Parmida Reads asked Michelle Hodkin:

Are you happy with how you ended the Mara Dyer trilogy or do you feel bad about some of the things you did to Mara? She's a really strong character, speaking for myself, I know I would breakdown if I were in her situation. She's such an inspiration to me.

Michelle Hodkin I feel like I ended the trilogy the way I meant to. It took me many tries (and years, even) to get it there, but I think it did, and I'm proud of it.

As for the second part of your question, I don't feel bad in the sense that I knew those kinds of things would have to happen in order for her to exist as the character I imagined when I first started the books. If those things didn't happen, she wouldn't have become the person she became.

And thank you--it makes me happy to know that she's inspiring to you. I've always loved reading about complicated, messy, messed up and twisted characters, people who do things I'd never do and say things I'd never say, and when I was a teenager I found _that_ more inspiring than the sunnier books about better people. I think it helped me feel like, no matter how bad things were, they could always be worse, you know?

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