The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: Michelle Hodkin

Sites of Interest: Author's Site

Publisher: Simon & Schuster | Published: September 27, 2011 

 Hardcover | 464 pages | ISBN: 978-1422421769

Genre: Young Adult fantasy fiction

This book had promise, it had all of the ingredients required of a basic novel…but that was the problem, it was like every other novel out there. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin has all the things a growing novel needs: 1 angst-ridden teen heroine, 1 impossibly gorgeous boy who’s just misunderstood, ¾ cup of mystery, 2 cups of syrupy sappiness, and 1 weak ending that attempts a cliff hanger. Don’t get me wrong it was something different from other teen thriller novels, no vampires or werewolves here, but some major plot points were thrown in as an afterthought. Much like deciding you want to add blueberries to your muffins five minutes before they’re cooked completely.


The novel tells us of the strange and angst-ridden life of Mara Dyer. Although the beginning of the novel tells us that is not her real name and her lawyer told her to choose a pseudonym, by the end of the book were still looking for a lawyer and a reason why she needed a pseudonym in the first place (the first blueberry is thrown in the mix). Mara (or whoever she is) wakes up in a hospital room unable to remember how she got there or what events occurred in the past few days to cause hospitalization. Her parents tell her she had snuck out and met her friends in an old abandoned asylum. They planned to stay the night in the supposedly haunted building to prove they can (oh those rebellious teens whatever will we do with them). Unfortunately there was a slight hitch in this plan when the building collapsed on them, killing all but Mara (or whoever she is). Mara is rescued and over the next few weeks subjected to hallucinations of her dead friends and snatches of memory from the night before. As she deals with the possibility of being crazy she meets the fashionably disheveled Noah Shaw, who just so happens to be British..but living in Florida. Although everyone claims Noah is the school rake, Mara sees a different side of him and even though he’s slept with half of the school he REALLY does love her. As Noah pursues and Mara hallucinates, things get even stranger. Somehow the two utterly mismatched miscreants balance each other out and learn to trust each other even with secrets they didn’t know they had. The novel takes a 360 degree turn the last quarter of the book when more puzzling blueberries are thrown into this angst-ridden mix of a novel. The twist would have been great if it hadn’t been introduced solely in the last few chapters.

This is Hodkin’s first novel and while it was intriguing at times, I don’t like the fact that a major plot point was thrown in as an afterthought. It was extremely downplayed and would have been highly effective if it was played out more. This is an excellent example of great beginnings and weak endings.

Many thanks to the publisher for the complimentary copy for purposes of review.