Name: issa's review of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Item: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Rating: 4
Author: issa

Michelle Hodkin

Seventeen-year-old Mara cannot remember the accident that took the lives of three of her friends, but after moving from Rhode Island to Florida, finding love with Noah, and more deaths, she realizes that uncovering something buried in her memory might save her family and her future.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger. She wakes from a coma in hospital with no memory of how she got there or of the bizarre accident that caused the deaths of her best friends and her boyfriend, yet left her mysteriously unharmed. The doctors suggest that starting over in a new city, a new school, would be good for her and just to let the memories gradually come back on their own. But Mara's new start is anything but comforting. She sees the faces of her dead friends everywhere, and when she suddenly begins to see other people's deaths right before they happen, Mara wonders whether she's going crazy! And if dealing with all this wasn't enough, Noah Shaw, the most beautiful boy she has ever seen can't seem to leave her alone… but as her life unravels around her, Mara can't help but wonder if Noah has another agenda altogether…

alexys <3

No. it isn't irrelevant. 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 mine.

 His stare was infinite. “ I was made for you, Mara."

Mavbe Noah wasn't asking. Maybe I didn't mind.I closed my eye and felt Noah's five o' clock graze my jaw, and the faintest whisper of his lips at my ear. 

“There’s nothing anyone can do to fix it,” I said quietly. Finally. 

're evil." In response, Noah smiled, and raised his finger to gently tap the tip of my nose.

 "And you're mine," he said, then walked away.

And just like that, I was completely, utterly, and entirely, 

This looks so much like you," she said to Noah, pressing her body against his. 

Noah drove girls crazy, and I was already crazy. 

Sophia

I tilted my head at him. "Did he? You say that because he almost hurt me-"

"He did hurt you," Noah said, suddenly fierce. "Just because it could have been worse doesn't mean he didn't hurt you."

"He didn't rape me, Noah. He hit me. He kissed me. I killed him for that."

But all I thought about was what it must have felt like to hear the slam of those doors - to feel the reverberations in the rotting floor, in the walls, as thousands of pounds of iron sepreated you from the rest of your life. What it must have felt like to know no one was coming for you. What it must have felt like to starve.

Everyone needed to have the opportunity to catch a long, languorous glimpse of my disgrace.

"This looks so much like you," she said Noah, pressing her body against his.

Sarah 

“things will keep getting worse. I make everything worse.” A tear rolled down my burning cheek. I closed my eyes, and felt Noah’s fingers on my skin.

“You want me,” Noah said simply, definitively. “Don’t lie to me. I can hear it.”

“No, it isn’t irrelevant. 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 mine. His stare was infinite. “I was made for you, Mara.”

“Then Noah gave me a look that broke my heart. “What happened, Mara?” he asked in a low, quiet voice”

he’s reading for her? i will die that’s so cute

“Long June evenings, in the bracken that shone like frosted silver, feet padded softly. White moths fluttered out. She held him close in her arms, pearl dewdrops and flowers around her neck and in her hair,” he said.”

“She looks so different,” my father said. “Where’d our girl go”

“You,” he said quietly. “Your heartbeat. Your pulse. Your breath. All of you.”

“But I need to go home,” I said, my eyes meeting his. “My parents are going to kill me.”

“Taken care of. You’re at Sophie’s house.”

“Where’s Katie?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

“He had no idea what was going on, but he was going along with it. With me. Reckless Noah, game for anything. I loved him.

“Do you want anything?” he asked. I felt his eyes on me as I looked in the glass case.

A quiet smile transformed Noah’s face. “Absolutely.”

“Whatever you want,” I said, and Noah smiled at me, but it was sad.”

“I’ll make a huge deal about how great you’re doing tomorrow before Noah gets here. How much help you were with the party.”

“She was choking when I got here but I didn’t know what to do!”

“I hoped she choked on her lying tongue.”

“Bye, sugar,” Jamie said, and kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t let The Man keep you down.”

