The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The is-she-crazy/is-she-not-crazy added quite a lot of suspense to the story and as the story progresses one starts to suspect that supernatural elements might be a part of the equation as well…which is great but unfortunately for a book that is 450 pages long, very little happens in the way of developing the supernatural elements of the story. Not to mention all the hallucinations she kept having: the author definitely has a knack for writing disturbing, creepy scenes – there is this one scene when Mara is alone in the house that was genuinely scary. The opening pages were quite gripping and I love the premise of the story: how this girl can’t remember the most traumatic experience of her life, and how her memories are slowly resurfacing. And then weird things happen to her – and people begin to die around her and she starts to remember… It’s been a few months since the accident so her parents decide to start over, move away and Mara starts at a new high school. Psychologically speaking though, Mara is a mess, suffering of severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and hallucinating. Mara Dyer wakes up one day in hospital with no memory about this freaky accident that killed her best friend and her boyfriend and left her physically unharmed. And what frustrates me the most is how well it started and how much potential the story had. I had problems with basically everything about the book. I hoped that The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer would be different.

I didn’t think there was any way that Paranormal YA could get any more irritating. I didn’t believe that hype could still fool me. Why did I read this book: Because the blurb is awesome and the cover intriguing, and the hype! And the reviews!

How did I get this book: I got a copy at BEA. Stand alone or series: Book one of the Mara Dyer series She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love. She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin