The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Release Date: 27th September, 2011

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Pages: 452pgs

The Story

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 believe 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.

The Review

Holy crap! It has been a while since I have been addicted to a book and it was about time I was addicted to something like this. I thought all of the hype would set my expectations up a little too high and I would end up disappointed but I wasn't at all. In fact, every single 5-star review was the damn-straight-honest truth. I love the cover to death and there's no denying that it's the most eye-catching and the most beautiful cover that I've seen this year and despite the summary of the book leaving you with no clue to what the book is actually about, THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER is by far one of my favourites of 2011 and I'm blessing this post with much love and adoration. And I have plenty of love to give.

Mara Dyer is a little crazy. There's no denying there because for her it's hard to justify what's real and what's simply a hallucination. But the thing about this particular book is that it's one that keeps you forever guessing and you have no idea what to expect next from the characters nor where the direction of this novel will take you. While I won't go into too much detail - since it would ruin the epicness of this novel and because I want my blog readers to find out for themselves on how great Dyer is - but please trust me when I say it was so incredibly awesome. With a very likable character like Mara and the smouldering love interest Noah, not to mention the haunting paranormal elements that surround the edges of the storyline, it was everything I was hoping for and my expectations are now out of this world.

What stood out the most from the endless pages was Mara Dyer herself. She was smart, funny, knew how to ward off trouble even when it seemed tempting to her, and even though she thought she was going crazy . . . I just loved every bit of her snarkiness that she threw our way. Who doesn't like some snark in a teenage girl? Now unlike most leading female heroines that you read nowadays in young adult fiction, Mara had a great relationship with her family (finally a girl with a great family) and she easily connected to many of the characters introduced in the book. But personally for me, the person she really connected to was the bad boy of the town and her love interest in the story. Noah that is.

Bad boys seem very overrated through many readers eyes and I was about to give up on them . . . even though I will probably end up having a love and hate relationship with them. But clearly hate won't take any part in Noah's case. God he was HOT and super fine! *fans face* He may have a reputation looming over him like the plague but everyone loves a bad-slash-british-boy. Well actually he's not necessarily your typical 'bad boy' but I think people will see he's the kind of boy that takes time to trust and with Mara it does. Though for me it was too easy to trust him completely because you fell in love with him and how extra sweet and funny and caring he was towards our Mara, which in my eyes . . . gives him the extra hint of sweet, sweet honey. Yes I believe I just said that - who would've thought? And unlike YA fictional relationships, these two characters - Mara and Noah - shared such an intense sense of chemistry which ignited all sorts of fiery sparks that practically flew off the page. Not kidding here. All I wanted was more scenes of these two teens together and it just didn't seem enough. As you can gather by my neverending gushing, I loved this couple on a whole and I will continue to love them forever.

Getting more down to the point, I thought Michelle Hodkin's writing was absolutely beautifully-prosed and she practically seduced me with the written word. There were so many scenes that left you craving for more, so many witty comebacks shared between characters (ones that made you laugh at loud), and of course, there was plenty of questions left floating around my mind towards the end of the book. Because after all, there was that unexpected cliffhanger that hit into you. How cruel Hodkin . . . how cruel! Overall I literally can't wait to get my hands on the sequel to this series and it'll be interesting what else happens to Mara and Noah, and I hope some questions will be answered also. Gah! I can't stop thinking about Noah right now . . . so thank you very much Hodkin for that troublesome problem of mine!

The Rating

5/5 stars