Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Paranormal Romance/ Mystery
Release date: September 27th, 2011
Pages: 452 (Hardcover)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Won

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.

This is a book that I've been waiting all year to read.  From the moment I saw the cover, I was in love.  I read the description and I was left swooning over it.  The title is even more amazing that the cover and description combined.  I needed to get my hands on it.  Finally, I did.  This was my most anticipated book of 2011 and it did not disappoint.  Granted, I didn't get through it all in one day, but it did hold my interest.  Mara made me say "wtf?" more times than I can count.

The prologue was just incredible.  Definitely the perfect way to reel someone into the story.  Any scene that has an Ouija board in it is okay in my book.  What we learn at that point is creepy, but also very important to the rest of the story.  First we start with Mara, who's been in a horrible accident.  She was the survivor, yet her three close friends weren't as lucky as she was.  After each of their funerals, Mara and her family decide to start new lives in a new place- Florida.  She has post traumatic stress disorder, as anyone would, being in such a traumatic event.  At her new school, she starts to see things that aren't quite there.  Her dead friends are a perfect example.

Oh yes, there is romance.  What would I be if I read books without romance?  This one really didn't need it, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless.  Noah Shaw.  At first he reminded me of Sebastian from Cruel Intentions, but with a British accent.  What's up with all the boys from England recently?  Why don't authors throw in some Aussies or Spanish guys?  They're equally as sexy, but I digress.  Noah is labeled as a playboy.  Every girl that even passes him is left in a daze.  Think zombie.  Think of yourself when you had the biggest crush of your teenage life.  I don't know about you, but I know I had some pretty large crushes that turned me into a sweating, shaking, babbling idiot.

At first Mara stayed away from Noah.  She made a friends with a boy named Jamie, who looked to be one of the only people that didn't belong at the prestigious private school.  He tells her things about Noah and she stays away for as long as she can, but she just can't help it.  Seemingly, most girls in the story can't stay away from Noah.  They all pine for him, and when he starts to show an interest in Mara, she gets the short end of the stick.  One girl in particular has it out for her and won't stop until she ruins one good thing in Mara's new life.

When Mara's dad begins to work on a case involving the murder of a local girl, things get even weirder.  To stop the hallucinations, she goes on an antipsychotic medication, but there are things that happen that she can't quite explain yet.  The prescription is supposed to stop her from seeing things that aren't there.  What she doesn't exactly realize is that she isn't always hallucinating.

Michelle Hodkin had me hanging on to every last word.  I didn't even know what to label this book.  Paranormal?  Romance?  Mystery?  Psychological thriller?  All of the above, creating pure awesomeness?  Maybe.  Some of the things that happen to Mara go unexplained until the end of the book and since you're seeing it through her eyes, you don't know what is real or her imagination.  I actually found myself reading and telling my boyfriend every crazy/ funny/ intricate thing about the chapters I read by the end of the book.  By the time you get to the last 10 chapters, you better be ready to read the book until the end, because even I couldn't put it down.  The ending, though, was the worst.  I mean that in a good way.  I'm still confused as to what happened, and maybe that's a good thing.  I'm going to be getting the second in the series as soon as it comes out, that's for sure.

Quotes I just have to share


- "No," I said, louder this time. "I mean asscrown. The crown on top of the asshat that covers the asshole of the assclown. The very zenith in the hierarchy of asses," I said, as though I was reading from a dictionary of modern profanity.

"I guess you nailed me then.”


- “Noah shifted on the bed, and the oddest crunching sound came underneath him. I looked, really looked, at the bed for the first time.
"What," I asked slowly, as I eyed the animal crackers strewn all over it, "the hell?"

"You were convinced they were your pets," Noah said, not even trying to suppress his laughter. "You wouldn't let me touch them.”


- “You told me I smelled - like bacon." 
"Well," he said evenly. "That's awkward.”