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

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Series:
Published: 2011-09-27
Mara Dyer doesn’t know if she is crazy or haunted—all she knows is that everyone around her is dying in this suspenseful and “strong, inventive tale” (Kirkus Reviews). 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…

Based on the description, what caught my interest is the mystery behind the death of Mara’s friends and how she is involved in it. I had the feeling that she was responsible and I was dying to find out if she did kill them and how.

My name is not Mara Dyer. But my lawyer told me to choose something.

I wanted a copy of this book for vanity purposes. It looked like a great addition to my ever growing book collection. There is something beautiful in the way the couple in the cover are holding each other underwater. Though it doesn’t portray anything that has to do with the story.

Mara seems like a regular teenage girl, but after surviving the accident that killed her friends, she started to lose it. She was seeing ghosts and hallucinating things, which wasn’t healthy or normal. She knew how to handle herself and put up a front of normalcy to avoid being sent to a mental institution. I’m not sure how I feel about her though. I can’t connect with her but as she grew paranoid, the more I wanted to find out what happened to her and her friends that fateful night.

Noah Shaw was described in a way where you’re supposed to hate him but you’ll end up loving him anyway. I guess we all love bad boys, right? He has a reputation of being a womanizer, somewhat a jerk, but how he interacted with Mara made me think it was all a front. He had a reputation to uphold after all. After a while, he did things that were too sweet and swoon-worthy. I guess the bad things about him were there to balance out how perfect he really is. Noah Shaw is probably the kind of book boyfriend we all want to have.
Daniel Dyer. The older brother who I can’t help but love as well. He’s smart, caring, and always has Mara’s back. He’s literally too good to be true. Then again, this is fiction.

Jamie Roth is the kind of guy best friend I want. At first I thought he was a legit guy, evetually he seemed gay, but it was mentioned (might be in the second book) that he is in fact, bi-sexual. He seems too gay to be bi. He’s the funny person in the story. His banter with Mara is just perf.

I’m not elaborating on the other characters since I don’t want to spoil it for anybody who hasn’t read the book yet.

Michelle writes beautifully. I was not bored, my eyes did not skip the words, and I could picture the story in my mind. I could have finished the book in one sitting. That’s how good it was to read her words. UPDATE: I kind of regret not going to the book signing because I saw the pictures and heard the stories and Michelle Hodkins is a beautiful person inside and out. I guess it wasn’t meant to be because I was broke that week.

My issue with this book is I honestly thought this was a murder mystery/contemporary romance. It did not cross my mind that there is something paranormal/supernatural involved because it wasn’t insinuated until I was 70% done reading. My feelings about the whole story changed when I reached that part. I mean, Mara was losing time and it did seem like she was going crazy. I was thinking along the lines of multiple personality disorder and she was not aware what her other personality was doing. For all we know, she could have killed those people while she was out of it. Admittedly, I was confused in the end. I could just imagine how others felt after reading this when it first came out and they had to wait a very long time to find out what happens next.

P.S. I’m pissed at myself for accidentally deleting the file in my reader. I lost all my bookmarks, highlights, and notes.

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