Review for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: September 27th 2011 (US edition) releasing in the UK on March 1st 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery, Romance
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Bought

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."

Review
I was so excited to read this book as I’m a huge fan of Young Adult thrillers and with THAT cover, THAT synopsis and the amount of praise from some of my favourite authors (Cassandra Clare and Veronica Roth to name a few!) I had really high expectations for this book.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer grips you straight away with a mysterious letter to the reader from Mara Dyer herself and a thrilling first chapter. During the beginning of this book I was completely swept away in the mystery surrounding who exactly Mara Dyer is and Michelle Hodkin’s beautiful atmospheric writing. However I felt that during the middle of this book the pacing really slowed down as the book started focusing more on the growing relationship between Mara and Noah. Don’t get me wrong I loved the romance to the story, fans of smart ass, dark and dangerous bad boys like me are going to fall hard for Noah Shaw. The best way I can describe Noah is he is what you would get if you mixed together Jace from The Mortal Instruments and St Clair from Anna and the French Kiss. I loved following his and Mara’s deliciously twisted romance but I couldn’t help but feel that the focus switched off the plot and on to them too often which really slowed down the pacing so the middle to me read more like a contemporary romance than a heart pounding thriller.

At the end the book took another U- turn and we were flung back into the darker more suspenseful side of this book which is the side I loved best. Some of the twists I guessed but others took me by surprise and then something HUGE was revealed right at the very end finishing the book on a gigantic cliff hanger that left me dying for the sequel. Seriously Michelle Hodkin I tip my hat to you as the new queen of cliff hangers!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a captivating and twisted love story that is in equal parts as disturbing and dark as it is beautiful and poetic. Whilst this isn’t the best young adult thriller out there I can’t deny that this book has something unique and exquisite to add to the genre and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.