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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Let me just say one thing,if you loved Mara Dyer trilogy,like I did,then you will LOVE Shaw Confessions. I will read and worship anything Michelle writes,because these books have become(this qualifies as pun,right?) my everything.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“She’s a rock I want to break myself against.”
Oh well, oh well, oh well. In all honesty, the 13-year-old me who absolutely adored the Mara Dyer trilogy and is deeply in love with Noah, is screaming with joy. However, grown-up me – the rational, level-headed one, is sighing in disappointment. When I saw Becoming of Noah Saw pop up on my Goodreads feed few months ago, I can’t deny the excitement I felt; not at the book itself as much as sharing the news with my friends who I had converted into diehard Noah fangirls back in the day. I did reread The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer prior to the release of Becoming of Noah Shaw and I have to say I was not impressed. I, as a child, had quite a questionable taste when it came to literature – it mainly consisted of vampire books and anything that had the bad boy trope in is, so I was ready to have my Mara-Dyer-loving bubble popped. I did not have enough will power and free time to reread the rest of the series (bless my plot memory) and with the Great Reading Slump of 2017 hitting hard, I barely gathered enough strength to start Becoming of Noah Shaw once it arrived in the post. Well, I did, and even though it did read effortlessly, I just didn’t feel like reading it at all. So, her I am, two months after the release, finally writing a review.
“When someone is hiding a secret in a house, something changes in the air. Unspoken words, half finished smiles, eggshell steps—they distort reality, they muffle truth.”
One of the few truly positive aspects, and also the only thing that saved this book from being bashed nine feet under by my ranty fury, was the writing. Michelle Hodkin’s writing has improved tenfold over the years, and I’m not sure if it was Noah’s personality that allowed more poetic feeling to slide its way into the text or Hodkin’s writing style had really undergone such a change, but I can say that I kept noticing, and appreciating, the word choice, the styling of the sentences and the atmosphere the writing provided. This is one of the instances where I can say that the writing added one, if not two, stars to the overall rating. Thank god, were it not for this, the book would have been virtually unbearable.
“Morning”
“God is dead.”
“Coffee?”
“Fuck you.”
“Again?”
There was next to no story up to around page 150, if I recall correctly. And even after that, the plot only took on a little bit more structure. I can’t help but think that these 364 pages could have been reduced to 100 at best. The first half of the book is basically just a bunch of horny teenagers moaning about life. The second is said teenagers moaning and whining some more while trying to uncover a mystery. I actually tried to come up with something better to describe it but found myself unable to since THERE IS NEXT TO NO STORY. And yes, we get quite a good insight into Noah’s psyche, his self-destructive tendencies, we explore the dynamics of his and Mara’s relationship (oh and yes, they do have sex – or try to, a lot, constantly, if you will), and trust me – I’ve seem worse, but it’s still not enough to leave me satisfied after finishing the book.
“You’re my preferred method of self harm.”
Looking at Mara, the change in her character is unbelievable. She started off as a quirky, traumatized girl who tried so hard to be sarcastic and relatable. In Becoming of Noah Shaw, Mara is cold, calculating, surrounded by this cloud of eerie calm. I personally enjoyed this Mara way more than the Mara-Dyer-Trilogy one – she had more layers, more depth to her and that is something I do like to see in a character. Well, enough of praise, now we tumble down into the bottomless hole of WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY?
“A thing I loved about her immediately, though, she looked back at me completely without pity.”
Now, even though I did not absolutely adore the book, I did like it more than The Becoming of Mara Dyer (I’ll have to reread the rest of the trilogy to make the final verdict), and even though it was far from perfect, I will be picking up the sequel. The read it truly easy, the book does flow naturally and you only realize that there’s very little happening once you are looking back at it in retrospect. I want to see what Hodkin can come up with in the future and therefore, I’ll be getting my hands on the sequel the moment it’s out.
“I stare at her above me and want her to pry me open, to crack my ribs, lick my heart, break my bones and suck out the marrow. I want to live inside of her.”
3 oh-you-are-spechul-too? stars.