Jocelyn Smith

issa

Linara K.S

2023 (second reread)
: The fact that it took me five years to reread this is insane.
🌟🌟🌟🌟 four stars for me :) 
I've come to that age where anything involving sixteen year olds and their problems exasperates me to my very core. However this... this ain't anything like that. My girl Mara has so much going on, with the deaths of her friends weighing on her conscience without mentioning the trauma that follows her around like a plague, that i wonder it's even possible to function as a young teenager with all of it. 
Understandably, the people expecting her to act "normal", whatever that's supposed to mean, make me want to rip through the pages whenever i encounter them.
 Now, let's talk about what, or rather 
  whom
 everyone wants to hear about:  Noah freaking Shaw. The one and only. 
What is there to say except that the guy can walk all over me any time of day at his place of pleasing. And I'm not ashamed to even say that (though i should be, given my age). 
Shaw is all mystery and though we do get the answers to why he does what he does, there's still this sense of plot convenience??? I mean his encounter with Mara felt too convenient and insta-lovey but through the whole story i thought there might be something undisclosed about their meeting. Maybe it was premeditated? Foretold? Maybe a reincarnation trope...? I don't know. Just some justification to how assuredly Noah approached Mara on their every first encounter. I made no sense. 


   2018 (first read):
 
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 five stars
I really, really enjoyed this book! So much so that it might be an all-time read ! I think I loved this book so much because of the relationship between Noah and Mara ...it was so different from what I’ve read before ! Noah is always so cheeky and corky !! I just love him so so much !! ( I’m kind of in love with him but don’t tell anyone I told y’all that ) I love that there are small paranormal elements added in this story that makes it so creepy and scary to read at night ...ok so a small résumé about the book non-spoiler :
This is the story of Mara Dyer, a teenage girl found unconscious in an abandoned building. She wakes up in a hospital bed, not remembering anything from the previous night . So her mother fills her in : Mara , her best friend , her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s sister went to this abandoned building to sleep the night in ... but when Mara wakes up in the hospital, she learns that the other 3 teens who were with her that night are dead !?!? 💀 Her best friend’s body isn’t even recognizable anymore, and even worse, her boyfriends body is missing !! After Mara gets better and leaves the hospital, she tells her parents that she can’t stand it anymore she has to leave this town cause it makes her think of her friends . So they leave . Mara gets into her new school, and hallucinations start to invade her daily life ... She sees her dead friends ! On the first day of school, she meets the hot and handsome Noah Shaw who seems to have an interest in her, making her school days all the more tumultuous ...

Anjorin Molayo 

when i started this book, it was with less expectations. but this book surprised me, and the suspense?? I love this book so much. the conversations? great. the characters? in love with them. 
can’t wait to start the second book.

kelsey

*update 8/7/21

“you think you’re the only person to want bad things to happen to bad people?” “no, but i am the only person who gets what she wants.”

okay, most of this was romance and then got good towards the end???? like why did u decide to do the paranormal mystery i was promised then??? i didn’t really enjoy it. it was Nothing like imagined or advertised

Macy

Seventeen-year-old Mara cannot remember the accident that took the lives of three of her friends but, after moving from Rhode Island to Florida, finding love with Noah, and more deaths, she realizes uncovering something buried in her memory might save her family and her future.

The unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Vicky  Nuñez 

Once again I feel like the romance swallowed the story. This had the makings of a great story, and don't get me wrong it was. But I can't help but be annoyed when the main story(Mara and her hallucinations) are disregarded for the romance. Halfway it's like she's a complete normal girl and there's nothing wrong with her. 

And you can't tell me whatever you want, but no matter how hot a guy can be a girl is not going to be sitting next to him and stare wide at him while thinking, "He smells so good and he has the most beautiful hands! And his face! He has an angel's face!" I mean if you know someone like that, please take him immediately to see someone. I get that girls might sometimes act like that, but not to that extreme. And it annoys me that they are constantly portrayed like that. 

I mean, yes, there's nothing wrong if she met a guy, but to ignore the whole plot to talk about her high school life and the amazingly hot, unattainable, but who seems to be interested in her, popular guy. 

