SUMMARY

Mara Dyer wakes up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there or what happened. She wakes to find her best friend died, along to two other people yet the accident that killed them didn’t harm her at all. Confused and grief ridden, she moves to a new place in hopes of moving on.

However, she can’t seem to outrun the accident. Seeing the faces of her dead friends everywhere and now other people’s deaths before they happen, she thinks she is going crazy. And to top it all off, Noah Shaw, the most beautiful boy she has seen can’t seem to leave her alone.

The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer is mysterious, suspenseful and very unpredictable.

WRITING

I don’t always comment on the writing, but I thought I’d talk about it for this one. Michelle Hodkin’s writing for The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer really played a big part in why I liked the story. She wrote it in such a way that the entire time I was sitting on the edge of my seat, wondering ‘what next?’.

IDEA

I went into The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer thinking it was going to be quite like the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick or any of the other mystery fantasy series I have read but it really isn’t! It’s amazingly unique and I am quite sure it hasn’t been done before. That made the book so much for enjoyable because there was nothing you could really guess but you couldn’t help do it anyway.

PLOT

The plot was kind of what let me down and made me take off a star or two from the rating. The beginning is quite well done and even the rising action. However, I feel at some point after that, the book became quite mish-mash, as I like to say. There were points where action was happening but it was so unclear as to what the heck had happened. There wasn’t really an identifiable ‘bad guys’ which I get every book doesn’t need to have but I felt this book needed. The plot became a little sloppy and confusing and weird. I also feel like not much happened or not enough was revealed.

I know there are two other books in the series but I feel the first should have had an answer or two more than it did.  And the weirdest thing is, after I read a book that has a sequel, I instantly start reading the second one yet this time, I didn’t feel the book gripped me enough for me to want to instantly start reading the second one, if you know what I mean.

I am planning to read the next book, but I wasn’t gripped enough by the end of The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer to read it instantaneously.

CHARACTERS

If I’m being honest, none of the characters really got to me. They were nice, not badly written or bland or anything, but I didn’t feel very connected to them the same way I have for other books I’ve read.

Mara was a fairly decent character and I could see her characteristics in the pages of the book. But her character didn’t leap or dance off the pages that characters from other books tend to do. I have noticed it depends on the genre of the book actually. Books that are realistic fiction will focus more on the characters while books that are fantasy and mystery focus on the plot.

Noah was slightly more enjoyable for his cool and dry humour and unexpectedness. However, the relationship between the characters was too cliché for me to really love them and ‘aww’ over the cute moments.

I did quite like Mara’s brothers, Daniel and Joseph. It was a nice change from the typical sibling relationships and I liked how they cared and looked out for her.

FINALLY…

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the novel. It was mysterious and edgy and dark and haunting and very unique. And the plot was pretty good until it got to the end. The characters weren’t bad but could have been better but the writing and ideas were awesome.

Do read it if after reading the review it appeals to you.

Until next time!