The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer | Book Review (Spoiler Free!)

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Pages: 456

My Rating: 5/5

Published: September 27th, 2011

"Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real."
- Michelle Hodkin

Goodreads Description

Mara Dyer believes life can't 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 strangely unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Review

This is an excellent start of this spooky trilogy about Mara Dyer. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer had me hooked from the very beginning and kept me on edge through the entire story. It was one of those reads that were hard to put down and if I would've had the time, I would probably have finished it in one sitting. 

I loved the characters and how well they developed as the story went on. Mara is very strong to go through something as losing her friends in an accident that she can't even remember. Her mind makes her see things that aren't really there and everything is chaotic. But then, there's Noah Shaw. Someone she, even though she tries really hard not to, completely falls in love with. I love his character as well. You might not see it at first, but I think he's very caring, understandable, and he notices the little things. He knows when and how to say the right things. Mara's brothers are also great characters. The way the siblings look after each other is amazing.

The plot was very well planned and written. There were some things that you knew would happen, but most of the twists and turns were not expected, and especially not that cliffhanger at the end. I think that these things make this novel really great. Because of everything that happens, because a lot happens, you never get bored with the story. But it also gives you room to breathe and to get to know the characters better. 

I'm thrilled to continue with the series and to find out what this cliffhanger means. 

Spook Week #7 | The School Trip

Hello, bookworms! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the spooky story begin... 

The School Trip 

A few years ago, my school were going on a trip to a forest, just to get out more and experice nature or something. We had two teachers with us and I liked nature, so I was excited for it. 

When we arrived at the forest, we were just going to walk for a while and the teachers would tell the name of different plants and trees. We were told that we had an assignment in biology, to pick a plant and then find it in this book that they gave us and then learn the name. I thought it sounded boring, but did it because I had to. We got to walk with our friends, so my best friend and I decided to walk together. We had to stay close though, because they were only two teachers and needed to keep watch of all of us. 

My friend and I looked for a while, but did not find anything interesting. We heard other kids laughing and running around, maybe finished with the task. I wanted to find something more unusual than a normal tree or a normal leaf. Suddenly, my friend said something about seeing the perfect plant and ran away from me. I called at her to wait for me and ran after her. When she stopped, I saw this beautiful blue flower that looked like it came from some fantasy land. It was perfect. We looked it up in the book and tried to learn the name. When I glanced back at the others, there was nothing to look back at. I started to panick. How far away where we? I told my friend that we needed to go back, before the teachers had to start looking for us. She nodded and we walked, after taking a picture of the flower. We thought we walked in the same direction we came from, but after a long time, we still hadn't found the others. I started to panick even more. My friend tried to calm me, but I could see that she was worried to. We shouted at them as loud as we could, but didn't get an answer. We were completely lost. 

It felt like we walked around in circles, not getting anywere. Soon, we were exhausted and had to take a break from walking. We sat down for a while. We had been walking for hours now without any results. It was getting darker and colder. I caught myself shaking and warmed my hands by rubbing them together and then blow some warm air. I also held my cheeks to try and warm them. 

After a while, we started walking again and shouting, but it seemed pointless. We were pretty deep in the forest now and I felt scared. Weird sounds could be heard in the dark, and everything was more frightening. Suddenly, my friend froze. I looked at her and then at what she looked at, but saw nothing. I waved my hand in front of her. She looked at me and whispered that there was someone there. I thought she was just trying to scare me and laughed. She looked pretty serious. She told me that she had felt a hand on her shoulder. I didn't believe her, but still said that I did. 

Later, we saw this glow between the trees. We were both so freaked out that we thought it could be a ghost that was after us. We screamed at the sight, but then we heard someone calling our names. We followed the voice and saw this figure staring at us. It was hard to see in the dark and it had appeared so suddenly that we screamed again. The dark figure said that she was one of the teachers. I was so relieved. 

After this, I always made sure that I stayed near the teachers as a kid. My friend was scared of forests for a good couple of years and still claims to have felt a hand on her shoulders that day..

Photo by Dope Squad on Unsplash

Spook Week #6 | Cleaning Services

Hello, bookworms! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the spooky story begin... 

Cleaning Services

I had worked as a cleaner for a while, going to different offices and big buildings to help people clean. We always worked in pares, both because it usually goes faster but also in case something happpens. This time, my cleaning partner and I were going to clean an old mansion that used to be a home but now is used for buisness meetings and other things. I wasn't really sure what excatly was going on daily in that building, I was just there to clean it. 

When we came to the mansion, I realized how long it would take to swoop those floors and clean all of those windows. This job would probably take the entire day, maybe even two days if we weren't working fast enough. We took our things and went inside. I looked at the high cealing, the staircase, and was stunnned. It was very beautiful.

We started by dividing the work. I was going to start on the second floor and my friend at the bottom floor. I went upstairs with my equipment. There were so many rooms. I started with the windows in the first room at my left. It looked like a pretty normal office. 

After I cleaned the windows in this room and cleaned everything else I was going to leave, but something made me stare at the windows again. I had just turned away for a couple of seconds and now they looked greasy again. I was surprised and thought that maybe I just imagined it, but it was still there after I blinked. Maybe I hadn't cleaned the windows? I was getting unsure, so I did it again, then left the room without looking back. 

