guess that at all.
Also, nice connection between Joseph's kidnapping and the murder case that Mara's father took on. I was wondering what connection his case would be, and who called to make her father drop the case. I actually still don't know the answer to the latter, but my best guess is that it would be the criminal himself...
Something I really liked about the book is the writing.The book was easy to read and flowed beautifully. The hallucination scenes were also hauntingly beautiful and captivating. Good job Michelle Hodkin!!! ;)
I can't wait to read Mara's sanity slowly going down the drain in the next book (or what I'm anticipating.) :D
Final Judgement: 4.2/5 stars! Great book!
I'm off to read The Evolution of Mara Dyer!
Have a great day! <3
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