The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author:Michelle Hodkin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Date: September 27th, 2011
Series: Mara Dyer #1
Pages: 452
Genre: YA- Paranormal, Romance
Source: Provided by publisher (ALA)

From Goodreads:

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.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect to fall head first into this book because I did. You've heard all the hype. It's got you psyched. You can't wait to read it because everyone says "It's sooooo good!" and yeah, it was. So when I came up for air 452 pages later, it was no surprise that I loved it as much as I did. I just knew about this one. Hodkin pulls out all the stops in this very dark, mind-twister of a story and I'm ready for more.

Mara wakes up from a terrible accident that claimed the lives of three of her friends. She has no memory of what happened, nor does she remember why or how she even came to be at the scene. In an effort to distance her from the horrible event, Mara's parents move away in hopes that a new location may mean a new life for Mara. She's damaged both emotionally and mentally. She's also more than a little unstable and well, things are happening. Somehow, the things Mara envisions come true and everything Mara sees is dark and deadly.

Mara has, shall we say, talents. Scary ones. But as powerful as her abilities seem, there's still the possibility that none of it actually happened. This story has your brain working overtime; nothing is real- except for everything. Are these things really happening to Mara or are they hallucinations? I couldn't get a handle on what was fact and what was potentially fiction and I absolutely loved that. Even at the end of the story, when we are given the biggest blow to the psyche- did it really happen?

While there is a strong romantic element, the story stands out more to me as a psychological thriller than as a romance. But what romance there is, well it's the kind you want- a hot playboy with an English accent who has ruined more reputations than a supermarket tabloid.

Does it warrant a series? Absolutely. There's a solid setup for a sequel and Hodkin gives you the very worst kind of cliffhanger there is- and that's a good thing.