The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1) in Into the Forest

Nov 06, 2012 Natalia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, romance, mystery, read-in-2014, young-adult, contemporary

All I can say is that this was incredibly addicting!

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Jan 26, 2015 Rea rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, paranormal

If I'm honest, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

This is the story of a teenage girl who survives an accident which killed her friends. In order to get away from the memories, her family moves to a new state and starts over. However, Mara has these little "episodes" where something inexplicable happens. For a long time, Mara thinks it's all in her head, but eventually she's forced to realise that these things that are happening are linked to her, and that rather If I'm honest, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

This is the story of a teenage girl who survives an accident which killed her friends. In order to get away from the memories, her family moves to a new state and starts over. However, Mara has these little "episodes" where something inexplicable happens. For a long time, Mara thinks it's all in her head, but eventually she's forced to realise that these things that are happening are linked to her, and that rather than just being caught up in the mess, she might actually be the root of the problems.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was on my radar for some time before it was released and has been sitting patiently on my Kindle, waiting for me to get around to it, for a couple of years now. Well, I finally got around to it, and it wasn't as mind-blowing as I'd hoped it would be. There are a few reasons for this:

1. The romance.
The spooky paranormal / horror side of the story could have been really interesting if the author had put all her talent into that. Instead there was a lot of effort put into the romance subplot in a way that did not advance the main plot. In fact, the romance pretty much became the main plot since it so completely overshadowed the spooky side of the story.

2. The paranormal.
Due to the fact that it was relegated to the sidelines in its own story, the paranormal elements were not given the possibility to reach their full potential, rather just floudering. Things are introduced, left hanging, then never taken any further. I realise that the author's holding things back from the reader, but so much was heldback or relegated that the paranormal elements become pretty much nonsensical.

3. Noah.
He was just too much. He fit every single cliché and yet I felt like I was supposed to run about twirling my knickers in the air and proclaiming how much I wanted to have his babies. No. He didn't appeal to me. He's super smart - as in, doesn't even have to go to class smart; he's super rich; he's drop dead sexy. Furthermore, he's a bad boy with a bad boy history, yet as soon as he meets Mara all he wants is her - and not for the shortrun. I couldn't get onboard with this. In all fairness, it might not be all Noah. He is too good to be true, but Mara exasperates the situation by going on and on about him. I felt embarassed for her because she becomes so obsessed with him that everything else in her life loses all importance.

4. Mara's friends.
Wait? What friends?
The short, bisexual, black, jewish kid who only seems to exist to be Mara's voice of reason, and gets kicked out of the story before the heat even really gets going and never makes another reappearance. Everything else revolves around Noah.

5. The legal case.
Mara's father is lawyer. His first case when they move to Florida turns out to be pretty important to the endgame of this first book in the trilogy. Yet it is given very, very little attention during the rest of the book.

Really, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is just meaningless. It's light fluffy romance that would have done better sticking to romance rather than trying to be a spooky paranormal. The paranormal elements were so loosely plotted that they failed to make sense when put together as a whole. ...more

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