I really liked this one. I thought the plot speed was good and the characters were absolutely amazing. The events all added up (or most of them) and I really liked how everything played out and was described. But the ending was a little confusing. Even now after i've finished the book i can't really seem to figure out what really happened.

I couldnt believe how much i love this book! Im waiting to buy the next one, and after reading this fantastic book, you will jump at the chance to read the next book. It was well written and different from other paranormal/romance books i have read. Mara Dyer is not your usual lead character in a horror book. She was scared and confused, but also acted like a normal teenage girl. She really had all the right aspects to make this book the best as possible. I fell in love with Noah so fast, and felt that his character-him and his personality-fits the story so well. I could picture every piece of this story- every scene, every emotion, every thought. I know some people think that this is a usual story line for a paranormal book, but i strongly dissagree. I thought that Hodkin made an original book, especially with what we find out about Noah towards the end. I enjoyed the 'before' parts of the book, and loved how we didn't find out everything about the accident and Mara all at once. Overall, i loved this book. The ending leaves room open so that almost anything could happen. I have to say that i didn't finish this book too fast. Yes, i read it very quickly, but at most parts i didnt find myself super angry to have to put the book down. Other parts made we want to scream because i just had to read on. When reading this book, some parts made me want to yell, while others put a huge smile on my face. The characters are relatable and real, and the plot is astounding. I honestly loved this book so much!

I was browsing through Indigo for a new read, and the cover grab my attention. Next thing I new I was deep into the pages of this book and was done within 24 hours! So excited for the third installment as the evolution of Mara Dyer was even better! Highly recommend this book.

I was in the bookstore on Saturday, looking something new to read, and an employee suggested this book, and i`m glad she did! I find that I relate to the main character, her awkwardness, her taste in style and music, and the feeling that i am slowly going crazy. Today, I am on the last chapter and I have a feeling that it`s going to be one of those big shock endings, yet because of all that has happened, I have no idea what twist the ending might be... I love it so far, 5 stars for sure!

but did not quite grab me completely. i will definitely agree with other reviews the entire book you are wondering what is it about mara dyer. is she an alien? possessed? superhero? psychotic? in a coma? delusional? i didn't really take to mara i thought she a bit annoying. i really liked noah, jamie and daniel. i thought they were more interesting addition to mara's story. i found the plot catching but it seemed a bit repetitive. she was always doing the same thing but in different environment. maybe i was expecting a bit more depth, but it is a YA novel of course. definitely expect a quick completely surprising cliffhanger ending. it caught me off guard completely i had to read it twice. OMMMG really?? no way!!! i can see why people will be running out to get the 2nd novel. i like the book but not sure enough to quickly run out to get the next one.