If you are interested in paranormal romance & reading the same book over and over again, with only mild changes in the plot, this might be for you.

akynn 

Mara? Mid. Noah? Mid. "plot twist?" Guessed it. For some reason it didn't hit me that this was written in 2011 until I finished it and realized how boring this shit was.

catalina

Raquel 

ok first of all, i was not expecting this to be so good and pulling me in this much, second of all WHAT??? that ending? hello? starting the second one immediately

Annika Arguemore

This book is just simply riveting and beautiful and... Ugh, you can't even fathom how much I got attached to this book in a span of a week.

Normally, I'd finish a book in a day but this... this book, I didn't want to let go. I wanted to remain living in its story. I felt so at home in the environment Ms. Hodkin had created which was a mix of strange, grunge and eerie, much like what the first season of American Horror Story had emanated. I mean, sure, it was sweet, but there was a mix of bitter in it which made it even sweeter to me.

The components of this book are perfectly well-balanced. There's enough of romance, of mystery, conflict, thrill and suspense. It's just perfect, man. Like I said, I loved the climate this book gave and I still continue to search for it in every book that I read, the aura it radiated whilst the duration of my reading. Michelle Hodkin just left me wanting more. Kudos!

Amal Hassan

Mae Erceg

** spoiler alert **
           This book was so good. Best part about it was definitely Noah Shaw but to be 100% completely honest, I'm still really really really confused. It didn't tie up all the loose ends but THAT JUST MEANS THE NEXT BOOK HAS TO :D

Nessa Luna

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I remember buying this book because I was really intrigued by the summary. I told myself I would read it as soon as possible, over a year ago, oops. But a couple of days ago, I finally decided to read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, mainly because a friend of mine absolutely loved the book. And boy did I like it!

The book starts off with a very thrilling scene, one where Mara and her friends - Rachel and Claire - decide to use the Ouija board Rachel got for her birthday. Not only did I find that a really bad idea already, the question that Rachel asks made me facepalm even more. Because you do. not. ask. a spirit how you're going to die or when you're going to die, because the answer will most likely freak you out. A lot. This is also one of the reasons I never ever want to touch an Ouija board.

When that was over, I started to really enjoy the story. It was very thrilling and I found myself wanting to read on and on and on way past my bedtime. There were some fandom related mentions, one of which I quoted at the top of this review, which made me really happy. They talked about Parseltongue (the ability to talk to snakes) and Elvish, there was a pug which just made me squeal when I read it and there were some funny parts that actually made me laugh out loud, which doesn't happen a lot when I am reading.

However, there were some flashbacks that I didn't really enjoy in the beginning. They were executed well, with a little 'before' right underneath the chapter number, and it was very obvious that they were flashbacks. In the end, I started to like them more, mainly because they were telling us what actually happened to Mara and her friends at the beginning of the story, and I found them very exciting.

The characters were awesome, and I found myself liking Mara's brothers right from the start, just like Jamie. I disliked Noah a lot in the beginning of the story, found him very annoying and kind of had the idea he had an insta-love thing for Mara. In the end, I started to like him a bit more, when he started to reveal the 'real' him. I absolutely hated Anna and Aiden and I wanted them to be punished for what they'd done, and hopefully they will in the second book.

Personally, I found the romance a bit overpowering in this story, it kind of pushed the real paranormal part of the book back at some points, and I can't really say I ship it yet, but I did like them more at the end of the book than I did when it first started. And can I just say that cover looks amazing! I love underwater photography and this picture just looks so amazing. Not really sure if it fits the story, but it's just an amazing picture and when I first got this book in the mail, I spend a good couple of hours just staring at the cover.

The writing was very nice, and like I said before, it made me want to read way past my bedtime, which I did on several occasions. Lately, I haven't really been wanting to read a lot of books, but I think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer pulled me right out of the land of reading slumps and put me back onto my feet. I will certainly be purchasing a copy of the second book, but I will wait with reading it for a bit, so I won't have to wait that long for the third book, which comes out in November this year. (I do think The Evolution of Mara Dyer kind of sounds like she's a Pokémon. "What? Mara is evolving!").

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal books with a bit (well, I should say a lot) of romance in it.

