Reviewed by Nessa Luna on
I remember buying this book because I was really intrigued by the summary. I told myself I would read it as soon as possible, over a year ago, oops. But a couple of days ago, I finally decided to read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, mainly because a friend of mine absolutely loved the book. And boy did I like it!
The book starts off with a very thrilling scene, one where Mara and her friends - Rachel and Claire - decide to use the Ouija board Rachel got for her birthday. Not only did I find that a really bad idea already, the question that Rachel asks made me facepalm even more. Because you do. not. ask. a spirit how you're going to die or when you're going to die, because the answer will most likely freak you out. A lot. This is also one of the reasons I never ever want to touch an Ouija board.
When that was over, I started to really enjoy the story. It was very thrilling and I found myself wanting to read on and on and on way past my bedtime. There were some fandom related mentions, one of which I quoted at the top of this review, which made me really happy. They talked about Parseltongue (the ability to talk to snakes) and Elvish, there was a pug which just made me squeal when I read it and there were some funny parts that actually made me laugh out loud, which doesn't happen a lot when I am reading.
However, there were some flashbacks that I didn't really enjoy in the beginning. They were executed well, with a little 'before' right underneath the chapter number, and it was very obvious that they were flashbacks. In the end, I started to like them more, mainly because they were telling us what actually happened to Mara and her friends at the beginning of the story, and I found them very exciting.
The characters were awesome, and I found myself liking Mara's brothers right from the start, just like Jamie. I disliked Noah a lot in the beginning of the story, found him very annoying and kind of had the idea he had an insta-love thing for Mara. In the end, I started to like him a bit more, when he started to reveal the 'real' him. I absolutely hated Anna and Aiden and I wanted them to be punished for what they'd done, and hopefully they will in the second book.
Personally, I found the romance a bit overpowering in this story, it kind of pushed the real paranormal part of the book back at some points, and I can't really say I ship it yet, but I did like them more at the end of the book than I did when it first started. And can I just say that cover looks amazing! I love underwater photography and this picture just looks so amazing. Not really sure if it fits the story, but it's just an amazing picture and when I first got this book in the mail, I spend a good couple of hours just staring at the cover.
The writing was very nice, and like I said before, it made me want to read way past my bedtime, which I did on several occasions. Lately, I haven't really been wanting to read a lot of books, but I think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer pulled me right out of the land of reading slumps and put me back onto my feet. I will certainly be purchasing a copy of the second book, but I will wait with reading it for a bit, so I won't have to wait that long for the third book, which comes out in November this year. (I do think The Evolution of Mara Dyer kind of sounds like she's a Pokémon. "What? Mara is evolving!").
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal books with a bit (well, I should say a lot) of romance in it.
My reaction of this book in one gif:
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 27 August, 2014: Finished reading
- 27 August, 2014: Reviewed