Oh well, oh well, oh well. In all honesty, the 13-year-old me who absolutely adored the Mara Dyer trilogy and is deeply in love with Noah, is screaming with joy. However, grown-up me – the rational, level-headed one, is sighing in disappointment. When I saw Becoming of Noah Saw pop up on my Goodreads feed few months ago, I can’t deny the excitement I felt; not at the book itself as much as sharing the news with my friends who I had converted into diehard Noah fangirls back in the day. I did reread The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer prior to the release of Becoming of Noah Shaw and I have to say I was not impressed. I, as a child, had quite a questionable taste when it came to literature – it mainly consisted of vampire books and anything that had the bad boy trope in is, so I was ready to have my Mara-Dyer-loving bubble popped. I did not have enough will power and free time to reread the rest of the series (bless my plot memory) and with the Great Reading Slump of 2017 hitting hard, I barely gathered enough strength to start Becoming of Noah Shaw once it arrived in the post. Well, I did, and even though it did read effortlessly, I just didn’t feel like reading it at all. So, her I am, two months after the release, finally writing a review.
“When someone is hiding a secret in a house, something changes in the air. Unspoken words, half finished smiles, eggshell steps—they distort reality, they muffle truth.”
One of the few truly positive aspects, and also the only thing that saved this book from being bashed nine feet under by my ranty fury, was the writing. Michelle Hodkin’s writing has improved tenfold over the years, and I’m not sure if it was Noah’s personality that allowed more poetic feeling to slide its way into the text or Hodkin’s writing style had really undergone such a change, but I can say that I kept noticing, and appreciating, the word choice, the styling of the sentences and the atmosphere the writing provided. This is one of the instances where I can say that the writing added one, if not two, stars to the overall rating. Thank god, were it not for this, the book would have been virtually unbearable.
“Morning”
“God is dead.”
“Coffee?”
“Fuck you.”
“Again?”
There was next to no story up to around page 150, if I recall correctly. And even after that, the plot only took on a little bit more structure. I can’t help but think that these 364 pages could have been reduced to 100 at best. The first half of the book is basically just a bunch of horny teenagers moaning about life. The second is said teenagers moaning and whining some more while trying to uncover a mystery. I actually tried to come up with something better to describe it but found myself unable to since THERE IS NEXT TO NO STORY. And yes, we get quite a good insight into Noah’s psyche, his self-destructive tendencies, we explore the dynamics of his and Mara’s relationship (oh and yes, they do have sex – or try to, a lot, constantly, if you will), and trust me – I’ve seem worse, but it’s still not enough to leave me satisfied after finishing the book.
“You’re my preferred method of self harm.”
Looking at Mara, the change in her character is unbelievable. She started off as a quirky, traumatized girl who tried so hard to be sarcastic and relatable. In Becoming of Noah Shaw, Mara is cold, calculating, surrounded by this cloud of eerie calm. I personally enjoyed this Mara way more than the Mara-Dyer-Trilogy one – she had more layers, more depth to her and that is something I do like to see in a character. Well, enough of praise, now we tumble down into the bottomless hole of WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY?
Spoiler
Why does everyone who they meet have to have superpowers? I strongly dislike this truly stupid trope (very similar to Maas’s “Mates are very rare in this world. However, every single of my characters has one, if possible within their tiny group of acquaintances”). Sophie is a carrier of the special-snowflake gene. Okay, fine, I get that – it has certain amount of logic to back it up. However Goose I don’t understand. Noah’s childhood friend, who just randomly shows up, gets invited to start a new life with the group in New York and out of the blue, lo and behold, he also is a carrier! How unexpected! How surprising! And his presence isn’t even that crucial to the story. If Hodkin wanted to add a romantic interest for Jaime, which is essentially the role Goose plays as far as I can tell, she could have done it in a much more believable way. Making Goose into a carrier only cause the story to feel that much less natural. Leo is for now uninteresting. The reappearance of Stella the bitch was noted and exasperatedly rolled eyes at.“A thing I loved about her immediately, though, she looked back at me completely without pity.”
