REVIEW: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle Hodkin

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Series: Mara Dyer

Pages: 452

Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

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Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

REVIEW: 3.5 out of 5 stars

There was so much hype surrounding The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer I was almost nervous about reading it, but I am pleased it didn’t fail to deliver – the beautiful cover also had me quite intrigued so I had been eagerly anticipating it’s release.

Mara Dyer wakes in hospital to discover she is the sole survivor of a building collapse; she has lost her best friend Rachel, her boyfriend Jude and her boyfriend’s sister Claire in the accident but has no recollection whatsoever of what has happened or events that led up to her sneaking into and spending a haunted night in the local asylum.

She is left devastated so to get away from the pain and the memories that continually remind her of her best friend, her family packs up and moves from Rhode Island to Florida but things don’t get any better for Mara; she is suffering from PTSD and believes she is going insane, she is hallucinating about her dead friends and dreaming snippets of what happened on the fateful night that killed them.

As the story progresses, we learn bits and pieces of what occurred and it is soon revealed why Mara is being haunted, it was certainly one big mystery that I was eager to unravel.

Mara is a bit of a loner and has made very few friends but she has captured the eye of the school hottie with a bit of a bad boy love-em and leave-em reputation, Noah Shaw. Noah is a charmer and doesn’t take no for an answer, he accepts Mara as she is faults and all but we soon find out there is more to Noah than meets the eye. I enjoyed the chemistry and the slow building relationship they shared.

I liked Mara as a character, she certainly had her issues and came across being a tad crazy but I felt her actions and responses were justified because of what she had endured. I think her behavior towards her mother at times was uncalled for but I suppose it is to be expected when you are a teen and feeling smothered.

I enjoyed the dynamic of Mara’s family, especially the close bond she shared with her brothers Daniel and Joseph. I completely understood where her parents were coming from with their overreactions and obsessive behavior with Mara.

A few parts in this book left me a tad confused, certain vital parts of information were omitted from Mara's parents which I felt were extremely important, one involving her younger brother which I found really odd and negligent - some bits of dialogue to me seemed stilted and confusing and there were many unanswered questions which I hope will be resolved in the sequel.

Other than the above mentioned points, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is certainly intriguing, entertaining, creepy and original and I was captivated by Ms Hodkin’s writing style, we are left with a cliffhanger so I am quite keen to read the sequel, my curiosity is certainly piqued and I want to know more.

Obtained: Unleash