The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer Trilogy, #1)

by Michelle Hodkin

[bookishzelda]

Wow. This book had my mind reeling. I honestly at some points had to stop reading just because I felt like I was going crazy. This is a longer book with 452 pages but the writing makes it breeze to get through. I would be so caught up in the book I wouldn't realize I had just blown through 150 pages in what felt like seconds. I felt like there was always something strange going on. There were some things that I thought is this real or is this a hallucination. Which is great that it kept me guessing, I love when a book does that.


Mara was an interesting lead. There were times that I thought she was just crazy, then became absolutely convinced she must be possessed and then I was even imagining in her a black cloak as the grim reaper. When we find out what is actually happening to her I had a sense of relief to finally know. I liked her character though, I felt like her actions were fitting to her situations. No matter what was going on with her, she did just lose her best friend. Which would be traumatic at any age and in any circumstance. Her character felt real and understandable to me. She was a ghost of her former self for most of the book, just ghosting in out of life. At the end though she seemed to finally get a hold of herself and gained a new sort of confidence.
Noah is of course the bad boy who actually has a good heart. I like that fact that his past "sins" don't just get washed away. It's not like they never happened but it doesn't mean he can't be different with Mara. He seemed genuine and not afraid of being who he is, whether people thought he was bad or good.


I liked the love story between Mara and Noah. Especially because Mara was so resistant to it at first. I never felt like she was obsessed with him. This is a girl who feels like she has lost everything and thinks she might be going crazy. Noah became her anchor, the good thing that she could think about when she seemed to slipping from reality. It's easy to say that her family would be that, but she felt like she was disappointing them by not holding it together. There were no expectation with Noah, she could lose herself and because she thought he was a player, she wasn't going to hurt him. I think that it was easy for her to finally fall into the support of someone who wasn't going to run away from her. She needed that bit of security and Noah was offering it. It seemed natural for her to appreciate and fall in love with him for that.


I really enjoyed this book and I understand that it is not for everyone. From what I've seen it's either people love it or hate it. I would give it a chance, just read the first few pages in the bookstore and you might find yourself hooked like I was.