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Summary
Summary
Mara Dyer doesn't know if she is crazy or haunted--all she knows is that everyone around her is dying in this suspenseful and "strong, inventive tale" ( Kirkus Reviews) .
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.
After Mara survives the traumatizing accident at the old asylum, it makes sense that she has issues. She lost her best friend, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend's sister, and as if that weren't enough to cope with, her family moves to a new state in order to give her a fresh start. But that fresh start is quickly filled with hallucinations--or are they premonitions?--and then corpses, and the boundary between reality and nightmare is wavering. At school, there's Noah, a devastatingly handsome charmer who seems determined to help Mara piece together what's real, what's imagined--and what's very, very dangerous.
This fast-paced psychological--or is it paranormal?--thriller will leave you breathless for its sequel, The Evolution of Mara Dyer .
Author Notes
Michelle Hodkin is an American YA author. She grew up in South Florida, went to college in New York, and attended law school in Michigan.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was her first novel, and the initial book in The Mara Dyer Trilogy. The subsequent volumes in the series are; The Evolution of Mara Dyer and The Retribution of Mara Dyer.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When 17-year-old Mara wakes from a coma, she learns she was in an accident; her best friend, boyfriend, and his sister were all killed when an abandoned asylum collapsed on them. But Mara has no memory of why she was there. Hoping to escape her hallucinations and nightmares, she moves with her family from Rhode Island to Florida, and on the first day of school meets a handsome boy "[s]miling at me like he knew me." Even as Mara's romance with Noah starts to simmer, her stress boils over, especially when her fantasies about bad people dying start coming true and she starts remembering the fateful night. There are plenty of haunting, cinematic images to capture readers' attention, but first-time author Hodkin has packed too much into this mystery, including a murder trial in the background and Noah's own secrets. Readers may enjoy drawing their own conclusions about what is real, but they will have a hard time tracking all the possibilities. And after so much windup, they will certainly feel let down by the scripted conclusion. Ages 14-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Mara Dyer is a lucky girl. She has survived the collapse of an old asylum that killed three of her friends, and her parents have moved the entire family to Miami to help her escape her memories. But Mara continues to experience hallucinations, and she struggles with terrifying suspicions that she may be a murderer. First-time author Hodkin has paired a steamy romance with a paranormal mystery that will cause teen readers whiplash as they jerk from one plot twist to another, from cat-and-mouse repartee to obvious, yet clever, innuendo. Populated with Mara's interesting if exaggerated friends, well-intentioned parents and brothers, and villainous teachers, the novel will easily draw in readers, who will forgive the puzzling, frustrating conclusion.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Mara Dyer, 16, and three of her friends were in an abandoned building that collapsed; the friends died, and Mara escaped with no memory of the accident and, other than a bad case of PTSD, no real injuries. Her family moves from Rhode Island to Florida to help her heal, but that doesn't go very well. Mara is having nightmares and increasingly frequent horrifying hallucinations. Or are they? Her private school is populated with mostly snotty rich kids, with the exception of her one friend, Jamie Roth, and Noah Shaw, a gorgeous guy with a British accent who has both a dangerous attitude and reputation. As Mara tries to figure out whether or not she is crazy or if there is something more to her strange connections to people who have died, she and Noah become closer, causing other students to assume that he is using her like he supposedly used other girls. There is no graphic sex in this book, only some language, and anyone who thinks old-fashioned romantic scenes can't move teens today will be proven wrong here. This boy will make readers swoon. As her love life heats up, Mara remembers more about the night of the accident and learns more about her abilities. The characters are real and wonderful, and the supernatural story is riveting. While the ending seems a little forced to make the various pieces fit, the final pages leave some mysteries unsolved and hint at a sequel. Expect this book to fly off the shelves.-Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A girl tries to cope with her own survival after the deaths of her friends in this psychologicalor is it paranormal?debut suspense tale.Mara understands that she's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after having survived the collapse of a building that killed her best friend, her boyfriend and his sister. To escape constant memories, the family moves from Rhode Island to Miami, and Mara enrolls in a pricey private school populated by spoiled rich kids. She falls for Noah, ultra-wealthy, British, handsome and perhaps untrustworthy girl-magnet. Her relationship with Noah comprises much of the story, even as Mara keeps seeing her dead friends in the mirror. Meanwhile, Mara tries to cope with a nasty student couple bent on destroying her and with a teacher who hates her for no discernible reason. Add to that her defense-lawyer father, who's taken on the high-profile trial of the day and the book has one too many subplots, which, along with a bit too much description, leads to its excessive length. Hodkin writes strong prose that engages readers and creates some unusual, attractive characters. She designs an absorbing story that appears to be heading toward an interesting sequel. By the end, readers may be wondering if this is a psychological, paranormal or crime story, adding to the intrigue.Even without advisable cuts, a strong, inventive tale. (Suspense. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
1 BEFORE Laurelton, Rhode Island THE ORNATE SCRIPT ON THE BOARD TWISTED in the candlelight, making the letters and numbers dance in my head. They were jumbled and indistinct, like alphabet soup. When Claire pushed the heart-shaped piece into my hand, I startled. I wasn't normally so twitchy, and hoped Rachel wouldn't notice. The Ouija board was her favorite present that night, and Claire gave it to her. I got her a bracelet. She wasn't wearing it. Kneeling on the carpet, I passed the piece to Rachel. Claire shook her head, oozing disdain. Rachel put down the piece. "It's just a game, Mara." She smiled, her teeth looking even whiter in the dim light. Rachel and I had been best friends since preschool, and where she was dark and wild, I was pale and cautious. But less so when we were together. She made me feel bold. Usually. "I don't have anything to ask dead people," I said to her. And at sixteen, we're too old for this, I didn't say. "Ask whether Jude will ever like you back." Claire's voice was innocent, but I knew better. My cheeks flamed, but I stifled the urge to snap at her and laughed it off. "Can I ask it for a car? Is this like a dead Santa scenario?" "Actually, since it's my birthday, I'm going first." Rachel put her fingers on the piece. Claire and I followed her. "Oh! Rachel, ask it how you're going to die." Rachel squealed her assent, and I shot a dark look at Claire. Since moving here six months ago, she'd latched onto my best friend like a starving leech. Her twin missions in life were now to make me feel like the third wheel, and to torture me for my crush on her brother, Jude. I was equally sick of both. "Remember not to push," Claire ordered me. "Got it, thanks. Anything else?" But Rachel interrupted us before we could descend into bickering. "How am I going to die?" The three of us watched the board. My calves prickled from kneeling on Rachel's carpet for so long, and the backs of my knees felt clammy. Nothing happened. Then something did. We looked at each other as the piece moved under our hands. It semi-circled the board, sailing past A through K , and crept past L . It settled on M . "Murder?" Claire's voice was soaked with excitement. She was so sketchy. What did Rachel see in her? The piece glided in the wrong direction. Away from U and R . Landing on A . Rachel looked confused. "Matches?" "Mauling?" Claire asked. "Maybe you start a forest fire and get eaten by Smokey the Bear?" Rachel laughed, briefly dissolving the panic that had slithered into my stomach. When we first sat down to play, I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at Claire's melodramatics. Now, not so much. The piece zigzagged across the board, cutting her laughter short. R . We were silent. Our eyes didn't leave the board as the piece jerked back to the beginning. To A . Then stopped. We waited for the piece to point out the next letter, but it remained still. After three minutes, Rachel and Claire withdrew their hands. I felt them watching me. "It wants you to ask something," Rachel said softly. "If by 'it' you mean Claire, I'm sure that's true." I stood up, shaking and nauseous. I was done. "I didn't push it," Claire said, wide-eyed as she looked at Rachel, then at me. "Pinky swear?" I asked, with sarcasm. "Why not," Claire answered, with malice. She stood and walked closer to me. Too close. Her green eyes were dangerous. "I didn't push it," she said again. "It wants you to play." Rachel grabbed my hand and pulled herself up off the floor. She looked straight at Claire. "I believe you," she said, "but let's do something else?" "Like what?" Claire's voice was flat, and I stared right back at her, unflinching. Here we go. "We can watch The Blair Witch Project ." Claire's favorite, naturally. "How about it?" Rachel's voice was tentative, but firm. I tore my eyes away from Claire's and nodded, managing a smile. Claire did the same. Rachel relaxed, but I didn't. For her sake, though, I tried to swallow my anger and unease as we settled in to watch the movie. Rachel popped in the DVD and blew out the candles. Six months later, they were both dead. © 2011 Michelle Hodkin Excerpted from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