Now, even though I did not absolutely adore the book, I did like it more than The Becoming of Mara Dyer (I’ll have to reread the rest of the trilogy to make the final verdict), and even though it was far from perfect, I will be picking up the sequel. The read it truly easy, the book does flow naturally and you only realize that there’s very little happening once you are looking back at it in retrospect. I want to see what Hodkin can come up with in the future and therefore, I’ll be getting my hands on the sequel the moment it’s out.
“I stare at her above me and want her to pry me open, to crack my ribs, lick my heart, break my bones and suck out the marrow. I want to live inside of her.”
3 oh-you-are-spechul-too? stars.
I gave a 2 because I feel like this book is not for me. I still respect the author. I was just lost from the beginning up to almost the middle part, I was already hooked from the middle but I got lost again while I'm reading towards the end of the story.
Okay so what I understood is that there are a couple of teenagers who have 'gifts' and some of these teens commit suicide both intentionally and unintentionally. Some died because they're being controlled and others really wanted to unalive themselves for the reason that I was not able to comprehend. The characters wanted to look for anything that could help them remove (???) their gifts since continuous deaths from their kind is happening. Turns out that the deaths in the story are caused by one of the supporting characters since her gift is killing anyone she wants to. The 'killer' is inlove with the main character who was blinded by his love for her. I can't explain it cause I don't understand it that much
Okay so what I understood is that there are a couple of teenagers who have 'gifts' and some of these teens commit suicide both intentionally and unintentionally. Some died because they're being controlled and others really wanted to unalive themselves for the reason that I was not able to comprehend. The characters wanted to look for anything that could help them remove (???) their gifts since continuous deaths from their kind is happening. Turns out that the deaths in the story are caused by one of the supporting characters since her gift is killing anyone she wants to. The 'killer' is inlove with the main character who was blinded by his love for her. I can't explain it cause I don't understand it that much
So I felt let down by this book. What the hell was the plot? I don't actually get what happened and why it happened and just what!?
I like being in Mara Dyer's head so much more than Noah.
He was so moody and just sarcastic all the time and I feel it didn't move the story along at all. Nothing really happened and it got really boring.
I liked seeing all the characters again, after the the trauma they had been through, and also having so many things reveals and elaborated on but overall I didn't like this as much as the original books.
I also don't get the end of the book, it was just so confusing.
I don't know if I would pick up the sequel.
I like being in Mara Dyer's head so much more than Noah.
He was so moody and just sarcastic all the time and I feel it didn't move the story along at all. Nothing really happened and it got really boring.
I liked seeing all the characters again, after the the trauma they had been through, and also having so many things reveals and elaborated on but overall I didn't like this as much as the original books.
I also don't get the end of the book, it was just so confusing.
I don't know if I would pick up the sequel.
En pocas palabras este libro se trata de como Noah se da cuenta que Mara es tremenda loquilla.
Hay varias cosas que han pasado y no entiendo, la primera es del final de los otros libros, Mara dice que mato a todos los policías para revivir a Noah pero lo que no entiendo es que o sea Noah no murió porque obvio no puedes matarlo así por su poder. Entonces por lo que entiendo ¿Mara cree que revivió a Noah? No entiendo como Mara consiguió a estas personas con poderes y empezó a cazarlos y ¿por que? Y sigo sin entender el poder de Mara ¿Puede desear que cosas pasen y hacer que las personas deseen cosas que no quieren? ¿Porque matarlos?
Tengo un gran "NO ENTIENDO" en mi mente.
Para recordar:
Al final Noah bota a Mara y se consigue con su abuela. Stella esta medio muerta en el hospital y los demás están en la policía menos Jamie que esta con "su tía" que lo mas seguro es que este con el Profesor.
Hay varias cosas que han pasado y no entiendo, la primera es del final de los otros libros, Mara dice que mato a todos los policías para revivir a Noah pero lo que no entiendo es que o sea Noah no murió porque obvio no puedes matarlo así por su poder. Entonces por lo que entiendo ¿Mara cree que revivió a Noah? No entiendo como Mara consiguió a estas personas con poderes y empezó a cazarlos y ¿por que? Y sigo sin entender el poder de Mara ¿Puede desear que cosas pasen y hacer que las personas deseen cosas que no quieren? ¿Porque matarlos?
