Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

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.

2.5 stars


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a romance, plain and simple. It is not a paranormal book with some romance thrown in; at best it’s a romance book with paranormal qualities thrown in (very little paranormal qualities, might I add). The sad part is, this could have been really, really good if it didn't ditch the whole plot for the romance.

I had really high hopes for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, despite the many negative reviews. I thought it sounded awesome, and I’m a sucker for shocking endings, and from what I’ve heard, this had one.

As with the ending, I’ll break it down into two parts: the “I totally saw that coming and don’t understand how no one else did” part, and the “what?” part.

First, the “I totally saw that coming and don’t understand how no one else did” part. People, how did you not see that coming? (view spoiler)[Were you asleep during the first chapter? Hellooooooo? Rachel asks “What will be the cause of my death?” and the Ouija board spells out “Mara”… (hide spoiler)] I mean, come on.

Then there’s the “what?” part.


 
  What?!?!?!?!
 
(Yes, the extra question marks and exclamation points were completely necessary). I want the next book, and I want it now.


To be honest, I actually really liked this book, up until Noah showed up. Often times, the plot was set aside for stupid things such as Mara’s school schedule, etc, but I was able to set that aside for the time being. Then Noah showed up, and everything I liked in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer got bogged down by a weird romance.

Noah’s too perfect. He speaks five different languages, he’s gorgeous, he’s been in almost every girl in the school’s pants, he’s rich and lives in a palace, he gets flawless grades but doesn’t study or show up to class ever, he has a panty-dropping smile, and—wait for it… He’s British.



Not only is he all of that, but he’s extremely arrogant and controlling and he just comes off as a major ass. But it’s okay, because throughout the first 25% of the book, Mara was avoiding him, and didn’t like him. Four points for you, Mara Dyer! You go, Mara Dyer! (Who can pick up that movie reference?) But then, sadly, out of nowhere, Mara becomes infatuated with Noah, and starts drawing him in her sketchbook and starts thinking about him at all times. I really don’t understand how she went from hating him to making out with him in such a short amount of time, but oh well. I get it, after all, he is British.

Then Noah’s all “You’re not like other girls.” and Mara’s all “Really?” while she bats her eyelashes and hides her blush. Then she starts thinking stuff like this:

Noah, despite you being an asshole, or maybe because of it, I’d like to rip off your clothes and have your babies.


..... Yeah. I have no words for that.

Then they start talking in school, and he asks her out on a date. This is the conversation Noah and Mara had about what they'd be doing on the date:

"Is there any point asking what you're going to do to me?" I asked.
He grinned wickedly. "Not really."
"Does it involve the use of a safe word?"
"That will depend entirely up to you." Noah moved impossibly closer, just inches away. "I'll be gentle," he added.

Did he just…?



There are also the other characters, and I pretty much didn’t care if they would die at any moment. There really is almost no character development for any characters other than Mara and Noah. And even with Mara and Noah, they could have been hit by a car any page and I would have been left unfazed. Actually, I probably would have liked this more.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer probably would have gotten three stars from me, but the last hundred pages or so got out of control with creepy rituals, sacrificing animals and drinking their blood, creepy alligators (or something, I'm really not sure about that), and so much more. It didn't make any sense and it only confused the hell out of me, and everything was completely out of place.

I don’t really have anything left to say about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. I will be reading the next book (and I'm actually really looking forward to it), because I need to see what they hell was up with that ending, and because I think it will genuinely be amazing. Overall, I liked this book (however slightly), I just wasn't as crazy about it as I hoped I would be.