Novel Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1) by Michelle Hodkin

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publish Date: September, 2011

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

Something Specific:
Quotes:

• "'You want me as much as I want you. And all I want is you.’ My tongue warred with my mind. ‘Today,’ I whispered. Noah stood slowly, his body skimming mine as he rose. ‘Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever.’ Noah’s eyes held mind. His stare was infinite. ‘I was made for you, Mara.’” (Paperback, pg. 424) One of the best lines, ever.
• "I tried to see us—not individually, not the arrogant, beautiful, reckless lost boy and angry, broken girl—but what we were, who we were, together.” (Pg. 441)

The Cover:

I really like the covers on this series. This one's pretty, and it gives the right feel, has the right affect. Water doesn't have a huge impact on the book (at least, not yet), but the meaning behind it works. I like that you can't really tell if he's saving her or pushing her down or just holding her. And I like that, if thinking he's Noah and holding her, how his arms and legs are kind of wrapping around her, and the love and caring that that shows.
So, I just really like this cover. And the feel of the actual book, which has that weird finish, I don't know what it's called.

Review:

It really shouldn’t have taken me so long to get this book. I had a feeling about it, that I would like it. And while it surprised me on a lot of things, I was right about that one.

For one, I thought this was going to be much more typical young adult paranormal romance. It’s not. I mean, there’s a good amount of romance in here, that’s true. But the paranormal part is always apparent, and it has a nice, big mystery and paranoia and psychological edge to it that I wasn’t expecting. By the end of the book, there are still a lot of questions to be answered. Including what, exactly, Mara Dyer and Noah are, who/what is after them, and what exactly is real? And then the cliffhanger at the end is really horrible.

There’s a lot of mystery, and the psychological part of the story was great. The whole thing makes it really easy to believe Mara, and to wonder about everything with her.

I liked Mara, too. She’s believable, her reactions are understandable even while frustrating, and sad at times. I’m looking forward to finding everything out with her, and her getting stronger and more confident, as everything (whatever everything is) becomes clear to her.

Then there’s Noah, and the romance. I like Noah, a lot. And he’s good for Mara. They work well together, and I imagine that he’ll be good at pulling her back into the real world, at calming her down. The romance part was very nice. I think it entwined with the paranormal/psychological parts really well. There are a lot of really great interactions between the two, a lot of chemistry, but throughout all of it, everything else is just as apparent, isn’t forgettable.

It isn’t a very short book, but it went by rather quickly. The writing was really good. The characters were fantastic. Everything just flowed together really well. And even though it’s been a little while since I read this (a couple months), I am still really craving the next book. Which is on its way to me as I write this, and I’m very excited to get my hands on it.