Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Author: Michelle Hodkin
Pages: 450
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Genre: YA Paranormal
Source: ARC

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.

DEAD. I AM DEAD. IT'S THAT FANTASTIC.

I thought The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was going to be good based on the summary and what the general consensus was of my fellow bloggers. I had no clue that it would completely blow me away.

From the get go, Mara packs an intense and emotional punch that grips you tight and doesn't let go, and even though you don't know what's going on, there's an eerie supernatural element that keeps you flipping the pages lightning quick to find out. Michelle Hodkin painted a creepy and suspenseful picture, but managed to balance it out with extrememly witty banter and dialogue, along with a smoldering romance that burns hotter and hotter as the pages turn.

Mara Dyer struggles with the aftermath of the horrific accident that killed her not-so-best-friend, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, her mother watches her like a hawk, and, oh yeah, she just might be going insane. All through this, she somehow manages to keep her head. (It's weird I know--she thinks she's going insane, but somehow still keeping her sanity...) Something very weird is happening in Mara's life, besides the hallucinations. For some reason, people around her keep dying...

What I really loved was that Mara's entire family was like a very central part of the book. Too often in today's YA are the parents cast aside and the siblings portrayed so that the main character is living in their shadow. But Mara's older brother Daniel was sweet and protective of her, always looking out for her best interest, and her little brother Joseph was a cutie pie. And while I did think that Mara's mother needed a very strong dosage of some chill pills, she was only concerned for her daughter and acted the way she did out of love.

I did feel like this was a case of insta-love, but given the circumstances (which are explained later on in the book) it can be overlooked. Plus, Noah Shaw is just too damn sexy for me to even care. Seriously, that boy rewrote the book on hotness. He's sarcastic, yet sensitive, and intelligent, roguishly unkempt in that "I just rolled out of bed" kind of way, and he's British. Still not convinced that he's a total sex god? Well, here's a still photo from the official The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer book trailer:

Look at those abs... YUMMY!

Entirely unique and unlike any other book I've read. It's a new flavor of paranormal for those that are getting tired of reading about vampires and werewolves. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is no doubt one of the best books, if not the best, that I've read in 2011. READ IT READ IT READ IT!

Definitely 5 out of 5 stars.