The Evolution of Mara Dyer

Mara Dyer, Book 2

By: Michelle Hodkin

Narrated by: Christy Romano

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

The truth about Mara Dyer’s dangerous and mysterious abilities continues to unravel in the New York Times best-selling sequel to the thrilling The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past. She can’t. She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren’t. She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

©2012 Michelle Hodkin (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

twisted, mind-bending tale

Any additional comments?

I was excited to continue my journey in the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin and once again went with the audio version for The Evolution of Mara Dyer. I love an unreliable narrator, and Hodkin is brilliant at keeping the reader second-guessing. I liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, but I loved the twisted, mind-bending tale delivered in the Evolution of Mara Dyer.

The tale centers on Mara who may or may not be suffering from delusions. She may have killed, or is she in fact sane and in serious trouble. Think conspiracy theory, and it is intense as Mara herself narrates the story, leaving the reader to ascertain the truth. Thankfully, she has Noah…yummy, sweet, strange, Noah. I was unsure of his motives in book one, but here he has Mara’s back.
Hodkin’s writing is brilliant, and she does an excellent job of making me doubt my conclusions. The tale moved slowly at first, but then began to escalate, and all I could do was hold my breath and hold on. Mara still gets on my nerves a tad, but the more knowledge I gain, the more I understand and she deserves my respect. The imagery was amazing from the doll, to near death accidents and oh gads the dead animals. I was riveted and the narrator added an element of suspense I found engaging. I love the voice she has given Noah and the doctor.

I am so glad I delayed reading this series, and switched to audio. The Evolution of Mara Dyer surpassed book one and left me drooling in anticipation of The Retribution of Mara Dyer, which, will release November 4, 2014. I hope the audio releases the same day. *fingers-crossed*

Keep em coming!

Twists and turns like you wouldn't believe! I absolutely love how the story is developing. The pacing is fantastic, the narration is spot on and the characters are impossible not to love. Just when you think you know what's going on, just when you come up with a theory of your own, Michelle Hodkin throws you a curve ball. Exciting, unexpected, supernatural, action packed, funny, romantic and creepy. All of my favorite things. :)

Incredible

Michelle Hodkin is incredibly talented. This book was fantastic! I have to say the only downside to me, was the "Before" sections. I don't usually enjoy when a story changes from chapter to chapter so I'm sure that is just a personal issue. However, I love the love story and the twists. The twists are incredible and literally had my jaw dropping. I am so excited to read the next one in the series and to read Noah's books too!

Great story, Christy is wonderful Mara, but..

I loved the tension of story, unpredictable development. Also Christy Romano did really great job but I have quite a problem with some of her expresions - the character said something in whatever emotion and Christy said it in completely different emotion. The character literally said the emotion in which you should read it, I wonder why Christy did it differently.
but I can't wait to listen third book.

Great continuation!

Where does The Evolution of Mara Dyer rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've read a total of 4 audiobooks so far, and it is probably the 3rd

Have you listened to any of Christy Romano’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but I think she does a very good job. The only thing I did not like is that she tries to do Noah's British accent, and she does not quite get there. I think that makes this character sound a bit fake. The first book I read (not listened to), and I definitely did not think that of him

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

There were definitely parts which I couldn't stop listening to.

Any additional comments?

It is a great continuation to the first Mara Dyer book (the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer), but I think it takes a whole new turn.
You can find my complete review in this link http://wonderfulliterature.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-evolution-of-mara-dyer-michelle.html

Narrator awful

Her attempts at an english accent are dreadful. She has Noah sounding like a squeaky extra on AbFab

Well done creepy paranormal mystery

This was a fantastic continuation of the Mara Dyer series. These books have been such creepy, mysterious, and addictive reads. I really have been enjoying them and can't wait to see how things wrap up in the third book. There are spoilers for the first book in this review, so just FYI.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator sounds exactly like I imagine Mara Dyer would sound and does a great job with character voices and emotions. If you like audiobooks I would definitely recommend listening to this series on audiobook.

Mara wakes up to find out she has been forcibly committed by her parents after the incidents in the first book. She is working to get “better” so that she can get herself moved to outpatient care and hopefully be at home to protect her parents from Jude. However Jude’s attacks are getting more and more creepy and manipulative and Mara is finding herself increasingly haunted and frustrated. Noah fully supports her and Noah and Mara struggle to figure out the truth of their strange powers while trying to protect Mara’s family from Jude. What they find is bigger and scarier than anything they could have imagined at the beginning of all of this.

This is one of those books where you wish the poor heroine could get some sort of break. Horrible thing after horrible thing happens to Mara and her parents never believe her about what is going on (granted if Mara actually calmed down and calmly talked to them about everything I think they would be a bit more understanding). I am really hoping that Mara finds some happiness in the third book because this second book was a pretty big struggle for her.

I continue to really enjoy Noah as a character; he is almost supernaturally supportive of Mara...although we see a darker side to him as well in this book. Many of the other side characters that Mara meets at the outpatient care facility are also very intriguing and Jaimie is in the book quite a bit as well.

Some of the mystery behind Noah and Mara’s strange powers is revealed but many things are as yet unexplained. The book is well written, incredibly hard to put down, and very intense. It does, however, end on a huge cliffhanger again...which is something I hate.

Overall this was an incredibly engaging paranormal mystery. The characters are intriguing and easy to relate to and the book is just about impossible to put down. I am incredibly curious to see how things wrap up with the last book in the series. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy creepy paranormal mysteries.

First one better

As usual the sequel is a let-down. Still gonna read the third to find ish it. Try to make the characters not so stupid and more working to improve their magic with some imagination would be great. Not all teenagers are so clueless.

A bit too many things left unresolved

WELL, EVOLUTION certain amped up the mind games quite a bit! Of course you always want to believe the protagonist (Mara) but it’s a case of, is this really an unreliable narrator or is she actually experiencing the truth and no one believes her? It was so much fun to really play around with those ideas and never quite know what was going on! Things started to get absolutely bananas towards the end and I was literally shivering and shouting and afraid of things that go bump in the night because I was getting so freaked out (in a good way).

I really felt like things picked up throughout EVOLUTION and carried on with a steady pace. The reader finds out a lot more of what is happening to Mara and a little bit more as to why. This was definitely my favorite book of the series but things got super twisty and I was totally riveted from about the middle of the book until the end!

I was actually a little bit disappointed by the ending, though. I’m not sure if I had hoped for more mystery? There are some answers to whether we trust Mara or throw her into the loony bin and I wasn’t a huge fan of how the answers played out. I think it felt a bit strange, maybe a bit too hard to believe? Which is saying a lot considering what we’ve learned about what Mara can do and I’ve fully accepted that!

I also was a bit disappointed that more questions got added and there were STILL things I had no answers for. I always hope that book two answers some to most of the questions set up in book one and I was left wondering what the hell is going on with some of these things.

Nice Continuation

I like where the story is going but still there is something missing in the story .. I want to enjoy it more but some of the characters are dull to me .. I would like to see more of Daniel and Joseph
the narration is nice .. but needs some improvements

Looking forward to see how it all ends

Loved the narator.
The story keeps getting more and more complicated, so I hope it all comes together nicely by the end. There are some points in plot that I hope will get explained in the final book.
All in all I enjoyed the book.

All of the stars

Wow. That ending. I can't handle it. This series is... F'#king incredible. I can't believe the series is over.