The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rating: 3 Stars

I might be really late on this book. Actually I am pretty sure I am late on this. I didn't even realize until I have finished the entire book that it was part of a trilogy. OF COURSE IT IS. Everything is a trilogy these days. Especially in YA. I remember when there was a lot of hype on this one, once upon a time.

The story is about Mara who was the sole survivor to a huge accident that killed her best friends and her "boyfriend" (I use quotation marks 'cos it wasn't a real relationship anyways). Because of this traumatic event, she began experiencing some hallucinations and had to transfer to a different school to readjust her life. It was a posh private school and she had difficulties assimilating. She also meets a very good-looking and mysterious boy named Noah, who displayed a great interest in her, for reasons that are beyond her comprehension. Eventually her hallucinations become more and more intense, to the point where she even doubts her own sanity.

The premise of the storyline was great. I enjoy Michelle Hodkins's writing style whenever she is describing the hallucinations. They are so eerie and have a dream-like quality to them. Some were pretty gruesome, but I liked that about it. The dream-like quality of these hallucinations is a double-edged sword though. Towards the end, the hallucinations melded with her own reality to the point where even the reader has difficulty figuring out what exactly is going on. It got abit much.

The characters were ... okay. I really don't have much of an opinion on them. I felt that Mara was not very likeable. She was sarcastic, in a manner that came off as a little rude and condescending. Naturally she has self-esteem issues, as with all teenagers, but Mara seems disdainful and overly negative. Noah is the typical YA alpha-male hero you would want to read about and then fantasize for days on end. He is very perfect, which is one of the reasons why I don't find him very compelling. He is incredibly good-looking, girls swooning left and right and he is also honing a bad boy image. Also, did I mention that he is filthy rich? Perfect. And he is also only interested in Mara, which I really cannot understand for the life of me. Perhaps it's because I find Mara kind of BLAH, I really do not get why Noah is so in love with her. Hence, it's hard for me to root for them.

Overall, the plot could do without ALOT of the overly cliched romantic scenes with Noah and Mara. It got really mushy really quick and I disliked that aspect of it. It's the kind of romance that makes you roll your eyes because it's too good to be true. There is no charm or quirkiness to their romance, hence it seemed fake to me. The general plot about Mara's hallucinations and her coping with the accident was actually quite compelling and I wished there was deeper development in those aspects. I might continue on to the next book simply because of the cliff-hanger ending. I kinda wanna know what happens. But that's about it really. I had high hopes for this one, but it fell a little short of my expectations.

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