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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Finished it on one day and one night ;) stayed up until 3 to finish it! A little creepy at moments but so freaking amazing!!!
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I probably would have had I remembered the plot of the previous book. I was confused a lot, and fell a little out of love with Noah Shaw. Am still happy I read the book though!
” I won’t quit the game, I’ll destroy the fucking board.”
ACTUAL RATING: 2.5 STARS
When I first heard there would be a spin-off to the Mara Dyer trilogy, I was pumped. Like even more pumped when I heard it’s written in Noah’s POV.
Mara Dyer trilogy is one of my earliest series though I felt like it was not but it is. I read Retribution on 2015 (I was 14) and now I’m 18 years old, practically a college student and hell yes there must be some growing up happening. Besides, I forgot what basically happened in the original series and I was so confused as to what the fuck is this book talking about in most part. I can’t find any recap on the internet but can’t find any so I went into this book blind.
I had some love-hate relationship with the original series and I remember not liking Retribution as much as its predecessors. With that being said, I tried to give out ratings for this one as objective as I could because one, 14 year old me and the current me might have some… different thoughts. Two, I ‘m not even sure what I hate about Retribution except that I wasn’t feeling the experiments(?) (if it could be called that).
Reading the negative reviews actually got me thinking (they’re everywhere! I mean the rating for the book is about 3.7 the last time I checked and it’s not a good rating…) . But alas, I feel like it’s not as bad as anyone says.
So yes, the book is on Noah’s POV (and though I don’t love him in this book I remember how I was like preaching about this guy. Yes, I loved him that much; that I remember. We’ll get to that later). The story picked up like some time after Retribution and we open the book with Noah attending his father’s funeral. Here’s the basic: basically after Retribution where we all thought Noah and Mara would get their happy ending, everything went crazy batshit.
You see, I usually love when things went down but the ‘crazy batshit’ phrase mean it’s so crazy that it’s hard to connect it with the original series and it felt more like fan fiction than an actual book for me. The gripping, keeps-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat mystery feeling is still there but it’s much duller than the Mara Dyer trilogy. Statistically speaking, things actually started happening in the last 3 chapters or so. Noah and co basically spent the book lounging and thinking and… lying to each other.
Ah, the lying to each other part. The casual book trope I hate so much: keeping secrets from each other and usually ends in things going wrong. Multiply that by like everyone and it sums up The Becoming of Noah Shaw completely. Everyone fucking lying and keeping secrets, are not helping me to sympathize it actually makes me so annoyed. And when things predictably went wrong at the end of the book... that kids, is why keeping secrets from your loved ones is never a good idea.
The Becoming of Noah Shaw, aside from the lying part and the slow as fuck plot also includes suicide (explained as much in like the author’s note) and too many pop culture references:
”We’ll come for the ride, though Sophie volunteers as tribute to hold your hair when you vomit,” I say to Daniel, and he’s not so wasted that he can’t glare.”
”Because I’m abstaining from this particular argument. You kids have fun though!” He whistles the Hunger Games theme as he climbs the stairs.
…And many more. There are so many of these that it starts to look like Michelle Hodkin is trying too hard. It’s not a secret that some people (especially fangirls) get excited when there are references about other books in a book but there are too many of them that it starts to feel a little cliché. I mean I use these references in my life sometimes, but nobody, not even me, uses these references regularly. It makes the conversations in this book less real and more imaginative.
I also think this book lacks character building. We get lost so much in thoughts and possibilities as to who are causing this and why is that happening that it doesn’t have room for character building. The characters are not “alive” and I don’t feel attached to them to care for them. It’s one of the qualities Mara Dyer trilogy has but the Shaw Confessions doesn’t. The characters are dull and shallow. Hell even Noah’s thoughts seem weird to me somehow. Also can we talk about Goose aka the new character? He has so so much potential with his funny retorts here and there. But he appears in so few scenes and when he does, he talks so little and it makes him more of a background character for me though his roles are quite important.
Spoiler
Also can we talk about how everyone is practically gifted? I mean not that it’s impossible or something but it makes the story so fake it feels like fan fiction.I think I might have loved this book if some parts were to be fixed. I have a lot to complain about and let me tell you this: the 2.5 stars are solely for my appreciation for the mystery and plot twist. I quite like the ending’s twist and the psychological mind-fuck going on. The mystery is unraveled so well it has the classic Mara Dyer touch but I think it would be so much more only if there are actual things going on instead of just… thinking. This book needs more action and for this fact alone, I can’t blame the readers who are giving it negative reviews as I might have found this book boring under different circumstances but alas I hope the second book would pick up and do better.
i am thoroughly disappointed. i am just going to pretend everything ended with the retribution of mara dyer.
✧･ﾟ:* ✩ 4.5 STARS ✩*:･ﾟ✧
TW: the book deals with suicide, depression, self-harm...
(however [this goes to the people complaining] the book starts with a trigger warning that lists these topics and many others so don't say you were not warned.)
Ok, FIRST OF ALL, I want to say that I do not understand why people are giving such low ratings to this book like….expLAIN????
I feel like everyone was expecting this to be exactly like Mara Dyer, just as mysterious and confusing but the thing with the first books is that they were discovering their powers and we are already past that. Besides this is the first book on The Shaw Confessions so DON’T GIVE UP MY FRIENDS.
AnYwAys, I did liked this book as you can probably tell. I have been waiting for this one for almost 2 fucking years (and a little bit more because legit my book arrived at my place one day after I leFT FOR A ONE WEEK TRIP).
This was nearly everything I wanted…nearly because there are chapters that shouldn’t have happened ☉‿☉
Ok, let’s discuss this whole thing, shall we…
“I love the person I am with you. You recognize somebody in me who I want to be, who I wish I were, and I am him when I am around you.”