In the next room, I did excactly the same thing, in my natural order. Nothing happened. I continued to clean the next couple of rooms and forgot about what happened in the first one, until I came to the last room. I was just done cleaning it when a book fell off one of the bookshelves standing against a wall. I put it back and shrugged my shoulders. It didn't have to mean anything. When I was going to open the door to leave, I cast one last glance at the office and realized that it looked unclean, as I had never cleaned it. I was so confused and did everything a second time. It still looked the same. As I was getting more and more frustrated and was ready to throw something, I heard my friend scream from downstairs. I ran as fast as I could in horror. I was so freaked out by what was going on upstairs. 

When I reached the bottom floor, my friend had a hand on her heart and laughed, bending slightly forward. I was surprised, because I was so sure I had heard her scream. I told her this and she said that she did, but she had only seen a spider. I was relieved and we got back to work. I didn't tell her about the situation upstairs. Instead, I went back up to finish. 

In the last room again, I froze. It looked clean. This was probably supposed to make me more relieaved, but I thought I was going crazy. Had I just imagined the things before? I was loosing my mind, I thought and laughed a little at my behavior. Then, I called to my friend, saying that I was done, and was just leaving the room when the same book as before fell to the floor...

Photo by Ján Jakub Naništa on Unsplash

Spook Week #5 | The Old School

Hello, bookworms! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the spooky story begin... 

The Old School

We stood outside the old school, carrying the instruments and other equipment that we needed for the rehearsal. It was an old school that had been running since the 1920s. I worked at the school, which was why we had access to it after school hours. The place was kind of spooky since it was dark, old and abandoned. It was only the bottom floor that was fully renovated, so that's where the students had classes. There was also an attic, that still needed to be renovated, and it was there our band was going to rehearse. 

We took our stuff and went inside. The attic was enormous, with two long ends, the left end, and the right end. The distance between those ends was very big. We put everything in the right end and talked for a while, as we prepared. Since the place looked a bit spooky, we also made jokes and scared each other. We also decided to play hide and seek, and my friend and I ran away toward the left end to hide, thinking that the others would come after us. There was one big assembly hall. It had two doors next to each other. One which was the one that we came through, and which went into a corridor that led back to the right end. One that went into a closed area of the building, which had been shut down for many years. Between the doors was one of the corners of the room. We thought it would be a great idea to hide behind the door we came in, in the corner. Our plan was to hide and then jump out of our hiding place, scaring the others. We looked in excitement at the door we hid behind, waiting for our friends to come. Their laughter could be heard, but it sounded far away, coming from the right end. Maybe they weren't coming, I thought. 

The assembly hall was mostly darkness since there was barely no light coming into the room. All the room contained where some dusty old furniture and other stuff that no one wanted and that was probably left from the 1920s. 

Suddenly, we heard something behind us. It was a squeaky sound of a door handle slowly being pulled down. We looked at the door that led into the suspended area, an area that had been closed since around the 1920s. A chill went through my core. I froze at first and just stared at the door handle, being pulled down. Then, we both ran as fast as we could, back to the right end, back to our friends. 

I still wonder what had opened that door, since no one had a reason to be in that closed area, and our friends were far away in the right end. I don't know if it could have been some weird person that had been hiding there for years, or something else...

Photo by João Victor Xavier on Unsplash

Spook Week #4 | The Porcelain Doll

Hello bookworms! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the spooky story begin... 

The Porcelain Doll

I opened the birthday present from my Mom, pulled off the floral wrapping. When I saw what was inside, a smile appeared on my face. It was a beautiful porcelain doll, with pale skin and the lightest curly blonde hair. She wore a white wedding dress, decorated with pink flowers. I loved this doll and played around with it the next couple of days. My Mom told me that she looked like me, but I just thought it was the blonde hair that was similar. 

One day, everyone in my family was out. My Mom was grocery shopping and my brother was with friends. I was at the age where I could stay home, but Mom didn't want to leave me for too long. I had refused to go to the supermarket because I wanted to play with my dolls. As soon as Mom left, that's exactly what I did. I loved pretending that they were princesses and that they were going to attend a tea party. 

After about an hour I got very hungry, so I left the porcelain doll on my bed, and went to the kitchen. I took a yogurt and a spoon and went back into my bedroom. I got very confused when I walked into the room, because the doll wasn't laying in my bed anymore, but on the floor. I thought that it might have fallen down and didn't think much more about that. Instead, I continued playing.

When my Mom got home, she wanted me to help her unpack the groceries and called for me. I took the doll with me, but my Mom told me to put her away for now, so I placed her on the stairs. It took a while, helping Mom in the kitchen. We took the dishes as well, and I helped her with dinner. My brother got home and we all ate and talked about the day. My brother had played soccer with his friends, both for fun and to practice for the upcoming game next weekend. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was already getting dark. The night always seemed to come faster in autumn. 

When I walked to the stairs to pick up the doll, she was gone. I felt a chill going through me. I looked everywhere for her, in my room, in the kitchen, in the living room, the bathroom, in panic. Then, I went upstairs and looked into my brother's room and there she was, laying on his bed. I was very confused and spooked by this. I didn't understand how she could move to a different place, without someone moving her. I asked my Mom and my brother if they had moved the doll, but they swore that they hadn't. I also thought about earlier that day, when she suddenly laid on the floor instead of on my bed. I started wondering if the doll had it's own life or something, even though I knew that was impossible. But then how did this happen? 

Photo by Fancycrave on Unsplash