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A review by robinbridgefour
The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
4.0
****The entirely spoiler free part of the review****
I liked this book a little better than the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and the Evolution of Mara Dyer. In those we spent a lot of time on the romance aspect of the story and trying to decide is Mara really crazy or is someone out to get her. In Retribution WE KNOW someone is out to get her. She is still not an entirely reliable narrator as she is still suffering some ill effects of all drugs, her genetic memory and her manifesting power. She isn’t completely sane and there are still plenty of eerie creepy moments throughout but Mara seems a little less crazy this time around.
There is far more story happening in this book. Questions to be answered and Noah if he is indeed still alive to find. I was so happy that all those flashbacks to the past in the prior book finally started to make sense in Retribution as the past catches up to the present.
Mara is a little more homicidal in this book, I’m not sure she truly gets retribution but…she really stretches the confines of right and wrong and a few people end up dead at her hands. Some more deserved than others. She is not whole a good person and the lengths that she is willing to go to scare even her closest friend Jamie and her brother Daniel. Is she the villain everyone else assumes her to be, I don’t think so. But she isn’t exactly a hero either.
Some arcs are wrapped up really well. What the mutation is and how it is affecting each of the kids. What Dr. Kells is trying to accomplish and how she is involved. What is Jude’s true involvement. Who is pulling all the other strings and is the money behind it all. What role Mara’s grandmother played and why she committed suicide and much much more. However, there are a few things left a little open and this leads me to believe that Michelle Hodkin might return to this series later. Perhaps following Jamie on his adventures next or they could do The College Years.
*****Some Spoilers Below, You Have Been Warned*****
The story picks up again right after the events in Evolution and Mara is still at Horizons being tested on. This was so creepy stuff and I’m so glad that we weren’t stuck here any longer than we were. Mara really surprised me a little since she went from possibly crazy to probably homicidal in 2.5 seconds flat. There were all kinds of reasons and I’m not saying the people she killed didn’t deserve to die but our girl definitely started to walk on the darker side.
I missed Noah in the book. Yes there were some great remembrances of him and the search for him but we had to wait sooo long. Good thing Jamie was there. He added the much needed comic relief and fun pop culture references to Mara’s newly acquired homicidal tendencies. Plus eventually Daniel gets in on helping them follow the money trail to find Noah.
And my nerd heart sores with the reference including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The flashbacks to the past at least started to make a little more sense as we come to realize who they were really about. As they catch up to the present it becomes a little clearer who some of the puppet masters are and what their goals are. And here is where things got a little convoluted and confusing. I’m still not sure how Mara and Noah counteract each other exactly or why they need to. I’m not sure why Mara’s Grandmother had the same ability but she didn’t have anyone like Noah the Hero and was okay and learned how to control her gifts. This was the part that I wished I understood better than the explanation given that there needed to be balance.
We learn who paid off the fortune teller to give Mara that reading that if she stayed with Noah she would love him to ruins and perhaps the reasoning no matter how twisted behind it. There is the big build up to the show down at the end. Tension abounded and who knew what would happen to our favorite characters after they have just found each other again. I was genuinely worried for them both as anything could and did happen.
THE ENDING
It wasn’t quite everything I hoped it would be, it was close…really close. I’m fine with how most of it ended. I would have like to know a little more about Lukumi and how many other people’s lives he is pushing in different directions. Or I would have liked Mara to get some kind of retribution against of few of the other people that made her life utter hell, but I’m sure they will get there due eventually. There also didn’t seem to be much blow back for all the death that Mara dished out along the way, and that was swept away a little too easily but I’ll accept it as is.
I know that some will have issue with how Mara and Noah’s story was left but, I like it. I like that they are seventeen and you can’t promise forever at seventeen. You can promise today and possible tomorrow but everything else is just day by day no matter how much you have been through. I think that the story is still a little open so that Michelle Hodkins could come back to this world later if she wanted to, or I can continue the story in my head on my own but it’s also wrapped up well enough that I don’t have to either, it is my choice.
I liked this book a little better than the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and the Evolution of Mara Dyer. In those we spent a lot of time on the romance aspect of the story and trying to decide is Mara really crazy or is someone out to get her. In Retribution WE KNOW someone is out to get her. She is still not an entirely reliable narrator as she is still suffering some ill effects of all drugs, her genetic memory and her manifesting power. She isn’t completely sane and there are still plenty of eerie creepy moments throughout but Mara seems a little less crazy this time around.
So. I’d finally lost it.
“Not yet,” my reflection said, looking amused. “But you’re close.”
“What—what is this?” A hallucination?
“Not a hallucination,” my reflection said. “Guess again.”
