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

Spook Week #3 | The Haunted Forest

Happy Halloween! 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 third spooky story begin... 

The Haunted Forest

My friends and I had been discussing haunted places for a long time and really wanted to visit one on Halloween. We all love ghost stories and anything supernatural, so this was going to be amazing. 

On Halloween day, I started to pack my things. I needed supplies, like a flashlight, a blanket, some snacks, and a camera. I did not know how long we would stay, so I thought it was better so be prepared. I zipped the bag, got a message from a friend that the ride was here, and ran out to the car. Then, we drove to a forest. The haunted forest that we were headed to was said to drive people mad and the scream of these people can be heard deep in the forest. We did not truly believe in the supernatural. It was just something fun to do during the spooky season. 

We parked in front of the forest, grabbed our bags, and started walking. The forest was big and the leaves had already fallen off most of the trees. There was still daylight outside, which made it look like a completely normal forest. I kept a small distance from my friends for a while, just to breath this forest in and try to feel if it's really haunted. I did not know what I was doing, of course, but I liked to pretend that I knew these things. 

I looked at the tree crowns and noticed that it was getting dark already. Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I tensed and slowly turned around. A friend started laughing at how scared I looked and took away the hand. We continued to scare each other and laugh on the way to wherever we were heading. 

We were starting to get pretty deep into the forest now. The wind was getting colder and the night was getting closer. We picked a place to sit down for a while. I put my giant blanket on the ground and we sat in quiet, just listening. The dark really made the forest look different than it had before. I was starting to get creeped out by the feeling of being here. My head had started to ache and I was very tired. We didn't want to sleep here, so we decided to walk some more. We were pretty disappointed that nothing had happened but started walking back to the car anyway. This time, I was in the back, walking behind everyone. I felt a cold wind passing by and I tried to warm my hands by rubbing them together. All that could be heard was the crunching of leaves and mud under our feet and the wind grabbing the trees in a dance. Suddenly, a chill ran through me and I froze. I didn't know if I imagined it or not, but I heard a scream. It wasn't loud, but soft instead, and far away. I looked at my friends, that kept walking, and decided that I had just imagined it. 

The distance between us and the car was getting smaller and I felt relieved by the thought of leaving this place. Nothing had really happened, except for the feeling of not being allowed to walk in that forest, the chilly wind, and my imagined scream. 

When we got home, my friends started talking again and it was only then that I first realized how quiet they had been before. They explained that they had gotten the feeling of not being wanted there and one of them claimed to have heard a scream. I didn't know what to believe. I came up with the reasonable explanation that the situation might have caused us to imagine things that weren't real. There was only one thing I was sure of though, to never go back into that forest ever again in order to find out.

Photo by Jack Cain on Unsplash

Spook Week #2 | Chilly Nights

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 second spooky story begin... 

Chilly Nights

The wind screamed into the pitch black night. I woke up from a nightmare and sat up in terror, breathing like I had just ran a marathon. My eyes wandered around in the bedroom, looking at the strange shapes of the furnitures. Then, I realized how dry my throat was and slipped my feet into some slippers, wrapped a dressing gown around my cold body and went downstairs. I walked slowly to try not to wake anyone up. When I reached the ground floor, I felt a chilling wind grabbing me for just a second, before it was gone again. I held my breath and continued into the kitchen. Boxes of random kitchen supplies still stood all around the floor. We had just moved into this house and hadn't had the time to unback yet. I searched the cabinets for a clean glass and poured some cold water.

Suddenly, I felt the same cold wind again. This time it was as if someone was watching me. I turned around but saw nothing. I had watched a lot of horror movies, so maybe that's why I always feel like I have to watch my back when I'm sourrounded by darkness. I shrugged my shoulders, headed upstairs for my room, and didn't think about it again... until the next day. 

In the morning, my family had a conversation at the breakfast table about how it had been such a warm night and that they opened a window to let som air in, to be able to sleep. I thought it was strange, because it had been very cold in my opinion. 

The next night, something woke me up. I couldn't put my finger on what though. My hands searched for the phone placed at my bedside table and put the flash light on. A small stream of light appeared and I held my phone in different areas in my room, but saw nothing. Maybe it was just a bad dream again, I thought, but couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, I went downstairs to take a glass of water. A chilling wind grabbed me as I reached the bottom floor. My feet wandered into the kitchen, where I saw a glass of water neatly standing on the counter. That's weird, I thought. Everyone always cleanes up after themselves. Maybe someone put it there, because they know I always need a glass of water during the nights? 

