The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Mara Dyer, Book 1

By: Michelle Hodkin

Narrated by: Christy Romano

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2011 Michelle Hodkin (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Christy Romano captures the youthful voice of the 17-year- old main character. Mara's sass, worries, and romantic longing all come alive, thanks to Romano's performance." ( AudioFile)

Fantastic Book

Could stop reading the book!!! Finished in two days and can wait to start book 2.

Uneven mystery romance

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer came out in print two and a half years ago but is just now making its audiobook debut. The plot of Mara Dyer centers on a big mystery, and the reader is left in the dark as much as the title character. You don’t really get a lot of answers in the first part of the trilogy but flashbacks/dreams/visions provide some pieces of the puzzle. The mystery part of it was interesting to me, though I can’t say I completely bought the romantic side of the book.

Because Mara Dyer has this high concept mystery, the reading experience is a little confusing as you’re trying to pieces together what the heck is happening. I had to consider Mara Dyer to be an unreliable narrator as I questioned what was real and what was not in this book.

I wanted to know more about what was happening to Mara, but the romance with Noah Shaw started to take over the book. Noah Shaw is the guy every girl wants- he’s wealthy, has a British accent, is cocky and smart and gorgeous, and of course Mara’s the only girl for him. If you buy into the romance you will probably love this book.

I listened to the audiobook, performed by Christy Romano, who is an actress and the voice of Kim Possible. She has not performed in too many audiobooks but the author saw Romano in a play in New York and thought her voice was a perfect match for Mara.

Romano’s voice sounds age appropriate for Mara, and she has good comic timing to deliver the humorous lines. Romano is talented at accents, and especially uses a convincing male British accent for the voice of Noah. There were some technical issues that distracted me at times such as re-recorded dialogue and some misinterpreted lines. Overall I enjoyed the performance though and thought Romano was a good pick. The audiobook also includes a couple chapters from the second book in the trilogy.

This is one of those books that readers seem to love or hate. I zipped through this book fairly quickly and was entertained, though I’m not going to jump right into the sequel just yet either. I am really curious about the mystery though and how it’s all going to work out.

Twisted, dark, romantic, frustrating, and suspense

What made the experience of listening to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer the most enjoyable?

Part mystery, part romance with a paranormal twist and its unreliable narrator this was one heck of a crazy ride. Hodkin delivered a pull your hair-out read that left me scratching my head and screaming for more.

What did you like best about this story?

I am not sure if The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was a mystery, suspense thriller or romance with paranormal elements. The tale goes back and forth between the two having me on edge one moment and swooning the next. Whom could I trust? What the heck is happening? Is Mara crazy? Mara begins to regain memories of the night her friends die and slowly we begin to understand, or at least I thought did. Noah is a curiosity, he is involved and the discovery was nerve racking. Between moments of uncertainty and disbelief we have a somewhat normal romance, and while I enjoyed the romance it also made me crazy because hello, WTH is happening? Hodkin kept me on the edge and even when I thought I knew she kept me second guessing. Her writing style is descriptive, and she gave me a panoramic view of events as they unfolded. I could smell the swamp, feel the dampness in the abandoned building, taste Mara’s fear and visualize the dirt floor of the shed. The tale unwinds unevenly, giving us moments of frenzy and then dragging in parts. One minute it is a thriller and the next I it was like I walked into the middle of a contemporary romance. The tale ends in a cliffy that threw me so hard I actually went back and listened to the last two chapters again fearing I missed something.

What about Christy Romano’s performance did you like?

Christy Romano did a great job as the narrator. She gave Mara and Noah their own unique voice. The only time I heard her break from character was in Mara’s bedroom when Noah revealed his secret. Mara’s monotone narrative added to my sense of uncertainty.

Great read

This is one of my favorite books. I've read it several times and am excited to read the others.

READ THIS TRILOGY. CHANGED MY LIFE

What made the experience of listening to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer the most enjoyable?

Narraration is on point with Ren Stevens. (showing my age here)
Plot is phemoninal. Like NO OTHER Ya lit published.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Noah Shaw <3
Mara & Noah quickly became my OTP

What does Christy Romano bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She is fantastic. Her accents are great too.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

THE ENTIRE SERIES moved me. I'm seriously depressed it's only a trilogy.

Any additional comments?

READ THIS TRILOGY

I am on the fence on this one...

Any additional comments?

The book was actually very entertaining; it had me guessing the whole time and it kept me hooked all the way to the end. Technically, that would be enough to give it 5 stars. Except for one major issue I had with the book: Noah. He is definitely interesting and complex. However, there are two things I did not like about the dude. See below...

1. He is a whore, and I mean whore with capital W. He sleeps around with so many girls and leaves them jilted because he only does it for fun (girlfriend is not a word in his vocabulary) and has no care in the world for anyone's feelings but his. I'm sorry but when a guy is notorious for having sex and 'discarding girls like condoms' (that's an actual line in the book btw) not only do you lose my good opinion but you totally gross me out. And no, being hotness personified, with an English accent to boot, won't save you.

