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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Volume 1): Michelle Hodkin

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Okay everybody, take a seat. This is another case of “Why didn’t anyone force me to read these before?!” So here I am to shove these books in your face and make you read them. The plot of this is also so confusing. Time passes in jumps. Every day follows the same structure so it’s impossible to tell what’s happening. In The Retribution of Mara Dyer, it was then revealed Mara with the others, have been kept captives in a No Name Island near No Name Key, Florida. They were held there as subjects for Dr. Kells' diabolic experiments regarding their mutual diagnosis. It was then apparent, that Jamie, like the others was also a G1821-3 carrier, and currently manifesting. He has the ability to tell people what to do using his crystalline voice. This could have been the reason why Anna (see Anna) then died after drunk driving through a cliff. Together, Jamie, Stella and Mara was able to escape from No Name Island, throw away evidences of their existence, in search for answers, a cure, and for Mara, Noah. Jamie brought them to his aunt's (mother's best friend) house in New York. They stayed there for a while. Jamie's ability proved to be valuable and his humor added a bitter comedy within the series. Noah is the bad boy love interest of the story that has had sex with the entire female population of the school. >insert eye roll here< His character is also over the top with bad boy stereotypes. He gets away with everything because everyone loves him. He is loaded with cash money. He's ridiculously good looking with a *le gasp* English accent. He's incredibly arrogant, rude and tactless. Oh, and most importantly, he only has eyes for Mara. Of course. Once he enters the picture, Mara completely forgets about everything. *cough*the plot*cough* I suppose it really isn't her fault. After all, Noah possesses a "panty-dropping smile." Hide your daughters! She doesn't believe that after everything she's read about this book, she can't not instantly fall in love with it.

The girl hate in this is like none I’ve ever seen, or at least like none I can remember and haven’t repressed due to my having read it in middle school. Throughout all of The Evolution of Mara Dyer, Jude is stalking Mara to play with her mind. Going through the trauma of losing his sister may have actually caused him to become crazy himself. Dr. Kells had made him do things, as it was revealed at the end of the second novel, so we have no idea just how much of these events were actually Jude's doing. At the end of the book Mara wakes up confined to a hospital bed, as she often does, and she reads a list of patients. Among them was both Jude and his sister Claire; underneath her name was the word deceased, and his did not say that he was dead. He should have been because Mara had done everything in her power to make sure that boy wasn't alive, but he is. Mara was more than a decent heroine which, I didn't know why, just came as such a pleasant surprise to me. She had PTSD from the accident she and her friends were in when the book opened. I need to give the author credit for not creating yet another YA heroine who solely obsessed about her love life and magically forget about everything else. Mara was not like that at all: she didn't suddenly tossed aside her messed up life and she actually had the presence of mind to want to put her shit together before thinking of having a boyfriend. That was refreshing I tell you. Woohoo! The profound, prolific, and purely dramatic prologue. *lights dim and a single spotlight focuses on me; a narrator's voice comes out of the loudspeakers* Of course it ends with a cliffy which I don’t mind because I’ll be reading the second and third book very soon!Quote: "(...)Take Anna, for example. She’s only a few IQ points above a corpse, and yet she sullies our Algebra II class with her stupidity.”

Watching the relationship grow between Mara and Noah was so much fun. She tries to resist his MANY charms, but eventually succumbs. He's irresistible. I loved his scenes with Mara, the way he refused to give up on her and supported her. He can be the one to save her from the darkness or doom her to a life deprived of light.In spite of my issues with the first book, I ultimately found it a gripping read. Unfortunately, the second book reveals that the series’ realistic and thoughtful portrayal of PTSD doesn’t extend to other illnesses. In the first book, Mara perceives an imaginary distinction between illnesses like PTSD and depression, and illnesses that make people “actually crazy.” In the second book, we see that this distinction is not Mara’s flawed opinion but the view of the series itself.

Look, before anyone thinks I'm just all pissy over this because obviously I've had something like this happen to me before and I'm totes just too sensitive, let me let you in on a little tiny secret: YOU'RE WRONG. I twisted my arm to curl him behind me and he unfolded there, the two of us snuggled like quotation marks in his room full of words. He talks and convinces your mother several times to let you come out and hang out with people your age, while your mom thinks you're too mentally unstable to do so and, frankly, I agree with the womanThe mystery in this book is superior and I just want to know what the hell happened that night and what the hell Mara can do. at times this book felt like your typical high school story. where there is a mean girl who is in love with the popular guy in a somewhat obsessive way and will go through all these lengths to embarrass/bully you to impress popular guy, but he takes no interest bc he is already head over heels in love w you. but the dark, mysterious plot made up for it. Noah Shaw has a bad reputation around school, though Mara sees a different side to him. Why do you think Noah cultivates this reputation? Do you think he is right not to correct other people's assumptions? There will be no love for Mara Dyer here. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you go read another review. The funniest part is that whenever I make a warning like this it ends up getting ignored and I'm trolled anyway, but hey, it was worth a shot, right? One of those, 'everyone has read it but me' series. The one you hear EVERYONE talking about but just cannot relate.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is everything I hoped it wouldn't be, and even more. Not the good kind of more, but the oh-dear-God-please-no-make-it-stop-I-can't-take-this-anymore- kind of no. Now having said that, though, I really can understand how some people would like this book; the writing is fine and there are actually some good quotes like: I know that I've said that people have been insane before, but this girl literally is one of the most insane characters that I've ever read about. Until at about this point in the book I at least had a small grasp on the belief that she hadn't totally lost it, but, at these lines, I totally abandoned any support for this character. I know that some books are meant to have the MCs bust a nut, like Katniss from the Hunger Games, but Mara's break with reality was not believable and somewhat scary/absurd especially because we're supposed to believe that she's not insane. :Even at the end, it wasn't what I expected. I knew it was a paranormal romance, but I didn't know what the 'paranormal' elements entailed. I did a good job keeping myself in the dark on that one... Cait doesn't think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer can get any more terrible than reading Twilight and having no memory how she read that without imploding. Mara spends chunks of the book in treatment for her illness. The replacement mean girl character is a fellow patient named Phoebe. Mara frequently describes Phoebe as “psychotic” and “certifiably insane.” I initially hoped this was a sign of Mara’s internalized ableism and the book would treat it as a character flaw; instead, the narrative seems to support it. For example, in one scene Mara calls Phoebe “crazy” in front of a group, and receives applause from her best friend. Phoebe frequently manipulates those around her by feigning breakdowns and then smirking at Mara when her fake breakdowns are taken seriously. It is disappointing to see a story that previously showed so much awareness of problematic tropes suddenly have nuance-free portrayals of malevolent characters “faking it for attention.” Said main character becomes arch enemy with the pretty popular girl just because. Plus she hates the girls wearing “slutty costumes” at the Halloween party…

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