The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (#1 - Mara Dyer) - Michelle Hodkin

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.” 

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer 
Author: Michelle Hodkin 
Format: Paperback 
Release Date: September 27th 201
Genre: YA, Fantasy Paranormal, Romance, Mystery  

Mara Dyer believes life can't 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 strangely unharmed. There is.
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was an addictive read, impossible to put down. The characters and plot were so well structured, on the physiological side of the book it was gripping. Mara’s hallucinations were captivating and I absolutely loved to read about the blossoming bond between Noah and Mara. It was cliché, but not. I know that doesn't really make any sense. If you haven’t read the book, picture this:

     

Mara Dyer, the new girl in school. Noah Shaw, the ‘player’. He automatically turns his attention to Mara, which isn't very strange seeing as he is attracted to anybody as long as they are female however when he asks Mara on a ‘date’ everybody is shocked including Mara.

However Mara has a huge problem; when she wishes people dead, they die and later in the book we find out why Noah took an unexpected curiosity to Mara at first.

“Have you kissed many boys before?” he asked quietly.I raised an eyebrow. “Boys? That’s an assumption.”Noah laughed, the sound low and husky. “Girls, then?”“No.”“Not many girls? Or not many boys?”“Neither,” I said. Let him make of that what he would.“How many?”“Why—““I am taking away that word. You are no longer allowed to use it. How many?”My cheeks flushed, but my voice was steady as I answered. “One.”
At this, Noah leaned impossible closer, the slender muscles in his forearm flexing as he bent his elbow to bring himself nearer to me, almost touching. I was heady with the proximity of him an grew legitimately concerned that my heart might explode. Maybe Noah wasn’t asking. Maybe I didn’t’ mind. I closed my eyes and felt Noah’s five o’clock graze my jaw, and the faintest whisper of his lips at my ear.
“He was doing it wrong.” 

This book is like Marmite, I only realised this once I was scrolling through the reviews on goodreads and found some people giving very few stars. I personally loved this book considering I am constantly in huge disgust of people who can actually manage to smell Marmite, let alone digest it. Many people bought this book due to the captivating cover and after reading the book saying that their expectations of the book did not match up to the storyline, they did not like the fact that once Noah came into the picture she lost 'all common sense' as to finding out whether people were dying around her due to what she was thinking. In my opinion the timeline within this comment has been digested incorrectly, here's what happened: 

1. The incident: Mara cannot remember what happened that night and why her friends died and she didn't. 
2. Moving: Mara and her family moved, hoping for a fresh start
3. School: Mara goes to school only to meet Noah Shaw on the first day 
4. The Death: Mara first accidentally kills somebody.

As you can see, Mara met Noah and about a week afterwards is the first death. She was already crazy about Noah before the death she was just trying to hide her feelings towards him. She was obviously surprised by the sudden death of this man who she earlier wished death, and didn't want to associate the two. 

The comments go from 'I hated it' to 'This is the best book I have read' as I said before, Marmite. 

Mara Dyer the heroine of this book seemed to be the main issue with many people. After the incident which she has no recollection of, she moves to a new state hoping to for a fresh start where she can grieve in loss of her friends and hope to move on. This all backfires when she starts having hallucinations of Claire and Jude and the memories of what happened before start to come back as if to haunt her. She has to deal with this alongside many appointments with doctors and having to act normal at school. Mara starts to realise that something is wrong with her when she sees a neglected dog sitting outside of a house, she goes to pet it when the owner comes out and starts beating the dog out of spite to make Mara feel uncomfortable. She wishes the owner dead. He dies. 

So she has many things to focus on; school, medication and doctors, hallucinations, memories, the fact that she can kill people and then comes along Noah Shaw who is very hot and has a past. She needed a little distraction, who can blame her?

Noah Shaw, the 'player'. When he showed an interest in Mara I felt like screaming, he is gorgeous, funny, egotistical, smart, caring (I could go on) he is literally every single thing you want the main love interest in the book to be. 

“Fix me,” I commanded him. “This thing what I’ve done—there’s something wrong with me, Noah. Fix it.”

Noah’s expression broke my heart as he brushed my hair from my face, and skimmed the line of my neck.

“I can’t.” 

He was the only one who listened to Mara when she claimed she was crazy, that she could kill people with the gun of her mind just by the trigger of her imagination, but he was the solution. 

If you are going to read this do not go on goodreads before and read the comments, (I mean who does that anyway before reading a book?) but anyway I say go into it knowing you want to read it and just see where that takes you. In my opinion its a must read, gripping storyline, swoon worthy romance ending with a spine tingling cliffhanger. so yes, read it!

My blog is better than your vlog

-Ellie 

(yes, I am back and I missed you guys loads)