From the Bookshelf of YAholics Anonymous!…

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

Michelle Hodkin

Start date: December 1, 2013

Finish date: December 31, 2013

Discussion: Group Read

Why we're reading this: Paranormal Group Read
[close] Paranormal Group Read

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 9 topics — 90 comments total

Group Read

December's Book of the Month: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
By Riya · 2 posts · 6 views

last updated Dec 06, 2014 07:58PM

December's Book of the Month: Where She Went by Gayle Forman
By Riya · 1 post · 6 views

last updated Dec 06, 2014 06:03PM

showing 10 of 15 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Dec 30, 2014 Marijoe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, mystery-thrillers, best-series

It's been a year since I borrowed this from my friend and I feel a little bit of guilt that only now did I plan to stir on this. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer really has a great and mysterious story with intriguing characters.

There are parts of the story where there is nothing new but I won't say it's cliche. Mara Dyer is a a new transfer in her new school in Florida and Noah Shaw --the most beautiful guy in that school--happened to noticed Mara. I think there's nothing new with the pretty boy fal It's been a year since I borrowed this from my friend and I feel a little bit of guilt that only now did I plan to stir on this. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer really has a great and mysterious story with intriguing characters.

There are parts of the story where there is nothing new but I won't say it's cliche. Mara Dyer is a a new transfer in her new school in Florida and Noah Shaw --the most beautiful guy in that school--happened to noticed Mara. I think there's nothing new with the pretty boy falling for the new girl in school who thinks she's invisible. Mara also happens to be a target of the generic arch nemesis named Anna. These types of characters are always present in most YA novels I have read. But again I won't say it's cliche because the story has enough blend of dark, sexy and mystery. And I think it's the characters that give more life to the story.

The heroine, Mara Dyer, exudes mystery and innocence. She's talented, creative, fearless and meriting a strong displeasure to what's hurting her. She's really dangerous. She doesn't take offensive remarks from anyone in her new school, not even Noah, and she always has a counterattack to Anna's hateful treatment and bitterness to her. But this specific characteristic of hers made me over-analyzed Feminism. It's pretty obvious that Hodkin experimented a strong and tough heroine in Mara's character, and as per Noah, she's also cultivating an image of an isolated, angsty, introspective emo teen. Despite all this strong foundation she's building for herself, I still see her as a girl who who isn't aware of her unbecoming. I don't see her as a girl who is trying to equate her male counterpart that is Noah. So I don't think Feminism applies to this, as my other friends said on their reviews. This only shows the inanity of girls and boys. My theory says, girls are just being girls and boys do what they can. One good example is when Mara went feebly when Noah touched her lips, and the way his bangs move against his forehead and the way she talked in her mind of having his babies. It only connotes that apart from the toughness girls showed in their facade, they also have a great talent in noticing the little details in boys-- their a thousand-watt bulb smile, lopsided grin, their warmth and scent. And girls will be damned to deny they are not aware of it. I hope I made my point clear.

On the other hand, Noah exudes sexiness, humor and mystery. His character is very enigmatic and intelligent that I fell for him every time he extracts his words from a very profound literature. But since he is the hallway-god of Croyden Academy, it seems to me that it somehow permits him to be rude at people especially girls. He orders people around casually. It's unnerving. The rest about him is fine though.

Michelle Hodkin made characters that are as enigmatic and dangerous as they're beautiful and twisted; and the story as strange as its characters. They possessed some explicable abilities that left me with many questions. What I'm missing in the story is the paranormal aspect of it. I still wonder what exactly happened with Mara because her letter before everything has started kept me wondering until I finished reading this. But the rest is pretty great. I always get excited every time I flip the page because I long for Noah's wit and humor and Mara's sarcastic and straightforward comebacks.

This is a cliffhanger and there are many parts left uncleared. And I think the Author intentionally suspended our beliefs. It's fine for me that she did not provide some clarity yet to the readers so we will be encouraged to jump off to the second book. But it seemed to me that the story unfolded more on unraveling the past rather than discovering what really happened to aid Mara to memory. Now I wonder how the author will pull off such strange story in the next books. I hope to get clear answers. All in all, I love the characters more than I do to the story. ...more

Like · see review

May 07, 2013 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: actual-good-books, young-adult, fantasy, wish-list, creepy-disturbing-and-awesome

I finished this in the middle of the night. I couldn't put it down! To me it felt like book form Momento... Mara and consequently, you the reader, do not know what is real and what is not. The story is suspenseful, scary, and addicting. This is definitely a page-turner!

The romance is good as well, not too fluffy, and definitely titillating.

Recommended for anyone who likes YA, suspense, mystery, and darker fantasy. ...more

Like · see review

Jun 21, 2014 Mya rated it it was amazing

WHAT TO HECK?

Like · see review

Jul 07, 2013 Stef rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, young-adult, fantasy, paranormal

THE ENDING okay I'm still trying to process the ending, because that ending i just wow the word that would literally describe it is wow, this book is amazing!

(okay so I need to put this in here somewhere but wow, I didn't realize how creepy it was until the ending and when I watched book talks about how creepy it was and yes it is creepy but the fact that I didn't really felt it except for the Joseph kidnapping scene wow see stuff like this shocks me a lot) ...more

Like · see review