Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin
Rating: ★★

I'd been keen about reading this even before I learned about Michelle Hodkin's book signing event at school. It was just lately that I had been able grab a copy and read it. I found this to be an easy read and there were a few times I was shamelessly giggling and a little bit scared, but at the end of it I felt giving this no more than two stars.

Mara Dyer wakes up in a hospital with no memory of what happened to her and her friends the last few days. No one actually knew why she was the only one able to miraculously survive the accident that took the life of her friends. And so after her family decided it must have been traumatic for Mara to bear the loss, they have decided to move to Florida where she can start anew. After a few months in a new state, she found a friend, bullies, and yes, a love interest. It wasn't an easy start for Mara since the hallucinations she was trying to escape from Rhode Island still haunted her and that they were almost enough to make her believe she was losing her mind. Add to that the consecutive unusual occurrences for which she felt responsible, Mara just didn't feel normal. Eventually, the memories she had before the accident slowly came back to her and somehow shed a little light on who she really was.

For some reason, this book reminds me of the Japanese television series Orthros No Inu and if you read its plot synopsis on Wikipedia, you just might be given an idea what the characters of this book really are.

This I just have to say: my two-star rating on The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is one thing I am, surprisingly, not bitter about. Usually when I give a rating less than three stars, I rant about how dissatisfied I am. Probably what made me give this two stars were 1) my love-hate relationship with the characters; 2) the slow progress of the plot; and 3) the story focusing mostly on the romance. Let me explain.

1.) My love-hate relationship with the characters

Mara - while she started being the kind of girl who could stand up for herself when bullies attacked her, she then became the girlfriend who almost always depended on her boyfriend to the point that everything she had to do, she had to do with him. Please.

Noah - he sure was charming, but do not be fooled because this young man could be so full of himself most of the times. Although I had to admit, he being open about his relationship with Mara was nice.

Jamie - the clichéd [new] close friend. I was not even sure if he was a friend or what, because the times he should have been there for Mara, he was not. He was nice and gave advice to her, yes; but anyone could be nice to people without having the need to brand them as a friend, so what makes Mara any exception?

Daniel - he was so perfect I couldn't even imagine he could be possible.

2.) The slow progress of the plot.

Halfway through the book and all I got were just hallucinations. I needed to know why they were relevant to the outcome of the story.

3.) The story focusing mostly on the romance

This is my problem when it comes to some Young Adult books. They elaborate too much on the romance and less on what, why, and how the plot makes sense. Mara and Noah had so many "romantic" encounters I couldn't tell what the point of the story was.

Overall, this book is fine. The style of writing was very well executed; and so when a father I met on the book signing event asked me if this was something a fifteen-year old would be okay to read, I said yes. I did not say it just to be nice to this sweet father. I really thought young readers would enjoy this. I did enjoy it somehow. I'm going to read the next book and hope that my star rating will at least go a notch or two higher.

P.S.  I may have given this two stars and I did not go swoony about it, but that did not entirely mean I did not like Michelle Hodkin as a writer and as a person. After that book signing event, I actually thought she was such a very down-to-earth person, seeing her smiling all throughout the event (even when there were no fans trying to take pictures of her). And she is a lawyer (wanting to fight for the rights of animals)! What a rock star!