The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Genre: Mystery / Romance

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 452

Chapters: 59

Rating: 9/10

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (Quoted):

“When Mara Dyer wakes up in hospital with no memory of how she got there, or any explanation as to why the bizarre accident that caused the deaths of her boyfriend and two best friends left her mysteriously unharmed, her doctors suggest she start over in a new city, at a new school, and just hope her memories gradually come back.

But Mara’s new start is anything but comforting. She sees the faces of her dead friends everywhere and now she’s started to see other people’s deaths before they happen. Is she going crazy? As if dealing with all this isn’t enough, Noah Shaw, the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen, can’t seem to leave her alone. But does he have her best interests at heart, or another agenda altogether?”

My Summary:

After Mara is left unharmed from an accident that she can’t seem to remember which killed her boyfriend and two friends, she and her family move to Miami, Florida for a new start. But Mara, suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is haunted by her friends’ faces.

When people start dying after Mara imagines it, she’s positive she’s crazy and struggles to discern hallucinations from reality.

To complicate things more, Noah Shaw, the boy with a reputation, won’t leave Mara alone and she’s swept along in a current she can’t control. But when crazy gets dangerous, Mara discovers a shocking truth.

Judgement:

The story line (coming out of an accident / coma and life being different forever) seems to be becoming pretty main-stream and common – but to say that this book is ordinary would be a lie.

First, I loved this book because not only was it addictive, but it kept me grinning the whole way through – and I’m not just saying that, I seriously had a grin plastered on my face for almost every page.

It’s witty, sarcastic, teasing, even embarrassing… Everything to spark interest and keep you page-turning. I wish I could say this book was a comedy for how much I laughed, but it really isn’t in any way – which doesn’t even make much sense. Point is, I was hooked and found myself up late as well as pulling it out at school.

I have to say, it has quite a twist towards the end and just the last few chapters of the book completely changes the story line. It sort of threw me and that made me a little irritated, but didn’t make it any less enjoyable.

There are a lot of questions to be asked throughout this novel: who was that? Was that real? What does it mean? What’s going to happen next? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? All of which are answered in due time – well, almost all.

The ending leaves it open for a sequel, though it doesn’t actually hint at one (if that even makes sense?) so there could be another, but I can’t see the storyline for it.

I found this quite an enjoyable read, and I applaud the author as this is her debut novel.

Fracture, by Megan Miranda

Title: Fracture

Author: Megan Miranda

Target Audience: Young Adult

Pages: 264

Chapters: 20

Rating: 9/10

Genre: Romance / Drama

Person: First

Tense: Past

Blurb (quoted):

“A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Decker can run two miles easily in eleven minutes. I once wrote an English essay in ten. No lie. And God knows Carson Levine can talk a girl out of her clothes in half that time.

Eleven minutes might as well be an eternity underwater. It only takes three minutes without air for loss of consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four minutes. And then, when the oxygen runs out, full cardiac arrest occurs. Death is possible at five minutes. Probable at seven. Definite at ten.

Decker pulled me out at eleven.

By the time Delaney Maxwell was pulled from a Maine lake’s icy waters by her best friend, Decker Phillips, her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead.

But somehow Delaney survived – despite the brain scans that show irreparable damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be fine, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney now finds herself drawn to the dying, and when she meets Troy Varga, a boy who recently emerged from a coma with the same abilities, she is relieved to share this strange new existence. Unsure if her altered brain is predicting death or causing it, Delaney must figure out if their gift is a miracle, a freak of nature – or something else much more frightening.”

Summary:

Delaney Maxwell was under the ice for eleven minutes. She was dead… or at least, she should have been. But when she emerges from a week long coma with no signs of brain damage despite brain scans claiming she should be ‘damaged’, she returns to her same old life – only everything is different now.

Everyone she knows is treating her differently, including parents and best friend, but only she knows that something really is wrong with her. After being drawn to strangers and friends who had later died, Delaney is forced to ask some hard questions: is she sensing death, or causing it?

When she discovers Troy Varga, a boy who emerged from a coma with the same ability, she’s relieved to feel less alien – but is the mystery man with a temper really to be trusted? Delaney begins to wonder what kind of friend she’d made after countless suspicious occurrences.

But most troubling is Delaney’s best-friend-since-childhood, Decker Phillips, is suddenly showing interest in another girl and Delaney doesn’t have a clue why that bothers her so much.

Judgement:

I’m not sure if it was because I had a lot of time on my hands, or if I was addicted to this book, but I found myself picking it up repeatedly over two to three days until I turned the last page.

The story line and plot is one I haven’t actually come across before (which is rare, considering the amount of books out there), which was great for a fresh spin on things. The characters had individual personalities and habits, which is always a must-have for me – I don’t want to be reading about a group of clones!

At first I found the length a little intimidating – not because I don’t normally read large books, but because I wanted to finish it before school went back (two days later), but I honestly flew through it. Also, I like that it was a book you really want to pick up and read, but it’s not going to keep you up all night or distract you from other tasks.

I enjoyed the setting (I live somewhere without snow, so the book being set in a snowy-winter was great). It really draws you into the setting, putting a stream of images through your mind.

However, I have to say the first few chapters were… they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t and instant hook that had you page-turning. The writing style didn’t get on my nerves either, which does happen with some authors, so I was glad when I found I was able to settle down into it.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and I recommend (though not HIGHLY) it to others.

About the Author:

Megan Miranda was a scientist and high school teacher before writing Fracture, which came out of her fascination with scientific mysteries – especially those associated with the brain. Megan has a BS in biology from MIT and spent her post-college years either rocking a lab coat or reading books. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, where she volunteers as an MIT Educational Counsellor. Fracture is her first novel.