The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer- Mara Dyer #1

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: 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.

“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.”
And yet, this is exactly what Mara can do. Isn't that an intriguing idea? This story is basically about Mara who has a rather mysterious power. One day she woke up in a hospital, not knowing what happened to her, and finding out that her best friend, boyfriend and his sister are dead. So this opened up a really interesting mystery. I was really hooked, partially because of this. I just wanted to know what happened to them that night. The first chapter I must say was kinda creepy. I think you'll probably won't get it until you finish the book, but it's pretty much a clue to what happened. Anyway, I just loved how the story switches from the past to the future, which adds to the puzzle one by one. Some parts of this book was also pretty creepy. It's not exactly a horror story, but still...
My suggestion is, don't read it alone at night.

The characters were..well written I think. To be honest though, I don't particularly like Mara. She's kinda a ...twisted person (I think personally). It's just that she has a VERY active imagination. And I mean exactly that. She also hates people really easily, I think sometimes it's unreasonable. For example she imagined her teacher dead because the teacher deliberately failed her Mara's exam even though she should've passed. I mean, I would be very angry too, but is it enough to want someone dead? Although really, it's probably also because she just experience a very bad trauma. I also feel bad for her, I mean it must be hard trying to cope with everything. I think the author showed this very well. Mara doesn't trust people easily, she gets angry easily, etc. So it was very believable.
Noah was also interesting. He's a typical bad-boy character where everyone says he's a bad guy when he's actually not. He was also mysterious because he knew who Mara is even though he never met her before. Ugh, should I have said that? Well you'll just have to find out how and why he does.
Aside from that, he's actually a kind person because he obviously cared for the injured dog Mara saved. That might not seem much, but I think it is.
Mara's mother is another interesting character. After Mara's accident, she became really paranoid and over-protective. I know that's kinda to be expected, but sometimes she goes really overboard. For example, she started forcing Mara to take her drugs/medicine (when she doesn't really have to). I think there's just more to it than mere over-protectiveness. It wasn't really explained yet, but I hope it will in the second book.

I just think it's interesting how the main female character is rather twisted. It was also very puzzling, so you should read it slowly or you'll probably get confused. But, most of it does make sense as you read on, although you'll need to read the second book I think, to understand everything (not that I've read it, but my friend said so :P )
Anyway, if you're looking for a break from typical genres like fantasy or dystopian, then maybe you should read this book! :]