Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Book: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
By: Michelle Hodkin
Published: September 27, 2011
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Description: Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.


It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

My Thoughts: I went on a Trip to the Dominican Republic Last week and brought many books with me. (Immigration definitely annoyed me on my return home trip when they pulled all of my books out of my suitcase to check between the pages for anything illegal. Bending a few covers and pages in the process. *tear* I mean come on. Is it that strange to bring books on vacation. Geez! Annnd, can you be a little more delicate with the books. Anyone who brings 7 books on a week long vacation obviously has an obsession. Respect it!) This is the first of my beach side reads and might I say, how could I have ignored this book for so long. I feel like a fool. It was great and scary and weird and all around wonderful.

In the beginning we meet Mara, a teenager who has no idea what happened to her and why she is in the hospital. She soon learns that her friends are dead....and the reason behind it is one that haunts her to her very core. Due to the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Mara is a little....off. She hallucinates and cant quite focus, endangering her life over and over again. Hocking's writing brings you inside the book and makes you feel exactly what Mara feels. You won't know what's going on or how. For some reason, this book brought back memories of the recent movie Black Swan where you weren't quite sure what was real and what wasn't and everything seemed out to get her but still wasn't. I felt so bad for her, but also confused, and even a little psycho myself. What happened, why, and why do weird things keep happening when she's alone.

We soon learn that Mara is very special. She has gifts (or curses, depending on how you look at it) which cause her most dangerous thoughts to miraculously play out. We're not quite sure how or why, but it's certainly interesting. Soon, we meet Noah, an equally interesting guy with a few secrets of his own. Secrets that may just help Mara, or get him killed. Regardless, a bond grows that makes my heart ache and hope build in my chest for Mara and Noah to work. You'll just have to read to find out what happens. Beware, the ending leaves you at a cliff, and makes you feel a little sad, and confused. That's all the hint you get.

I would recommend this book to people who like reading about books with people with sixth senses, mental disabilities, and people who are generally misunderstood. It's a wonderful book that will make you really feel and understand. 5 stars.