Book Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Pages: 452

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pub. Date: September 27, 2011

Source: Personal Copy

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "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."

Mara is involved in a peculiar accident in which three of her friends die and she miraculously lives.  Mara has no clue what happened and can't remember back to that fateful night.  Her family moves to Miami to give Mara a chance to start over, but weird things start happening to her.  She is hallucinating, having dreams about the night of the accident, and fainting, to just name a few.  She is starting to wonder if she is going crazy.  Mara meets bad boy, Noah, at her new private school and as their relationship evolves, she starts to piece together the mystery of the night that changed her life forever.  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin is a suspenseful, action-packed book that instantly became one of my favorite young adult paranormal reads.


Mara's story unravels slowly and while I was able to predict certain events, the book kept me in total suspense.  I was always guessing and trying to piece together the puzzle and there were a few plot twists that took me off guard.  While Mara isn't one of my favorite YA protagonists, her love interest, Noah, is.  Yes, he's a pompous ass and says some cheesy one-liners, but I found myself wanting to learn more and more about him. What can I say? I'm obviously a sucker for the token bad-boy. Mara and Noah's relationship was a bit YA cookie cutter at times, but despite that, it's the mystery of Mara that kept me reading.  


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a book that consumed me. I found myself thinking about it and guessing what was going to happen even when I wasn't reading it.  Despite the 400+ pages, I finished it quickly because I just. had. to. know.  


Another aspect of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer that I loved is the setting. Miami is the perfect location for a sultry and haunting mystery that is equal parts romantic and creepy.  I don't often read books that are set in Miami and it is absolutely perfect for Mara's tale.


I am so excited to hear that there will be a second book coming out entitled The Evolution of Mara Dyer and it will be published this fall.  After reading the ending of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, I was completely blown away---talk about a cliffhanger! So, if you are a fan of paranormal reads that include action, suspense, romance and the supernatural, you MUST get your hands on a copy of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. 

*Buy The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

*Watch the book trailer