2012-10-27

Quick Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Rating: 6/10
Date of Release: September 27, 2011
Summary: 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 

MINOR SPOILER ALERT

This was very, very difficult to rate. I had a serious love-hate relationship going on for this book. I mean, read the summary. Sounds flippin' awesome. And some parts were.

Many people complained that this was confusing, or even nonsensical. I would disagree. For the careful reader (especially in the last fifty pages or so), things more or less make sense. I had two big drawbacks with this novel. Firstly, the romance.

Is there a YA book, anywhere, that doesn't include some cheesy romance with a smoking-hot jock? Noah, Mara's boyfriend, is smoking hot. Perfectly handsome. Even has an English accent. Rich, of course. Pretty much everything I hate in a  love interest. Just ugh. That whole subplot could have been dropped, make the book a lot shorter and less cliche.

The second gripe I have is the jerkiness of the whole story. Things happen too quickly, and then not quickly enough. One minute we have a kidnapping, crocodile murder, and escape from some sort of freak serial killer, and the next Mara is hunched in her room, thinking, and the next she and Noah are hanging out in his mansion. Too many strings were being pulled at once, it was too jerky and fast, not enough time to catch your breath, or else the romance scenes dragged on.

The biggest pro to this book was the story, and more specifically, the mind-bending, never-sure-what's-going-on-until-the-last-page story. I LOVED that aspect of this story, the cliffhangers, the surprises, discovering who Mara is and what she can do. I don't want to give away more than I have to, but it was a fantastic, original storyline that kept the reader on their toes.

So, I decided what I liked about this book outweighed what I didn't like, making it a little over 50/50. I'm still not positive on this rating. Be assured though, if you want a mysterious thriller, read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. 

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