Series/Sequel? Mara Dyer #1
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Genre(s): Hard Topics, Paranormal, Horror, Romance
Age Level: YA
Page Count: 425 (Hardcover)
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:
The best way to describe this book: gorgeously creepy.
It's kind of an oxymoron, I know. But it's true. This isn't a book you want to read in the dark, or in an empty house, or if you scare easily. And despite the fact that you shouldn't be reading it late into the night, that doesn't mean that you won't. Because this is a book that is addictive and impossible to put down.
One of the main things that made it that way? How it danced along the line between reality and illusion. You didn't know what was real or what wasn't. As Mara's family questioned her sanity, you did as well. You never knew if something was a hallucination or dream or a symptom of Mara's PTSD OR not, and that not knowing drove you to keep reading in an attempt to find out.
On the other side of that, it was also often confusing when the lines blurred to much. Many times I would have to read a part several times before I understood what was going on, or wouldn't understand it even after the repeated readings. It was frustrating, and majorly subtracted from the story itself.
The story could have been laid out better as well. There were some points when I did not agree or understand why the author put a particular realization, memory or character "milestone" of sorts. It also detracted from the story by making me wonder why she put things in the places she did, especially since I didn't think it made much sense in the grand scheme of things.
However, the more technical aspects didn't matter when some of the other great things this novel was able to do: it turned the cliches used in just about every YA novel - the mean-jealous-promiscuous-girl, the hot-guy-that-everyone's-in-love-with-who-actually-turns-out-to-be-nice - into non-cliches. It made them interesting again, or at least interesting enough that I wasn't rolling my eyes at it.
Noah's and Mara's relationship was great while fitting the story in terms of how much and how little romance there was. It wasn't the best written, but it was still fitting to the story.
This wasn't the greatest book I've ever read, but if your looking for an addictive read and love being creeped out, I would definitely recommend it.
Rating:
"'Why, Noah, do you know the word for vagina in every language?'
'Because I'm Europeam, and therefore more cultured than you.'"
- Page 221
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“And then you show up with the voice from my nightmare, and you call me an asshole."
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“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.”
