Book Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
(Mara Dyer, #1)
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 452 pages

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.

I follow many of my favorite authors on twitter and I saw a lot of them talking about this book when it was released. I hadn’t heard of it until I saw everyone talking about how they were going out to get a copy of it or announcing a Happy Book Release Day on twitter. These authors are amazing & if they loved it, it must be great, right? Not always the case (as everyone has their own opinions) however, in this case, it was absolutely correct. THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER had me thoroughly entertained. Especially in the first 150 pages or so. The insults and snide comments Mara and Noah made at each other, boy, I don’t remember laughing so much while reading (except while reading Puck in the Iron Fey series). One of them would say something and the other would dish it right back – reminds me of myself.

The story had me guessing and usually wrong. Especially when it came to Mara and Jude’s relationship. I really thought I would like him (I mean, who wouldn’t like a guy with the name of Jude, it’s one of my favorite names ever) but I really really do not. What I was expecting and what really happened were nowhere near each other. I literally think my jaw hit the floor when the truth came out. Amazing. Well, not amazing for the case but amazing that I was so off. Kudos to the author, Michelle Hodkin.

Jaime, oh how I adore thee. Everyone needs a best friend like, especially me. Tell me where I can find one, please? Anna and Aiden can go fall off a cliff and I would OK with that. But really, then it might be slightly boring, only slightly. You need to have a bitchy character to cause mindless drama and that’s what Anna is for. And man, everyone goes to school with a Queen B just like her. Been there, done that. You can take pity on Mara but she knows how to handle the situations she’s being put in. She stands up for herself, especially as being the new girl and shoves Anna in her place. And when its not Mara shutting her down its Noah – you can’t help but grin just imagining that stupid drama queen that we’ve all gone to school with being Anna.

I feel like the first half of the book was more entertaining then the second half. I didn’t find myself laughing quite as much but it certainly drew me in at a different angle. Mara’s memories were starting to come back at this point, but piece by piece and I just kept turning the pages to try and see if I could piece it together. I didn’t but it was still fascinating to try and see how it all really went down.

Mara is a girl I could see myself hanging with; she’s very chill and knows who she is. Well, she did and she’s trying but she’s changing and she doesn’t know what is happening to her. But she handles everything with ease (mostly) and she’s not annoying in the slightest. Nor whiny. Noah…Noah, Noah, Noah *sigh* Where to begin with him. He’s got the bad boy imagine going on and he’s got it down to a tee, especially his appearance. Then he opens his mouth and he’s British (or English, as he calls himself) and that just makes his hot factor sky rocket. Well, for me at least. There’s something about a British accent that just makes a guy that much more attractive, don’t you think? Well, most of the girls think so, as well.

Oh! And have I mentioned how I've never loved an older brother more than I love Daniel. Seriously?! Why couldn't I have an awesome older brother like Mara has? Also, why can't I have such an adorable, smart younger brother?! She is lucky in the family department . . . minus her mom, whose a bit over the top. Her father seems pretty amazing. She has the coolest siblings in the world. I may steal Daniel, sorry Michelle. But I want him for myself, as a brother . . .

This book was fantastic. It had a supernatural feel to it but it wasn’t like vampires, zombies, werewolves, fairies, etc and I liked that. It’s nice to be able to take breaks from those ‘creatures’ to something that feels like it could be real even though its truly not possible. I love the real factor in books. The ending has me begging for more, but sadly, like most series…we now must prepare for the wait until we’re given more. If you haven’t already read this book I suggest adding it to your Christmas wishlist or maybe at least trying to pick it up in 2012 – add it to your 2012 reading challenge :)