The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Rating: 2.5 stars

Synopsis: When Mara Dyer wakes up in hospital with no memory of how she got there, or any explanation as to why the bizarre accident that caused the deaths of her boyfriend and best friends left her mysteriously unharmed, her doctors suggest she start over in a new city, at a new school, and just hope her memories gradually come back. But Mara's new start is anything but comforting. She sees the faces of her dead friends everywhere and now she's started to see other people's deaths before they happen. Is she going crazy? As if dealing with all this isn't enough, Noah Shaw, the most beautiful boy she's ever seen, can't seem to leave her alone. But does he have her best interests at heart, or another agenda?

Review: I was so excited to read this book. I've heard so many amazing things about it and I've been wanting to read it for what seems like forever...but it was just a little...meh. The premise of this book is so intriguing - I normally quite enjoy books where we have to find the memories along with the character but after reading the book, I feel like the synopsis of the book is quite misleading. Specifically the seeing people's death's before they happen - because she doesn't. She doesn't see people's death's so for me, that was misleading and, when we find out what Mara can actually do it was a little...unbelievable. I think that was my main problem with this book - I couldn't suspend my disbelief for a lot of the things that happened within the plot.

It was quite a confusing book and it wasn't the switching between present day and what happened the day of the accident that was confusing - that was probably the clearest part - the present day plot itself was just so confusing and I'm not sure whether that's the purpose of the plot or not (although I've heard the hype about this book, I haven't read any other reviews on Goodreads or anything so this is purely my opinion) but it really put me off and stopped me from being fully absorbed in the book.

The characters as well, weren't as fleshed out as they maybe could have been. I thought all of the characters were pretty two dimensional - they really weren't real to me. The plot definitely had something to do with that but there was also the fact that I really didn't like any of the characters. There was no chemistry between Noah and Mara really - it was quite a strange relationship to me and I don't think the plot really leant itself to relationship development. Maybe I'd learn to like the relationship if I continued with the series but after reading this I don't think I will. Mara and her family were so dull and I didn't understand why Mara wasn't told about her dad taking on a murder case - it's a completely different scenario than what happened to Mara so why should she be bothered about what case her dad is taking? I think it was her mother that really irritated me the most. She's supposedly a therapist and almost takes on that role for Mara after the accident but she doesn't actually do anything except keep things from her daughter and mix between being completely over-protective and then switching to being completely fine with her daughter suddenly dating. To me, that's just not realistic in any situation, let alone if your daughter has just come out as the sole survivor of a terrible accident.

The whole 'power' thing that eventually comes about in the plot was just unbelievable. I'm guessing it will be explained in the other two books, but as the first book in a series, I felt like there was too much happening to the characters that wasn't explained to the reader, which makes it hard to believe this is happening. Especially from the way this book is set up, it doesn't lend itself to the characters having powers in my mind. In The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare for example, we're introduced to the concept of Shadowhunters and folklore and magic in the very first chapter which sets up the idea that this is a fantasy series and so characters will have powers and magic in some form so when it does happen, it's believable to the reader because it was set up from page 1. In this book, we're not introduced to the idea of something being strange until quite a few chapters in and for me, it took too long so when the 'big reveal' came towards the end of the book; not only was I really confused but I didn't believe it. It just wasn't set up well enough throughout the rest of the book for me.

So overall, the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was a let down, especially considering all of the things I'd previously heard about the series. Despite having picked up the other two books in the series from the library, I don't think I'll be reading them because the first book has just left me so confused and disappointed. What did you guys think about the Mara Dyer series? Was it just not right for me, or did you have the same problems as I did?

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