Read: January 2015
Bookmarks: 3.5
Note: If you plan to read these, do it in a marathon. Don’t space them out, you will only be left confused.
I have been reading the Mara Dyer Trilogy since this book was published back in 2011. For once, I was already on the bandwagon before this book became popular. Why, you ask, is this review coming in 2015 if I read it back in 2011? Simple, the last and final book was released in November 2014 and I had to re-read the entire trilogy from the start to recall anything. Now, I remember truly enjoying The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer the first time I read it, but as I was re-reading it I found notes I made in the margin and it left me wondering if I truly did enjoy it, or if I simply wanted too.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is the story of a girl who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of what has happened to her. She finds out that she and her friends went into an abandoned hospital and then the building collapsed, killing everyone but her. She suffers from PSTD, moves to Florida to get away from the memories. Strange things begin happening, people dying who have angered Mara and slowly she begins to piece together that it was her. In her episodes of PSTD she sees her dead ex-boyfriend, but is he really just a figment of her imagination or is he really stalking her?
This sounds brilliant. It sounds suspenseful, creepy and a down right awesome psychological thriller with a paranormal twist. Do not let that fool you. Those things are there, yes, but what this book really is about is what every YA book is about. Some over-dramatized love story bullshit. The parts that had nothing to do with the romance between Mara and Noah Shaw-the extremely attractive English boy in her school, were great. There were parts where I sat there fully engrossed in what was happening, wondering what the hell was going on. I loved the fact that we were just as confused as Mara, that when strange things happened to her, I was just as freaked out as she was. Then *sighs the love bullshit would kick up and all the eerie atmosphere was killed and that was what ruined the novel for me.
Like all cliché YA novels, the love in this story was sudden but the only saving grace was that it was infatuation and while Mara found Noah attractive she wasn’t a complete moron around him. She was actually a bit of a bitch to him at first, and I really did enjoy that. Noah chased her and for a while she never gave in. However, when they did begin dating their infatuation sky-rocketed to obsessive love.
Let us discuss the characters for a moment.
Mara: Told through her eyes, I will admit I enjoyed this first person point of view. Being inside of the mind of someone who wasn’t sure if they were sane was interesting. Usually with first person POV the character is bland and boring and with The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer I was so happy to see that this wasn’t the case. Was Mara annoying at times, yes. But the interest she sparked within my own mind made me bypass those annoying moments. I mean, wouldn’t we all be a little annoying if we thought we were losing our minds? The fact that she couldn’t get past the fact that she lived a horrible tragedy while her friends died is believable, and while many complain that this was a negativity about her character, I found it refreshing. If she just bounced back months after and started acting ‘normal’ I would truly question her sanity. She is a perfectly flawed character and one of my favourite mains in recent times.
Noah Shaw: I am not a ‘Noah fan girl’, nor do I find him to be ‘swoon worthy’. I really wish people would stop judging characters on how ‘swoon worthy’ they are and creating a ‘team so and so’. Enjoy the characters for who they are. Noah was an alright character for me. He was interesting enough to get you attention but the fact that Michelle Hodkin tried so hard to make him a swoon worthy bad boy annoyed the shit out of me. He isn’t psychotically abusive in his quest to protect Mara in any form like you get in other YA book *coughs* Edward from Twilight *coughs*, but everything about him seemed to perfect. He had family issues but nothing that really seemed worthy of his attitude and behaviour
This is why I am not the biggest fan of re-reading books that you didn’t 100% love and know you would read 10 times again, and love it more and more each time. It wasn’t a terrible book, but there are points where you are left wondering what the hell was really happening, what the hell you were reading and if you are enjoying the book or hating it. It’s very confusing and that is how you feel at the end, excited but confused. It is a very peculiar feeling.
Erica's Bookshelf 