Tengo un gran "NO ENTIENDO" en mi mente.
Para recordar:
Al final Noah bota a Mara y se consigue con su abuela. Stella esta medio muerta en el hospital y los demás están en la policía menos Jamie que esta con "su tía" que lo mas seguro es que este con el Profesor.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Murder
I wanted to love this so so so much, but it just fell flat.
I’ve just finished it and couldn’t tell you what the main plot points were. Noah hides stuff from Mara, Noah sees a suicide and doesn’t do anything about it, there’s a lot of talking and not much else. Over and over again.
Granted, it’s only the first book in a trilogy, but I feel like there should be at least some answers to some of the questions that arose in the book and not just a load of unanswered questions at the end.
The most annoying thing about the book is how different the characters are to the first trilogy - all of Noah and Mara’s issues could’ve been solved by them talking to each other (which they spend basically three whole books doing) instead of hardly ever engaging in conversation. At the end of the book, it’s clear Noah still loves Mara but there’s no indication throughout the book as to WHY he does anymore. She doesn’t do anything in the book that makes him fall in love with her even more, or anything that would warrant him still having feelings for her which is so frustrating as it’s clear they’re still there.
Noah’s personality also seemed a lot different which I suppose could be put down to the differing POV but honestly just feels out of character - I reread the original trilogy right before this book and it’s even very different from Noah’s POV nearing the end of Retribution.
All this said, I’ll definitely read the next books in this series because I can’t let these characters go and the plot of the Carriers dying was interesting even though it wasn’t explored as well as it could’ve been in this book. I’m also very very intrigued as to how and why Mara’s grandmother is still alive and why the “power has gone out”. But mostly I’ll read the next ones to make sure Mara and Noah are together in the end because she can’t take one of my favourite book couples and break them up forever in a SPIN OFF.
I hope Mara’s family come back into further books as they were such key characters in the first trilogy and it even mentions them being in New York, and I hope Katie makes an appearance or even becomes a major character because I think she could become so well developed.
As a final word, I’d like to assure anyone reading this that English people don’t say the word “mate” or “mates” every other sentence. Maybe once (or twice, or a fair few times) per day, but definitely not as much as poor Goose and Noah are forced to.
I’ve just finished it and couldn’t tell you what the main plot points were. Noah hides stuff from Mara, Noah sees a suicide and doesn’t do anything about it, there’s a lot of talking and not much else. Over and over again.
Granted, it’s only the first book in a trilogy, but I feel like there should be at least some answers to some of the questions that arose in the book and not just a load of unanswered questions at the end.
The most annoying thing about the book is how different the characters are to the first trilogy - all of Noah and Mara’s issues could’ve been solved by them talking to each other (which they spend basically three whole books doing) instead of hardly ever engaging in conversation. At the end of the book, it’s clear Noah still loves Mara but there’s no indication throughout the book as to WHY he does anymore. She doesn’t do anything in the book that makes him fall in love with her even more, or anything that would warrant him still having feelings for her which is so frustrating as it’s clear they’re still there.
Noah’s personality also seemed a lot different which I suppose could be put down to the differing POV but honestly just feels out of character - I reread the original trilogy right before this book and it’s even very different from Noah’s POV nearing the end of Retribution.
All this said, I’ll definitely read the next books in this series because I can’t let these characters go and the plot of the Carriers dying was interesting even though it wasn’t explored as well as it could’ve been in this book. I’m also very very intrigued as to how and why Mara’s grandmother is still alive and why the “power has gone out”. But mostly I’ll read the next ones to make sure Mara and Noah are together in the end because she can’t take one of my favourite book couples and break them up forever in a SPIN OFF.
I hope Mara’s family come back into further books as they were such key characters in the first trilogy and it even mentions them being in New York, and I hope Katie makes an appearance or even becomes a major character because I think she could become so well developed.
As a final word, I’d like to assure anyone reading this that English people don’t say the word “mate” or “mates” every other sentence. Maybe once (or twice, or a fair few times) per day, but definitely not as much as poor Goose and Noah are forced to.