Monday, November 7, 2011

A Reader's Ramble- The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

I feel like I haven't done a review in forever! For this Reader's Ramble, I will be reviewing The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.


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.  

 Plot- So, when I decided to buy this book, it was because it seemed like everyone else was reading it, and that it was getting tons of good reviews. On a bunch of book blogs I follow, they were all like, MARA DYER OMG. (Well, not literally like that, but you get it.)
Everyone was gushing about this book, saying how amazing, chilling, and addicting it was. I had very high expectations for it. But, did it live up to them? (I'm going to be as vague as the pitch here!)
It didn't.

I mean come on, seriously, how much more short and vague can you get in that pitch!? That could be improved a little, for sure.

I think since I had such high expectations for this read and expected to love it, that's why I was let down. I'm not saying I was let down on the whole thing, but a good bit of it.

The beginning was really slow and had me reluctant to read it for a while. Actually, I started reading this book about two weeks ago, then actually put it down because I wanted to read something else! (Vampire Academy # 6 AND Bloodlines) So, I read two books after I was about 80 pages into Mara Dyer. I have never paused reading a book in my life.
That must say something.

So after I finished VA # 6 & Bloodlines and picked Mara Dyer up again, I was really reluctant. After the slow beginning, came a decent middle section. The middle part of the book was my favorite and it was the most exciting and addicting in my opinion. I really loved the romance that was happening. Even though I loved it, it was very unrealistic.

A lot of things in this book were unrealistic. ESPECIALLY the ending. I was literally like- What The Fudge? What the heck is going on? How is that even possible? WHAT?! That's so stupid. 


I mean, the story line has the potential to be amazing, it just wasn't. You could tell by the immature style of writing that this is Michelle Hodkin's first book. (Or at least I hope it is..) I found myself skipping paragraphs at a time because I was so bored.
I did like the concept of the story though, how all her best friends mysteriously died and she doesn't remember anything, and how she is seeing hallucinations. The romance was adorable too. Just all so.. unrealistic.

So my overall thoughts on the plot? Confusing, boring at times, unrealistic, has potential, but could be improved.

Setting- Miami, Florida. It didn't really play that much of a role in the story, no big deal here. Mara and her family moves to Florida after the accident with her friends.

Characters- Eh. They again, had the potential to be great, just weren't. They were very underdeveloped, if that's the right term. I felt I never even really connected with Mara, and I wasn't very fond of her either. She was a huge bi***, especially to Noah, who fell for her anyway! When does that happen? And he's too flawless to be real. When does an extremely hot and adorable guy ask out and fall in love with the new girl in school within days of meeting her?
Never.
Love isn't a fairy tale and never happens that easily.

So on the characters, just eh. Didn't love them, didn't hate them.

Cover- This was the only thing I loved about the book. It's so cool! The cover drew me in and made me want to buy this, aside from all the praise it got. It's spooky and chilling! I love the font too!

Overall- I wasn't impressed with this, and I regret spending my pay check on it. I mean, I certainly didn't hate it, but definitely didn't love it either. It was just average.
Like said above, this book has the potential to be great. Will the next one be better? Who knows, I may not even read it.
My high expectations probably ruined it for me, but this book just didn't click for me. Yeah, it had it's good moments, but there weren't many. And the ending was just like, what the heck? It was really confusing and somewhat random. Mara's discovery was less random than Noah's, however.

So, I didn't hate it, didn't love it, I just liked it. And therefore, it gets 3/5 stars.



So yeah, it was okay. I wouldn't rush to the book store to buy it.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just read this one, too... I agree, the plot was kind of confusing. I liked that, though; it was like a mystery and, as one person said on the back of the book, you never know what's real. :) Kind of confusing, but kind of neat, when you think about it. All in all, I thought it was an interesting book... somewhat disturbing, though, with the whole killing thing. xD

Canada said...

This is an awesome book, it is so easy to follow. It immediately draws you in. It expertly delves into the topics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and supernatural psychic abilities. I must say, for a first time author; Michelle Hodkin completely knocked it out of the park. I am eagerly awaiting the following book.