2. He smokes. Enough said.

So yeah, I was a bit turned off (no pun intended) by Noah and the fact that Mara had no qualms about this. Sure, she has plenty of monologue where she reminds herself of this but it's all halfhearted and forgotten the minute she lays eyes on the dude. *sigh*

Aside from that, I did like it and I do recommend it to those who like romance and mystery/suspense.

An excellent young adult story full of emotion

Mara wakes up in a hospital bed. She has no memory of the event that led her to be hospitalized. When she spots a vase full of her best friend’s favorite flowers, she asks where her friend is and if she will be back soon. Mara then discovers to her horror that her best friend was with her when the building they were in collapsed. Mara survived. Her best friend, Rachel along with another friend and Mara’s boyfriend died in the collapse.

Mara is devastated by the loss. Her parents are concerned with her mental health and the family decides to move to Florida for a fresh start.

Once in Florida it becomes evident that Mara is still having difficulty coping. She is hallucinating and she still does not remember the night if the accident. Mara starts classes at an exclusive new school and has difficulty making new friends. When she meets a boy named Noah she can’t help but be attracted to him.

However, even though Noah seems to be interested in her, she is warned that he is notorious for breaking girl’s hearts. Mara has no desire to become just another notch on some guy’s bedpost. Plus, with her hallucinations intensifying and people around her seeming to die off at an alarming rate, Mara does not have either the time or the inclination to get involved with any high school drama.

Mara needs to discover exactly why she is seeing things and she needs to remember what happened that fateful night before she goes completely insane.

This book is not a lengthy one. The story moves at a rapid pace and readers will empathize with Mara. Teenage readers will relate to her feelings of frustration. Mara cannot tell her parents what she is seeing. She knows they will never believe her. The one person she could tell anything to is now dead. Teenagers who rely heavily on friends for emotional support will understand Mara’s situation.

The character of Noah is destined to become a favorite “Book Boyfriend” of many readers.

This book has equal parts drama, humor, horror and teen romance. There is something for everyone in this story. The fact that this is a first novel is very impressive. I expect that this author has a very bright future ahead of her. She has a knack for capturing the emotions of teenage angst and translating them onto the page without making the situations seem overly dramatic or cheesy. She has also done an admirable job of including the issue of mental illness into the story and in including not only it’s effect on the sufferer, but also on that person’s family.

The audio book was narrated by Christy Romano who was the perfect choice for the voice of Mara.


RATING: I rate this audio book as 5 out of 5 stars in the Young Adult category.

The ending of this book is a perfect cliffhanger. Readers will want to start the next book in the series immediately.

Very Good Story but Narration of Male Voices was Weak

The story was surprisingly good. Pretty well written with solid supporting characters. The lead and protagonist has an interesting narrative that the reader is drawn into. My main issue is the narration of the main male protagonist, his sound looks me a 12 year old boy with a British accent and not a 17 year old boy that looks older than his years. This disconnect is hard to get pass in the beginning, they should have opted to hire a second male voice actor for his part.

Already started the sequel

Really interesting story. The characters are layered and fun to unravel. The writing sounds a little like fanfiction sometimes; some inside jokes, too much use of the word "asshat" and pop culture references, and it has some serious Mary Jane aspects (fanfic readers/writers know what I mean). But it overcomes generic young adult fiction problems and becomes a complex and compelling story. Before I had even really finished this one, I bought the second book. Can't wait to see what happens with Mara next.

Not Sure About Mara Dyer

Just finished listening to book 1, and I'm really torn. There were things about it that I genuinely enjoyed. The story started strong. Mara is smart and funny, and I enjoyed getting to know her. Her story was interesting...living through a terrible ordeal that she cannot remember. But then the plot seemed to really lose focus. Maybe it will wrap up nicely after the 3rd book, but the 1st book was all over the place. The end is super annoying. I'm all for a cliffhanger ending, but this book just ended...practically mid-sentence. When the Audible voice over said "You've reached the end of the book", I thought, "Surely it said the end of the part not the book, and I just need to download the next part!?!". Nope, it was the end of the book. I suppose the preceding scene was suppose to be the ramp up to the end, but it was really anti-climatic and disappointing. I did go ahead and purchase book 2, as I'm interested to see if this all comes together in the end.

I was similarly torn with the narration. When the narrator was speaking for Mara, she was usually great. Sometimes her reading was rushed as though she was trying to just get all the words out, but for the most part, she was enjoyable. HOWEVER, she was downright CREEPY as a 17 year old British heartthrob. I mean EWWWW! The hunky love interest sounded like a nasally 12 year old. Just awful. The narration of Noah was so off and distracting that I would actually recommend reading this one instead of listening to it.