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nmangrum 's review for:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
by Michelle Hodkin
Seriously? How did this book get 4.12 stars on Goodreads? Did I read the wrong book? It had the potential to be a great story and it had me pretty interested in the first few chapters but the moment the love interest was introduced, all of that went out the window.
Mara was in an accident that led to the death of her best friend, boyfriend, and frenemy(??). She wakes up in the hospital and has no recollection of what happened. Her family moves to Florida in the hopes that it will help her recover mentally from the incident. Mara is still trying to get her life back together when she starts to see her dead friends and crumbling buildings. At this point, I was still pretty intersted and wanted to know what was going on.. Then enters Noah Shaw, the hot, British, asshole love interest. This is where the whole book goes downhill. I'm not even going to summarize the rest because if you've read any other cliche YA love story, you'll know exactly what happens. Ugh.
The Good
- The initial storyline could have been great! The small glimpses of the paranormal aspects showed that there was potential there.
- I'm not going to lie.. at least I finished this book. I could have just abandoned it but I kept reading and hoping that the author would tell me more about what was going on with Mara and her visions.
...That's all I got.
The Bad
- The characters in this book were so flat and totally cliche. Of course there's going to be the perfect sibling, quirky sibling, school mean girl, etc. Come on, be more original. I need some dimension to my characters, thanks.
- Speaking of characters.. Why does the love interest have to be so predictable? He's hot, British, a player, lives in a mansion, and a total ass. He has the reputation of getting any girl that he wants at school so in typical YA fashion, of COURSE he falls head over heals for Mara who is angsty and cursed at him the first time they spoke...
Don't even get me started on his controlling tendencies. YA authors, we need to have a heart to heart. Can we please stop pretending that a guy ordering for a girl is a desirable trait?
- Can you really call this book paranormal if it was kind of just sprinkled in here and there? The bulk of the book was basically just about the love story and the paranormal seemed like an afterthought which would be fine if it flowed well.. It did not.
- The storyline was EVERYWHERE. I mean come on.. Sure, I'm all for books having lots of action but none of those scenes were well written and were hardly ever addressed by the characters after it happened. Some of those things are a big deal!!
- And lastly, the whole reason why I even brought myself to write this review. I haven't actually written out a review in about a year or so but I just had to do it for this one. Mara. Freaking. Dyer.
Frankly, she's pretty boring even with the hallucinations and the mystery. She's rude, defensive, and completely useless when Noah is around. He could probably burn down her childhood home but as long as he smiles at her, she would be fine. Get a grip!! At one point in the book, she addresses him head on about using another girl for sex just to get back at another classmate. I was so excited for her to call Noah out on his bullshit but she is so dazzled by his good looks she just changes the subject. WHAT? Hasn't she ever heard of "uteruses before duderuses?" Yes, I know she didn't know the girl but in what world is that okay? Girl, get it together. I could probably go on and on about this forever so I'll just stop there.
So basically, this gets a whopping 1 star. All I have to say is that this book reminded me why it is so hard being a YA fan sometimes..
Mara was in an accident that led to the death of her best friend, boyfriend, and frenemy(??). She wakes up in the hospital and has no recollection of what happened. Her family moves to Florida in the hopes that it will help her recover mentally from the incident. Mara is still trying to get her life back together when she starts to see her dead friends and crumbling buildings. At this point, I was still pretty intersted and wanted to know what was going on.. Then enters Noah Shaw, the hot, British, asshole love interest. This is where the whole book goes downhill. I'm not even going to summarize the rest because if you've read any other cliche YA love story, you'll know exactly what happens. Ugh.
The Good
- The initial storyline could have been great! The small glimpses of the paranormal aspects showed that there was potential there.
- I'm not going to lie.. at least I finished this book. I could have just abandoned it but I kept reading and hoping that the author would tell me more about what was going on with Mara and her visions.
...That's all I got.
The Bad
- The characters in this book were so flat and totally cliche. Of course there's going to be the perfect sibling, quirky sibling, school mean girl, etc. Come on, be more original. I need some dimension to my characters, thanks.
- Speaking of characters.. Why does the love interest have to be so predictable? He's hot, British, a player, lives in a mansion, and a total ass. He has the reputation of getting any girl that he wants at school so in typical YA fashion, of COURSE he falls head over heals for Mara who is angsty and cursed at him the first time they spoke...
Don't even get me started on his controlling tendencies. YA authors, we need to have a heart to heart. Can we please stop pretending that a guy ordering for a girl is a desirable trait?
- Can you really call this book paranormal if it was kind of just sprinkled in here and there? The bulk of the book was basically just about the love story and the paranormal seemed like an afterthought which would be fine if it flowed well.. It did not.
- The storyline was EVERYWHERE. I mean come on..
Spoiler
A dog rescue, a kidnapping, a witch doctor (or whatever he was..), a murder trial, and teensy glimpses of paranormal stuff? That's a bit much.- And lastly, the whole reason why I even brought myself to write this review. I haven't actually written out a review in about a year or so but I just had to do it for this one. Mara. Freaking. Dyer.
Frankly, she's pretty boring even with the hallucinations and the mystery. She's rude, defensive, and completely useless when Noah is around. He could probably burn down her childhood home but as long as he smiles at her, she would be fine. Get a grip!! At one point in the book, she addresses him head on about using another girl for sex just to get back at another classmate. I was so excited for her to call Noah out on his bullshit but she is so dazzled by his good looks she just changes the subject. WHAT? Hasn't she ever heard of "uteruses before duderuses?" Yes, I know she didn't know the girl but in what world is that okay? Girl, get it together. I could probably go on and on about this forever so I'll just stop there. So basically, this gets a whopping 1 star. All I have to say is that this book reminded me why it is so hard being a YA fan sometimes..