Then I felt it again, someone watching me. This is silly, I thought, and turned around, but saw nothing. I felt like I needed to make sure it was actually nothing, because maybe there was someone there, maybe someone had snuck in from my parent's or my brother's open windows. I searched through the ground floor; the living room, the hallway, and the bathroom, but there was nothing there. Soon, I gave up and crawled into my bed again.

At the breakfast table the next morning, I told my family what had happend during the night and asked who put the glass of water there for me. Everyone seemed surprised by this and claimed to have slept all night long. I didn't want to trust my family, but I knew that they would never lie about something like this...

Spook Week #1 | Monday Anxiety

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 just 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 first spooky story begin...

Monday Anxiety

It was a very ordinary Monday afternoon. I was on my way home from school, running from the bus in the rain with my backpack and bags of Christmas presents. I fumbled for my keys and when I finally found them, I unlocked the front door. Looking into the messy living room, I took off my shoes and shouted; "Hello?!" to hear if anyone was home. It was only 12:30 PM. I used to finish school early on Mondays and be the first one home. However, I heard a soft voice answer my call with a "hello". I was surprised. Is Simon already home? That's unusual, I thought. Then I shrugged my shoulders, let go of the backpack and the bags on the floor. Everything went according to my basic routine, hang the jacket, put the shoes on the shelf and make a sandwich because the food in school was.. questionable.

Anyway, I was now heading for my room. I sat for about an hour at my desk and wrote on my English essay. I heard some sounds coming from my brother's room from time to time. I took a break, wrote a little more, took another break. The noise continued. It was quite normal with the sounds because my brother usually plays computer games and he hits the keys as well as kicks on the table in frustration when something goes wrong or he loses. I called to him, "Can you please be a bit quieter? I'm trying to study here!" and hoped that it would be heard through the wall. The miserable throbbing ended hastily. "Is everything okay?" I asked. Dead silence filled the house. I assumed he didn't hear me. He used to sit with headphones on.

I turned to stare at the computer screen again and knocked a little at the table at the same time, humming to a song stuck in my head. Then I heard it. Someone knocked back, on the other side of the wall, and exactly as many knocks as I did. I even tried by knocking 5 times loud against the wall. 5 knocks were heard shortly afterward on the other side of the wall. Now he's messing around with me, I thought. What is he doing?

I tried knocking again. The same amount of knocks could be heard from my brother's room. I sighed and continued with my essay. The time was now almost 14:00 PM, which is when Simon usually gets home. And exactly as every Monday, the door opened downstairs, keys scrambled, a bag was dropped on the ground and I could hear a wondering "hello?", asking if anyone was at home. It was Simon...

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The Remnant Chronicles | Book Review (Spoiler Free!)

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Pages: 1646
My Rating: 5/5

"It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered."

Goodreads Description for The Kiss of Deception

Lia has survived Venda—but so has a great evil bent on the destruction of Morrighan. And only Lia can stop it.

With war on the horizon, Lia has no choice but to assume her role as First Daughter, as soldier—as leader. While she struggles to reach Morrighan and warn them, she finds herself at cross-purposes with Rafe and suspicious of Kaden, who has hunted her down.
In this conclusion to the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, traitors must be rooted out, sacrifices must be made, and impossible odds must be overcome as the future of every kingdom hangs in the balance.

Review

This is one of the best trilogies I have read for a while. It has it all, action, romance, secrets, twists and turns. When I finished the first book, I was amazed, then the second book was even better, and the third was a great finish to the series. Pearson did not disappoint at all and I'm very excited to read her other books because the writing style was very much my thing. 

I loved the characters! The character development is also great in this book series. Lia is kind of stubborn, which doesn't have to be a bad thing, because she knows what she wants and fights for that to come true. She learns a lot through these books and her independence and self-confidence grow. Rafe and Kaden, also have a great development in personality and values. In the first book, you don't know which of them is the assassin and which is the prince. That's an effective element to the first book, in my opinion, because it's constantly a guessing game. 

The trilogy contains a lot of twists and turns, a lot of hard challenges for characters, not least Lia. I think it's very well planned. By the end of the last book, I felt very attached to the characters and now I'm really going to miss them. I feel like you got to know them so well, to see their ups and downs, and still care for them. 

If you love fantasy and romance and you still haven't read this series, I highly recommend it. It's a book with great rival kingdoms, an amazing setting, loving characters, and an irresistible story.