Originally posted at OMFG!Books @ Blogspot.ca Ho-ly crap. This book. THIS BOOK. I loved it so much I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to write a coherent review. I've put it off for days in hope of gathering my thoughts but that didn't work, I just fangirled more and immediately started book two. Forgive me if I go off on tangents, start fangirling, and possibly key-smashing. With a side of gushing. Lots of gushing. Ok. Here we go. To be honest, it sat on my shelf for a while. For reasons I'm not even sure of myself I put it off. This past week, leading up to the release of book two I decided why not? I've heard amazing things from friends, read a few less than stellar reviews, seen great things on Tumblr... I had to find out what all this hype and talk about was myself. I love creepy things. I've been a horror movie junkie since I was about 8 years old. (Hah, no wonder I turned out so... fantastic.) Add romance to that and you have a book I want to get my hands on. Right off the bat, Unbecoming brings out the creepy factor with the much loved Ouija board. At a birthday party. Yes, it's been done before many times but that's because it's effective. It sets the atmosphere, the tone, and from then on it's one big, creepy, dark mind game of a ride. It's a captivating story. From the summary, you're not sure what to expect. Halfway in and you're still not really sure what's going on but it holds you because of that. You have to know. You have to find out what the heck is going on. Is it really all in her head? Is there something bigger at play? What. The. Heck!? I wouldn't be surprised if a thunderstorm started up where someone cracks the book open to add to the spookiness. I loved Mara. She's a complex character. She has so many problems. More problems than most her age do. Her best friend died in a terrible accident, along with two others. She packed up and moved to another state, far from home. She's starting at a new school. And that is just the iceberg. Mara has a great, dry, witty sense of humor. She needs it with everything that she's going through. All she wants is to be normal; to be better. A lot of people would be able to relate to that if you take away the supernatural part of the book and I think that was really great. When the romance started with Noah (swoooooon!) I was a little jilted and upset that the creepy factor and a lot of the mystery kind of dropped of to establish it. But then I fell in love with Noah. Talk about a fictional guy-crush. And then we found out that Noah is linked to the mysteries surrounding Mara. At least one of them, anyway. What's fantastic about Mara and Noah is that it wasn't the love at first sight, insta-love, insta-make out scenes. There was a believable lead up. There was a slow build up with attraction, banter, and everything you want in a great romance. Which is what they are. I just - man, oh man, I warned you I would start to flail around. Noah on his own is fantastic: British (!!!), hot, wonderful and basically everything you'd want in a guy. Yes, he has a past and a bit of a reputation but the more I really learned about him, the more I fell in love with him. Mara Dyer. By the time you finish the book, you're still not entirely sure who she is but that's the great part. It makes you hungry for more. You're in for a doozie with this one. There are great characters with great characterization. More than that, there is actually family in this. It's rare to find a YA novel where the protagonists's family is at the front and centre of everything but Mara's mother, father and two brothers are a central part of the story. There is a fantastic romance. Most of all, there's a jaw-dropping twist. If you love creepy things that make your skin crawl sometimes, that make you want to sleep with the lights on, that make the hairs on your arms stand up then The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is right for you. Michelle Hodkin came out of the gate with a winner. Just make sure you buy book two because you're gonna wanna tear right into it after finishing Unbecoming.

I remember reading the synopsis for this and I was immediately intrigued by how it gave NOTHING away. Even the cover with its eerie water logged clothes, with a sense of weightlessness - however captivating, still didn't explain any of the secrets hidden away in the pages. In fact, all this vagueness irritated me to the point where I had to find out exactly who was this Mara Dyer, and what her story was. So I ran out and bought it (random aside: a book store employee tried to ward me off it by saying she didn't enjoy it, this is a huge pet peeve for me and I'm glad I didn't listen to her), but it wasn't until Just a Lil' Lost's August read-a-long that I finally got around to reading it and unraveling the mystery that is Mara. Parts of the book are broken up into segments: 'before' the accident and 'after' the accident. Before the accident we get a look into Mara's life with her friends while they were still alive and their strained interactions. Then we fast forward to after the accident - Mara has woken up and doesn't remember a thing from the night that killed her friends. In an attempt to get past the loss, she packs up her life and moves to Florida to start fresh at a new school. But running away from her past isn't as easy as Mara would like. Soon strange incidences start happening and it starts pushing her to figure out what's real and what isn't before more bodies start piling up. I love Mara from the beginning to the end of the book. She's solid in dealing with the shock of losing her friends in such a horrific way and in the post traumatic stress that she's dealing with. She has a clear tone of voice full of sarcasm and snappy comebacks. I especially loved her dynamics with her siblings - sure they bickered (what siblings don't?) - but they had these amazing genuine loving moments together. As the story progresses and the pieces fall into place - she changes and it gets kind of scary. So I'm really wondering how this is going to play out in the next book! Noah Shaw, love interest and bad boy extraordinaire. I'll admit he rubbed me the wrong way at first (bleh he's a smoker, womanizer by reputation and pretty full of himself). He's supposed to be British, and while it gives him an above and beyond sense of entitlement that he fully embraces- I had a bit of a difficult time putting a British accent to his voice and it wasn't until some kind of European reference was stated that I'd remember "Oh right...he's British..". But where he won me over was in his absolutely vulgar/sexual innuendo laced banter with Mara, I just couldn't help but laugh. He's full of secrets and motives, and I could never quite place where he was going. But the reveals at the end definitely has my attention glued to what's in store for Noah Shaw. Eventually the 'before' and 'after' parts of the story start blurring as reality and fantasy start violently colliding for Mara. I was never sure if anything was just a coincidence, or if it was actually real. I love stories like this. It kept me guessing throughout the whole story and kept me up all night reading to find out what exactly it was that made Mara Dyer so Unbecoming...

