Review:
Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Series: Mara Dyer #1
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Publication: September 27th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Format: Paperback
Source: Gift
Genre: YA; Fantasy; Romance
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.
Thoughts:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is the sort of book that everyone always recommends to me because they think that tit is the sort of book that I would like. Several years ago, closer to when this book came out I had several friends who insisted upon its elegance and the fact that I would enjoy it. Sometime around that year, I order both it and its sequel but as per usual, hadn’t quite gotten around to read it until this summer.
Mara Dyer begins with a sort of mystery vibe, admitted pseudonym and back forth narration of “Before” and “After”. The references to a mysterious accident and the lapses in Mara’s memory point to a cliche’d mystery that I’d 
probably read before. But this book mangled to surprise, throwing in a bizarre sic-fy/fantasy aspect that I will leave undisclosed. As for how was executed I will say it was nothing short of confusing, but that truly was the magic of the story. Mixed in with character development from our lost protagonist Mara we have a web of murder mystery and fantasy, layered with scores of characters whose lives all impact and are impacted by the events of the book.
This book is freakishly hard to review because of the her amount of plot that is within. It makes sense, because it is quite long, but there is no write way to describe really. As the book came to a close, many mysteries had been solved and Mara had settled into a semi-comfortable state (although who am I kidding, I’m not sure if her life could be normal). The ending concludes with a bombshell, promising further volumes and more intense storytelling from Hodkin.
Final Thoughts:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is one of the strangest books that I have ever read, but it’s powerful plot and overwhelming story grab you and keep you reading. I finished book feeling as though I didn’t quite understand it, (similar to Magonia); it is likely that I will read it again to gain a better understanding of everything that happened. I do intend to pick the sequel. I loved the writing in this book, and despite the disarray firmly believe that it was a pleasing read. I think that fan of magical realism will enjoys this, but also paranormal readers who are over the aliens and are looking for something more sophisticated.
Other Opinions:
Jamie | The Perpetual Page-turner
I really liked the Mara Dyer series! Like you, I had a few friends who were reading the books as they came out, but it wasn’t until the beginning of this year that I got round to actually reading them all. Will you be reading the rest of the series?