The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer tells the story of Mara who wakes up in a hospital room, not knowing how she got there. Her 2 friends and boyfriend are dead, but she survived. Thus begins the journey of Mara Dyer into insanity.
I loved this book. The beginning took a little while to grab my attention, but soon enough, I was flipping through it at every chance I got. For the most part, the story was fresh and tackled a serious topic: insanity.Mara Dyer is essentially going crazy, despite her best attempts to convince herself otherwise. For that, Hodkin does a superb job in keeping the reader guessing at every turn whether Mara is actually going crazy or whether she’s imagining things.
My friend Chelsey got the ARC when Simon and Schuster came to visit class, and I was instantly intrigued when I read the back. As soon as she was done, I devoured it.
With all its twists and turns, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is not without problems. Parts of the book are amazing, while others are awkward and don’t fit in well. The love story, usually my favourite part, was my least favourite part of the book. It wasn’t new or fresh and reminded me of many other YA novels of late; what is more, it took away from the main chunk of the story.
I don’t want to give too much away, since no one else has read this book yet and can’t argue against me and my claims. Despite its problems, it was a gripping story that takes you right to the last page with one question on your mind, and then suddenly leaves you with another, that makes you question the whole story you’ve been told and makes you excited for the next book.
One thing I don’t like about reading ARCs is that, not only do you have to wait for the sequel to come out, you have to wait for the first book to come out, so that the world can join you in your excitement or pain (whatever the case may be).
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer comes out September 27th, 2011.
That’s all there is; there isn’t any more.
Ikhlas
P.S- how can you resist such a beautiful cover?! It screamed to me “read me”!