Mara wakes up in the hospital after an accident that kills her friends. She has no memory of the incident and in fact, isn't even sure of what her real name is. When her family relocates to Florida to get away from the tragedy, she tries to fit in at the private school that her and her brother are enrolled in while dealing with the flashbacks and nightmares. Attributing them to PTSD, Mara is reluctant to take meds or go through therapy until her hallucinations keep coming more and more frequently. What she uncovers about herself and her involvement with the accident leaves Mara and her new love interest stunned. To be honest, I didn't know too much of what the book was about. The book jacket synopsis is mysteriously vague and the gorgeous cover gives the impression of something to do with water. I don't often like going into a book with no idea of what was going on but it worked out well in this case. I liked the mystery aspect to the plot and the uncertainty of what happened with her friends coupled with her eerie hallucinations kept me hooked. I'm conflicted on my thoughts of Noah, the love interest. While I am often partial to the bad boys, a lot of his actions seemed so contradictory & over-the-top to his bad boy label that I found myself rolling my eyes at times. The extravagance of his gestures sometimes seemed a bit contrived and I found the tour of his house a bit "Edward Cullen-esque" in its opulence. That being said, Noah is quite the charming character and, cheesy or not, he's an interesting one to keep your eye on. (SLIGHT spoiler alert) While I did really enjoy the story, one brief detail stuck out at me right from the first page that I couldn't shake the whole way through. The book begins with a "handwritten" letter from Mara Dyer indicating that her lawyer asked her to pick a name since she couldn't remember anything. So it's established before the story even begins that Mara Dyer is not her real name. But right from the first chapter where she's playing with a Ouija board pre-accident with her friends, there is so much emphasis on the fact that Mara is her name. I kept waiting for something to tie in that first handwritten page with the rest of the story since there was SO much attention to her name, whether it was how people pronounced it or how her parents were Mr. & Mrs. Dyer. I kept hanging onto that the entire way, wondering how that was going to loop back around with the way the story was going. (/end slight spoiler) Setting that aside, however, I thoroughly devoured this book. I couldn't put it down and needed to keep reading until I found out what was going on. Sometimes, you just have eto suspend your disbelief and enjoy an entertainingly creepy read. One good thing about waiting so long to get to this one is that I don't have that long to wait for the sequel! This, and other reviews can be found on my blog JustALilLost.com

I got this book on a recommendation because I enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone so intensely, and was excited to read it. However, it wasn't long after beginning it, that I knew it wasn't what I was looking for. Here we have a teenage girl who is trying to convnce herself that she is not insane after her boyfriend, best friend, and a frienemy are killed in a freak building collapse that she walks away from, but has not memory of. Her family moves her across the country, so she can "have a fresh start", and she meets Noah, the hawtest guy (who happens to have an "oh so sexy" British accent and is super rich) at school , who uses women and throws them away until he lays eyes on the ordinary Mara and changes his ways - she of course, feigns interest while secretly drawing pictures of him and swooning like a Bieber fan. Ok, you get where it's going here, so no need to bring out any real spoilers.... Apart from the fact that the storyline was so cliche, the writing was all over the place, and as a reader you are left to wonder what this book is all about until about 3/4 of the way through, it was like a train wreck, I didn't want to read anymore, but I needed to find out the point of it all, and some part of me wanted the story to redeem itself, but sadly, it did not! Leave this one to the fans of Hush Hush...

Mara can't remember what happened. Last thing she knew, she was competing for her best friend's attention, now three people are dead and she is the sole survivor. When the pain becomes too much to bear, Mara's family moves south for a fresh start - but Mara is still haunted. What happened at the asylum? Why do people around her keep dying? Is she going crazy? And why is the most unattainable guy at school suddenly interested in everything about her? Good lord, this book knocked my socks off! I honestly can't remember why I picked it up, but I thought I was settling in for an angsty teen novel with a little bit of psychological thriller thrown in for good measure. I was wrong. It's amazing! While the book does indeed resemble a psychological mystery at first, by the end of the book I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and my thriller turned into a paranormal series opener that promises to garner a lot of attention from teen and adult readers alike! Enough said. I won't spoil it for you. Just read it.