There is far more story happening in this book. Questions to be answered and Noah if he is indeed still alive to find. I was so happy that all those flashbacks to the past in the prior book finally started to make sense in Retribution as the past catches up to the present.
Mara is a little more homicidal in this book, I’m not sure she truly gets retribution but…she really stretches the confines of right and wrong and a few people end up dead at her hands. Some more deserved than others. She is not whole a good person and the lengths that she is willing to go to scare even her closest friend Jamie and her brother Daniel. Is she the villain everyone else assumes her to be, I don’t think so. But she isn’t exactly a hero either.
It has been said that there must be a villain for every hero, a demon for every angel, a monster for every god. Despite what we are, I do not believe this. I have seen the villainous act heroic, and men called heroes act villainous. The ability to heal does not make one good any more than the ability to kill makes one evil. Kill the right people, and you become a hero. Heal the wrong ones, and you become a villain. It is our choices that define us, not our abilities.
Some arcs are wrapped up really well. What the mutation is and how it is affecting each of the kids. What Dr. Kells is trying to accomplish and how she is involved. What is Jude’s true involvement. Who is pulling all the other strings and is the money behind it all. What role Mara’s grandmother played and why she committed suicide and much much more. However, there are a few things left a little open and this leads me to believe that Michelle Hodkin might return to this series later. Perhaps following Jamie on his adventures next or they could do The College Years.
*****Some Spoilers Below, You Have Been Warned*****
The story picks up again right after the events in Evolution and Mara is still at Horizons being tested on. This was so creepy stuff and I’m so glad that we weren’t stuck here any longer than we were. Mara really surprised me a little since she went from possibly crazy to probably homicidal in 2.5 seconds flat. There were all kinds of reasons and I’m not saying the people she killed didn’t deserve to die but our girl definitely started to walk on the darker side.
He must have seen my hesitation, because he whispered, “Good girl.”
I cocked my head.
“You’re not so bad, are you?” Those were his last words before I cut his throat.
I missed Noah in the book. Yes there were some great remembrances of him and the search for him but we had to wait sooo long. Good thing Jamie was there. He added the much needed comic relief and fun pop culture references to Mara’s newly acquired homicidal tendencies. Plus eventually Daniel gets in on helping them follow the money trail to find Noah.
“You can be our Gandalf,” I said, remembering our conversation from weeks ago, and smiling.
“I’m only a year older than you. But I’ll take it as a compliment, if you let me be Dumbledore instead.”
“If you insist.” I shrugged. “But Dumbledore is more dead.”
“Point,” Daniel acknowledged.
“You’re neither, actually.” Jamie looked up from a file he was reading. “You’re a muggle—” “Hey, now.”
“Which makes you Giles.”
Daniel considered it for a moment. “I’ll take it.”
And my nerd heart sores with the reference including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The flashbacks to the past at least started to make a little more sense as we come to realize who they were really about. As they catch up to the present it becomes a little clearer who some of the puppet masters are and what their goals are. And here is where things got a little convoluted and confusing. I’m still not sure how Mara and Noah counteract each other exactly or why they need to. I’m not sure why Mara’s Grandmother had the same ability but she didn’t have anyone like Noah the Hero and was okay and learned how to control her gifts. This was the part that I wished I understood better than the explanation given that there needed to be balance.
But Noah was like the Velveteen Rabbit. I would love his whiskers off, love him until he turned gray, until he lost shape. I would love him to death. And he would let me. Gladly.
We learn who paid off the fortune teller to give Mara that reading that if she stayed with Noah she would love him to ruins and perhaps the reasoning no matter how twisted behind it. There is the big build up to the show down at the end. Tension abounded and who knew what would happen to our favorite characters after they have just found each other again. I was genuinely worried for them both as anything could and did happen.
THE ENDING
It wasn’t quite everything I hoped it would be, it was close…really close. I’m fine with how most of it ended. I would have like to know a little more about Lukumi and how many other people’s lives he is pushing in different directions. Or I would have liked Mara to get some kind of retribution against of few of the other people that made her life utter hell, but I’m sure they will get there due eventually. There also didn’t seem to be much blow back for all the death that Mara dished out along the way, and that was swept away a little too easily but I’ll accept it as is.
I know that some will have issue with how Mara and Noah’s story was left but, I like it. I like that they are seventeen and you can’t promise forever at seventeen. You can promise today and possible tomorrow but everything else is just day by day no matter how much you have been through. I think that the story is still a little open so that Michelle Hodkins could come back to this world later if she wanted to, or I can continue the story in my head on my own but it’s also wrapped up well enough that I don’t have to either, it is my choice.