Michelle Hodkin
Mara Dyer #1
From Goodreads: Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.
She's wrong.
I loved this book. I couldn't put it down and stayed up until 2 a.m. reading it. This was one of those books that just swept me away and left me completely oblivious to the passage of time and anything going on around me.
I have a thing for books that don't tell you everything right away, where you have to wait to figure out what's really going on. I love suspense and mystery and trying to figure things out before the characters do, and those are all huge parts of the The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Which is why this review is going to be a lot of talking around the book rather than much about the book.
Much of the appeal of this book lies in the fact that no one knows what's happening to Mara, least of all Mara herself. Hodkin does an excellent job making this aspect of the book suspenseful rather than frustrating or confusing. The timing of the revelations is very good throughout the book, which I really appreciated.
While I obviously enjoyed this book very much, I did have a few issues with it, particularly regarding the characters. With the exception of Mara herself (and maybe even including her) the characters were very flat. Noah (whom I admit I kind of loved, but still) was this ultra-epic fantasy boy; Daniel, Mara's brother, was way too consistently nice for a believable sibling; her mom was the stereotypical hovering, overly concerned parent, and so on. Despite the great twists in the plot itself, none of that was really there in the characters. But even so, I loved this story and I highly recommend it. I can't wait for the sequel to come out.
Quality: Acceptable
Enjoyability: Outstanding
If you liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, try:
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine
Oh great review! I cant wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree with your review more! Its so hard to convey the greatness of this story without giving anything away. Suspenseful is the perfect was to describe it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a sucker for a good love interest so I fell for Noah really easily. He was a bit too perfect, but at the same time I wouldn't mind having a little Noah in my life =)
Excellent review!
Kristan @ Lost Amongst the Shelves
I agree with this completely. I loved the mystery and all the intrigue surrounding Mara's visions. But the characters fell flat for me too. I liked Noah but I didn't really love him. I felt like their relationship has been done too much and it was just nothing special to me. But at the same time I couldn't put the book down either.
ReplyDeleteYup, my reaction exactly! And I still can't wait to read the next one lol
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