My reaction of this book in one gif:

maddie harris

Victoria

I started reading this book yesterday and I couldn't put it down. I ended up finishing the book in less than 24 hours and last time that happened was 2 or 3 years ago. This is one hell of a page-turner and now I'm left hanging so on to the next book.

definitely had me hooked the moment i read this. The fmc is annoying but then again given wtv that happened its understandable tho I still don't feel the attachment I feel towards other characters. hoping there's character development in the other books

yusra noorain

Lisa <3

typical ya supernatural written in the 2010s but was still entertaining

Danyella Barajas

Faith Kitowski

AHHHHHH. noah, sir… i’m in love with you. it was so good i can’t. no words. i just know it’s gonna get better and better.

i’m very confused and could not sleep the whole night once i started this.

i’m a mara apologist till the day i die!!!

jude deserves the most painful death possible. imagine losing your bestfriend and your almost rapist boyfriend is the one who survives????

(he needs to calm the savior complex down a little bit)

unhinged mara is slay although i obviously wish for her to live comfortably and happy .

i’m very confused and could not sleep the whole night once i started this.

i’m a mara apologist till the day i die!!!

jude deserves the most painful death possible. imagine losing your bestfriend and your almost rapist boyfriend is the one who survives????

noah shaw 🫶🫶

(he needs to calm the savior complex down a little bit)

unhinged mara is slay although i obviously wish for her to live comfortably and happy .

The beginning with the paranormal stuff was great - a bit creepy but nothing too horrid - and then suddenly everything went a bit out of order.

I got whiplash from how quickly there was paranormal stuff and then suddenly they are all just kids who go to school on a tuesday💀

The normal scenes were so weird and boring and it irritaed the hell out of me. This kind of shit happens in dystopian books or fantasy but not in a high school romance setting lol

And I don't really get how Noah and Mara fell for each other? She didn't really like him or was wary off him and suddenly she loved him? How? When? Why? And he was just obsessed from day one lmao Sadly tho, his obsession was a normal one and did not qualify for dark romance which was disappoiting (he could at least kill for her or stalk her a little better🙄😂)

The ending also was super strange. Like super random. Why does one end a book like that? The cliffhanger felt a bit cheap. Literally every soap opera does this in every episode haha

I guess I was just waiting for them to turn absolutely bat shit crazy or feral and when they - especially he - didn't, I was disappointed.😅 But it was entertaining (and disturbing as hell) when she became unhinged so that's good.

I don't really know what to think.

The beginning with the paranormal stuff was great - a bit creepy but nothing too horrid - and then suddenly everything went a bit out of order.

I got whiplash from how quickly there was paranormal stuff and then suddenly they are all just kids who go to school on a tuesday💀

The normal scenes were so weird and boring and it irritaed the hell out of me. This kind of shit happens in dystopian books or fantasy but not in a high school romance setting lol

And I don't really get how Noah and Mara fell for each other? She didn't really like him or was wary off him and suddenly she loved him? How? When? Why? And he was just obsessed from day one lmao Sadly tho, his obsession was a normal one and did not qualify for dark romance which was disappoiting (he could at least kill for her or stalk her a little better🙄😂)

The ending also was super strange. Like super random. Why does one end a book like that? The cliffhanger felt a bit cheap. Literally every soap opera does this in every episode haha

I guess I was just waiting for them to turn absolutely bat shit crazy or feral and when they - especially he - didn't, I was disappointed.😅 But it was entertaining (and disturbing as hell) when she became unhinged so that's good.

jupiter

finding out mara is half indian was honestly the biggest plot twist for me 🤷‍♀️i blame the tumblr fans for that one.

literally avoided studying for finals to read this, very fun. we love a little mystery in miami~

Andrea Pais

OH MY GOD

I absolutely adored this book, it definitely lives up to all the hype.

I read it in like 2 days because it was so freaking captivating

BUT WHAT THE HELL

I NEED THE SECOND BOOK RIGHT NOW
 
Definitely give this a go you guys, you wont regret it one but

Jocelyn Smith &
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

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Jocelyn Smith &
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin