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

Michelle Hodkin

Start date: June 1, 2016

Finish date: June 30, 2016

Discussion: Read

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What Members Thought

Mar 22, 2012 Suzzie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the most intriguing books I've ever read! Wow! ...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Mark rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: death-and-dying, paranormal, relationships, young-adult-literature, mystery

"My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something. A pseudonym. A nom de plume, for of us studying for the SATs. I know that having a fake name is strange, but trust me - it's the most normal thing about my life right now. Even telling you this much probably isn't smart. But without my big mouth, no one would know that a seventeen-year-old who likes Death Cab for Cutie was responsible for the murders. No one would know that somewhere out there is a B student with a body "My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something. A pseudonym. A nom de plume, for of us studying for the SATs. I know that having a fake name is strange, but trust me - it's the most normal thing about my life right now. Even telling you this much probably isn't smart. But without my big mouth, no one would know that a seventeen-year-old who likes Death Cab for Cutie was responsible for the murders. No one would know that somewhere out there is a B student with a body count. And it's important that you know, so you're not next.

Rachel's birthday was the beginning. This is what I remember."

Mara Dyer wakes up in a hospital room, with no memory of how she got there. She quickly learns that her best friend, her boyfriend, and his sister have all died horrible deaths, when an old asylum they and Mara were exploring collapsed. Somehow, Mara has survived, but the trauma of the event is too much for her to bear, so her family relocates to Florida, where her father picks up his law practice. Mara begins school at a very snooty private school, and has to deal with the usual fitting in issues, as snipets of what happened to her and her friends begin to filter back into her mind. She meets Noah Shaw, the school's resident arrogant bad boy and, despite her best intentions, is drawn to him. But Mara continues to struggle with the trauma of what happened in Rhode Island, and is becoming more unnerved by the fact that people in her life keep dying, almost immediately after Mara wishes their lives to end. Death seems to follow her wherever she goes.

I sooo wanted to like this book more - another GR reviewer referred to it as a good example of "cover fraud," and I agree. The cover design is gorgeous, and more than enough to buy me the first 150 pages or so. And while the concept of the story is great, the execution was lacking for me. Mostly, I was put off by the heavy reliance on stereotypical romance - girl meets bad boy; girl knows bad boy is, well, bad; girl falls for bad boy regardless. Noah isn't a character, but rather a collection of rich boy traits (he knows six languages! he lives in a palace!) that don't add up to any real connection with a reader. Mara, for me, was a much more fleshed-out character, and her hallucinations do lead to some genuinely creepy moments in the book. We're led to believe that Noah and Mara are drawn together, at least in part, because they share similar extraordinary elements, but Noah's side of things seem much less developed than Mara's. The final 100 pages or so, when Mara's younger brother falls into danger, seems to uncomfortably shift into a bad John Grisham legal thriller. There was a ton of potential with this book, and I hope that many of the unanswered questions I had would get resolved in book #2, but this one just didn't live up to the enormous hype for me. ...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Bri Martinez rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: own, ya-romance, paranormal

When a friend recommended this book to me, they informed me that I would either love or hate it. She told me there is no middle ground, no neutral territory. Well, in the end, it gives me no pleasure to say she ended up being wrong. My feelings on this book are rather ambiguous. It has taken me over 3 weeks to write this review because I could not really decipher how it made me feel. Even now I am conflicted! So let’s start breaking things down, shall we?

The great:

1. The dialogue. Oh man, I am s ...more

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Feb 27, 2015 Susan rated it really liked it

This is the first book in the Mara Dyer trilogy. It is Young Adult, paranormal, and suspense all wrapped up in a pretty package. The covers are beautifully illustrated.

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