Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

28 reviews

lucyellis's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual assault

mimpart's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Vomit, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal cruelty

ingrid13's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual assault

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Kidnapping

morphoblue's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Enjoyable re-read from my youth. Nothing mind blowing but I liked the mystery and actually like the psychological/supernatural thriller aspects. The romance was pretty bland and the main male lead the worst 2010s cliché (which made him extremely unattractive to me) but I enjoyed it for what it was.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

There is a scene in which the character harms herself and its not made clear whether she did it on purpose or not. The main character also suffers from constant PTSD and panic attacks. A lot of talk around death, grief, and mental illness

adriellereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Ableism, Sexual assault, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Gore, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Self harm

sailortrivia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty

alexis_michelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I enjoyed this book so much, but the whole “I’m not like other girls” plot line really took me out of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Bullying

Minor: Kidnapping

ansleymg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer follows the main character who gives us the pseudonym of Mara Dyer at the beginning of the book through the tragic events of her junior year of high school. Within the first chapters of the book we see the tragedy begin to unfold as Mara wakes up in a hospital bed after a three day long coma. Mara’s family moves to Florida to help her escape her trauma, but Mara quickly discovers that the accident that she experienced was beyond escaping. This book takes you through twists and turns, depicting the struggles of a teenage girl with PTSD and a dark secret that her mind will not allow her to access. 

I truly enjoyed this story. Realistic fiction is not my usual genre, but The Unbecoming is done so well. Mara Dyer as a character is difficult to follow. She rarely knows what is real and what is not. The book is written in such a way that the reader also does not always know what is “reality.” The blurring of reality and Mara’s psychoses is very artfully done. The dialogue is quick and witty, the book moves very quickly, and the final cliffhanger was thoroughly unexpected. Beyond just the main character, I developed so much love for Mara’s older brother, Daniel, and the way that their relationship is portrayed. Often authors write siblings in a way that is too loving or too hateful when the reality of siblings is typically somewhere in the middle. Hodkin walks this line perfectly. The only reason that this book did not receive a total of five stars is because for a solid chunk in the middle it becomes a romance book. While this portion was certainly included to create a sense that everything is going well in Mara’s life in order to make the climax that much more difficult, I found that section to be the hardest to get through. The plot seemed to just pause, which left me confused and reading to find out why nothing was happening anymore. 

Overall, I could not put this book down. I read it in a total of six hours in a single day and I can’t wait to pick up the next book from my library to continue reading about Mara. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gun violence

izypup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Blood, Grief, Animal cruelty, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Bullying, Confinement, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Kidnapping, Classism, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Death of parent, Animal death, and Physical abuse