
A Goodreads user
asked
Michelle Hodkin:
What happened to Noah while he's out of the scene? almost 80 percent of their journey Noah wasn't there.
Michelle Hodkin
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[So one thing you might have noticed throughout the trilogy is that I enjoy subverting tropes. (And I couldn't help throwing in non-subtle hints at this through Jamie's t-shirts--'I am a cliche,' the Greek chorus, 'Subverted Trope.')
In Unbecoming, Noah is presented as this perfect person, the ideal gorgeous bad boy genius, who plays all the instruments and has all the money and has the perfect life and is basically Neo/Harry Potter/The Chosen One. I put his character in what would normally be the romantic hero's slot--active, dynamic, powerful. But instead of having him inhabit that role, Noah was instead given the more passive/supporting role that female characters are usually relegated to. He actually doesn't have much power at all, and it's the thing he struggles with most in the series. Mara can think something and make it happen. Noah can't even control his own body.
And in Retribution, that point needed to be driven home to fully invert the gender roles that readers were suggested to expect in Unbecoming (Noah's perceived identity as the fixer, the saver, and Mara as the damsel who needed fixing and saving). I had to show that he was actually the Sleeping Beauty in Mara's grim fairy tale, not the prince. (hide spoiler)]
In Unbecoming, Noah is presented as this perfect person, the ideal gorgeous bad boy genius, who plays all the instruments and has all the money and has the perfect life and is basically Neo/Harry Potter/The Chosen One. I put his character in what would normally be the romantic hero's slot--active, dynamic, powerful. But instead of having him inhabit that role, Noah was instead given the more passive/supporting role that female characters are usually relegated to. He actually doesn't have much power at all, and it's the thing he struggles with most in the series. Mara can think something and make it happen. Noah can't even control his own body.
And in Retribution, that point needed to be driven home to fully invert the gender roles that readers were suggested to expect in Unbecoming (Noah's perceived identity as the fixer, the saver, and Mara as the damsel who needed fixing and saving). I had to show that he was actually the Sleeping Beauty in Mara's grim fairy tale, not the prince. (hide spoiler)]
More Answered Questions
Justin
asked
Michelle Hodkin:
Okay I noticed that you said you wrote and rewrote the first chapter some thirty times. Anyways. I'm trying to write my own novel and every single time I've gotten stuck I start over. I get further, but then I doubt myself and think it sucks. Any advice? Is starting all the way over normal? By the way you're writing style is amazeballs. Mara and Noah are by far my favorite book couple ever.

A Goodreads user
asked
Michelle Hodkin:
So, the burning question, what IS Mara Dyer's real name? I have read The Retribution by now, but did it somehow pass me by?
Michelle Hodkin
12,457 followers
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Nov 24, 2014 12:13PM