(Major spoilers are going to be hidden but some situations/scenes that don’t reveal much of the plot are not so if you haven’t read the book you’ve been warned.)
We start with Noah and Mara wanting some ~alone time~ only to be inTERRUPTED and that is when Noah starts having his visions 2.0 meaning that now he can feel and hear what these people are thinking.
Then we met Goose and I am personally mad over the fact that we don’t get that much information on him, he was just…there, at some points I sort of forgot he existed...and I really liked him! I want to know more about him, about his “friendship” with Noah and why does he has a gift!!
Oh and by the way I kinda ship him with Jamie so I am expecting more interaction between the two of them in the second book *cough* Michelle make that happen *cough*
So everyone goes out for a couple of drinks and let me tell you that that chapter was probably the happiest scene that we get in the book, until someone decided to ruin it. Okay yeah, not funny, so Noah kinda passes out because of the vision of Beth but in the beginning, he kept on mentioning this guy who was there just standing and didn’t do anything right??
Later we met Leo and we confirm that it was him at the train station and… I don’t like him he legit doesn’t have a reaction to anything??
Spoiler
He said that he was in love with Stella but when she jumped out of the bridge I don’t recall him crying or screaming or just fucking GRIEVING ‘cause the person he loved tried committing suicideLisTEN UP. I always KNEW Sophie had something to do with all of this madness. When I started Retribution I thought she was just going to appear all of the sudden and BANG bitch she’s been helping the doctors all this damn time but NOOOO she has a freaking Gift now and oh MY GOD what a coincidence they all ended up in Croyden and she just CAN’T see Noah’s “light” and what a coinCIDENCE SHE STARTED DATING DANIEL.
I love Daniel and I can’t believe she did that to him.
Let’s go back to Stella in here, when she appeared I was so happy™ but out of nowhere, she starts hating on my main girl Mara Amitra Dyer, like???? …Well, we know that in the end of Retribution they weren’t on the best terms but now she despices her existence likE EXCUSE ME??. And then she had the audacity to text Noah because she wanted to speak to him alone and then proceeded to tell him E VE RY THING that happened in Horizons and now Noah doesn’t trust Mara (although he did defended her honor 'till the end, get you a boy that can do both ahem noAH SHAW.)
*sigh* I'm so fucking done.
Alright so i have read a couple of review saying that Noah has “changed” and he is “Not the perfect boy that we met in Mara Dyer, so it is disappointing” Okay first, I don’t think he has changed, it just feels weird because now it is his thoughts we are reading and not Mara’s and I agree that in the beginning is a bit weird because we are used to that voice but the tricky thing is that Mara sees Noah like that, in control, super dreamy and “perfect” because she is in love with him, however Noah views himself in a different way and we are definitely harder on ourselves.
He has the same dark humor and personality and tbh I don’t think he has changed.
PLUUUS you guys have to remember that a couple of months ago he legit had to kill his girlfriend??? And then he died, and even tho he really hates his father he is still grieving like a normal human being?? Idk this whole thing kinda pisses me off.
Another thing that I disagreed with in a review was: “Noah was annoyed at Mara or having sex with her, he doesn’t love her like before” Okay, there are 1 (and a half?) sex scenes and those are at the beginning when things are (sort of) normal. But tb honest that is a little bit beside the point, what got me mad in here is that Noah always always defends Mara, even when she has done some fucked up shit, when Stella tells him about Horizons he kept on defending her to no end, so when Mara tells him that she killed his father I understand all the reasons why Noah is mad, he can’t keep on justifying everything that Mara does
it doesn’t matter how much he loves her, it is not healthy and some of you need to understand that.
End of the second rant.
Alrighty, so I already said this but am I the only one who cannot trust Leo? I legit think he has something to do with all of the suicides, actually one of my theories is that he is somehow controlling Mara and using her as a weapon but she can’t tell. Which reminds me… Mara came back home high????? because she used her powers???? what is that about? this is why I don't trust Leo !!
So I don't want to make this longer than it already is so let’s get to the part were Stella is in the bridge and tries to commit suicide but Noah finds SHE MANAGED TO STAY ALIVE which is good, don’t get me wrong I like her but I was SHOOKETH and then things got a little bit weird because Goose passed out and then Noah passed out too and Mara wasn’t there anymore and I was #iamconfusion
AND NOW EVERYONE LOST THEIR POWERS !??!? EXCEPT BUT MARA?? (‘Cause she said she still has them but HOW DOES SHE KNOOWWWS?)
Noah confronts Mara and she admits to killing his father (which I wasn't surprised at all because that was always one of my theories) and she also tells him about the police officers and that fucking paragraph man that got me good straight to my HEART AND FEELINGS
“And then I was surrounded by people who would do their job and then go home to their families and laugh around their dinner tables and read their children bedtime stories and you and I were never going to get that because you were dead and I was alone.”
AND THEN NOAH TELLS HER TO LEAVE AND THIS WAS WHAT I WAS SCARED OF FROM THE BEGINNING AND THIS IS WHY I DIDNT WANTED ANOTHER BOOK IM CRYING
And then, like Michelle hasn't had played with our hearts for about like 400 pages, she decides that BOOM Mara’s grandmother is alive and better than ever and they are going to find Mara and fix this whole mess together (i hope) 😭😭
Listen up kids, I want the second book NOW, I really hope it comes out next year and they don't delay it any longer than it should.
That’s everything I need to say, I love Noah, my main girl Mara and my sons Jamie, Daniel and Goose.
I recommend this to everyone
bye.
------------
(19/Nov/17)
I love my husband Noah Elliot Simon Shaw so I don’t regret this book being the last one that I read this year (and not once but twice).