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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Spoiler
although it did leave some questions unanswered. I think the unanswered questions made the story more realistic, personally. In the real world you don't always have all of your questions answered and solved. Although I'm hoping there's some sort of novella or spinoff series to follow a little more with Jamie and Stella.Spoiler
There was a lot more of chapters about Mara's grandma's life that interested me. The road trip that Mara, Jamie and Stella went on in this book reminded me a lot of The Lightning Thief(Percy's little adventure). Compared to the other books in this series, this one was far grittier and disturbed, as one of the first scenes of the book involved Mara cutting a man's throat and eye out, and I liked this change in tone. The ending of this book was very bittersweet, Mara and Noah will be each other's downfall, but neither of them seem to care enough to not stay together and that made me happy and sad.
My Rating:
**SPOILER REVIEW**
So this series began fantastically, the plot line was jam packed and amazingly well done. Hodkins did well there but from there, it slowly and slightly went downward. I was disappointed at the ending and it really didn't satisfy me. After such a long and intense journey the ending was like a whole big: oh.
I still enjoyed this book but the ending for me was ridiculously unrealistic. Don't get me wrong, I love my happy endings but they only work when they're done well. Let's recap on it; Mara dies then soon, Noah dies from a knife to his chest. Mara then miraculously resurrects to find Noah, her true love dead. Sound familiar? For the record, I detest Romeo and Juliet.
Wait. No, wait a minute. Then Noah comes back to life. It was the resurrection aspect that irked me. Mara dies, Noah dies. Mara wakes up, Noah wakes up. Cue aftermath and happy ending. That would never happen.
Everything about the ending was unrealistic. I still wanted Mara and Noah together but I wanted something much more believable. This way I would be able to be properly satisfied with the end. I would be able to feel good that we properly slayed the dragon. If the resurrections remained, I still wanted a more practical and sensible reason behind them.
The last whole couple chapters with Noah's dad and Jude was scary. I kind of imagined the place like in that episode of Sherlock where Watson and his girlfriend are kidnapped by those crazy Chinese art smugglers in that abandoned train wreck place. I imagined Mara held in a place like that.
I really despised how Noah's dad was so bent on the archetypes that Mara and Noah were born in. That they had no choice in what they would become. No matter what they did, their fate would not change and would ultimately drive them apart. That was utter bull crap. They could easily live with each other and ignore their powers.
Those last battle chapters, I found were slightly rushed and not properly set up. I still really enjoyed them but at times, I had found that I had re-read parts because they had been rushed through and didn't completely make sense.
I do have to admit that Mara was better in this book. Not much but better. She actually used her brain and I enjoyed the chapters of her, Jamie and Stella on the run. It allowed her to think and do rather than leaving the thinking and doing to Noah. I didn't mind Mara and Noah's separation during the majority of the book. You know when during series, there is always that book where the couple are apart fora period of time and during that time, you're just so frustrated for that couple to be reunited? In this book, I didn't feel that at all. I was okay with it.
But throughout this whole series, Mara's character development was very poor. She goes from a heartbroken teen who experienced huge loss to a helpless and whiny girl. From that, she just becomes a cold hearted person who has a killed list, a mile long. Her character just fell through each book. Perhaps, she's become a better person with Noah now.
I was super happy with the trio's (Mara, Jamie and Stella) chase across America. Those parts were actually my favourite. I enjoy fugitive stuff. Jamie's ability came in handy. Oh! I'm really confused about Jamie's features. Is Jamie black with Brown hair? How does that work?
Hodkins always does really well with her writing. It's precise, visual and drawing. She's a great chapter ender. She'll build suspense through new information or realizations then BOOM the chapter will end. Michelle is fantastic at this! Her plots are always so complex, original and interesting. Even if I disliked the main character, it didn't stop me from being hooked at the story, itself.
There you go! I don't regret waiting for the whole trilogy to come out so that I could marathon it, allowing me to remember all the important details. So I did love this series. The first book was definitely the best one. I really loved it! I don't know if Hodkins is planning any other books. I really hope she is because she's such a promising author. Someone tell me if she is.
This series was breathtakingly wonderful, and I couldn’t put it down from the minute I picked up the first one again! I would give this series 4.5 out of 5 stars. The last book was wonderful, but was missing some of the things that made the first book great!
*this review was first posted to Moonlight Gleam Reviews as part of the series review http://moonlightgleam.com/2014/11/mara-dyer-series-review.html*
I've been able to finally finish this trilogy! And I don't regret reading this. This just made it to my top favorites now. I love the uniqueness of the story, the twists and the love story revolving around Mara and Noah. It's unpredictable. Mind-boggling. I still have questions in mind tho. Fck science. But I like how it ended though I think the author left it open ended. Ofc I'm aware of what will happen after...after...that ok. I would literally shut down if one of them died at that last page so thank you author for giving me that. It gave me a 'Shatter Me' vibe tbh. It's like, when you started it, you wouldn't want to put it down. Bravo to Ms. @michellehodkin for this wonderful work. For giving life to all the charcters esp. Noah and Mara. And Jamie. I loooove Jamie.
I didn't know what to expect going into this, but all of my expectations were blown out of the water. I'm sad this book series is over, but I am adding it to my top series of all time list. If I could give this book a million stars, I would.
I don’t usually write spoiler-filled reviews, but I’ve had to make an exception for The Retribution of Mara Dyer. I feel like in order to discuss the book in the way I want too and in order to do it justice I really need to talk about all of the WTF moments and plot twists and revelations to dissect and really understand WHAT went on in this long-awaited conclusion to my favorite YA series. So if you have any thoughts on the ending, theories to the unanswered questions, or general ranting/raving, leave them in the comments!
“The freaks shall inherit the earth.“-pg 424
The Evolution of Mara Dyer ended on a wicked cliffhanger, and this book picks up right after. What I liked from the get-go is that now that Mara knows (or at least has a vague sketch) what happened to her (that she’s been manifested and watched by Dr. Kells and everything has been more or less staged since the asylum) she seems to have much more control over her situation. She’s done being afraid of her powers and of her psychological differences, and is ruthless when it comes to escaping and getting her life back and protecting those that she loves. The action begins with a rather gruesome scene and two murders (neither of which I was particularly sad about, considering how heinous Kells and her assistant were).
Right away information starts to gather, with Mara, Jamie, and Stella escaping and sharing their individual stories with each other about how their abilities came to be manifested, and what psychological abnormalities came along with them. Jamie’s ability of persuasiveness was particularly interesting and useful, as the trio has to make their way from Florida to New York while hiding their identities. Each of them has to learn to rely on their powers rather than fear them in order for them to survive, with Stella reading the minds of those around them and Mara “disposing” of individuals who seek to harm them. I like that this isn’t a morality tale, and that Mara doesn’t necessarily feel guilt over what she does (usually when it’s someone really dangerous trying to harm her/her friends). It really casts her as an anti-hero, which is unusual for a protagonist of a YA novel. Mara’s archetype that her genetic abnormality casts her as is the Shadow Self, or Frued’s death drive, which is a unique burden (and one that would usually be reserved for a villain) in literature.
What I did miss in this book were the psychological thriller aspects from the first two novels, where the reader is really unsure of how reliable of a narrator Mara is and all of these creepy mysterious things keep happening and you have to wonder whether Mara did them herself or if someone is out to get her or if someone wants her to think she did them herself. This book almost reads more sci-fi like, with the evil mad scientist/doctors controlling teenagers with super-hero like powers. So while this book had more sci-fi than psychological thriller creepiness, the unsettling imagery was still there. For instance, those things that were embedded in Mara’s stomach were so gross (and we never really were told what they were and how they worked to inhibit her powers). Watching Mara slice open her stomach to try and get them was pretty disturbing, but it was fascinating to see how her subconscious knew they were in there and that they had to be removed.
One of the aspects that I really loved about this series was the idea of genetic memory, and how Mara’s life experiences are intertwined with memories of her grandmother’s, who was also an active carrier of the gene. The mystery of the flashbacks in Evolution drove me mad, so it was satisfying to find out how her grandmother came to America and how her powers worked, who Abel Lukumi was (her grandfather, did not see that one coming) and how Noah and Mara’s fates were interconnected since before birth. I also loved that Daniel got brought into the fold, and how he accepted Mara’s story despite his logic-loving personality, and helped her, putting his allegiance as her brother who loved her above his possible fear of her powers. The message of acceptance was strong and I loved seeing that the book wasn’t dependent on an “us-vs-them” mentality that anyone who wasn’t a carrier couldn’t be close to Mara or the others.
One of my complaints about the book is toward the end the pacing felt a little off. When Mara, Jamie and Daniel get stuck on the subway train and then coerced into leaving it and following sinister messages down the tunnel, it didn’t feel like they were heading toward the final climax, but rather just another confrontation on their journey. It seemed sort of abrupt when there it’s revealed that Noah’s dad had been behind most of the plot, with his funding of Dr. Kells and Horizons in order to keep Noah “safe” due to his bitterness over losing his wife to her involvement with Lukumi and Mara’s grandmother and others who were carrier of G1821. It made sense with the way the plot was laid out, I suppose, but it was hard to picture him as being so cunning and involved when he had been mostly just a mention throughout the entire series up to this point. The big climax also felt a bit convoluted as there was a whole lot of dying/resurrection going on, which didn’t seem to make sense in some ways since Noah and Mara are supposed to be foils to each others’ powers…And Jude. Poor Jude. He was a first class psycho but knowing it was due to G1821 that had been forcibly artificially manifested on him when he was just a small child by Kells was really heartbreaking, and he’s another great example of a multifaceted character who’s both good and evil, which Hodkin seems skilled at writing.
The ending of the book is not one for those who need closure. Noah, Mara and Jamie are finally told my Abel Lukumi that they are indeed carriers of a gene that blesses and curses them with specific powers, and that they can choose to join others like themselves in using their powers for a purpose, or they can reject this calling and live their lives alone. I was seriously convinced that after reading the letter from his mother about how he could use his powers for so much good in the world and to evoke so much change that he would choose to leave Mara (since his powers are weakened by being with her) and Hodkin had me waiting with bated breath until the very end. The story finally comes full circle to the letter that appears in the prologue of the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, with Mara beginning to write a (potentially somewhat fictionalized) memoir supposedly using the psuedonym of Mara Dyer- which is trippy when you think about it, because it poses so many questions. Did I just read the real account or did I just read her memoir with certain elements changed? There are also so many other unanswered questions: What happened to Stella after she left? Are Noah and Mara truly immortal as long as they don’t die at the hands of each other? What’s Mara’s real name? Why didn’t Lukumi help them more when they were trapped by Kells?
Overall:This book isn’t about fixing or saving anyone. At it’s core it’s about a group of people who through genetic abnormalities have been dealt a very different hand of cards than most other humans, and how they eventually have to learn to live with themselves and their powers- most of which live in that grey area between good and evil- and try to pursue a meaningful life as they are, abnormalities and all. “I’ve done terrible things I regret and terrible things I don’t. But I don’t need to be fixed. I don’t need to be saved. I just have to keep going.”
This review was originally posted at Girl in the Pages