Review - The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Evolution of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Series: 2nd (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer)

Pages: 544

Published: October 23rd 2012 by Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 9781442421790

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

 

Description: Mara Dyer knows she isn't crazy. She knows that she can kill with her mind, and that Noah can heal with his. Mara also knows that somehow, Jude is not a hallucination. He is alive. Unfortunately, convincing her family and doctors that she's not unstable and doesn't need to be hospitalized isn't easy. The only person who actually believes her is Noah. But being with Noah is dangerous and Mara is in constant fear that she might hurt him. She needs to learn how to control her power, and fast! Together, Mara and Noah must try and figure out exactly how Jude survived when the asylum collapsed, and how he knows so much about her strange ability...before anyone else ends up dead! 

 I Give This ...

The first book really captured my attention.  Mara Dyer is an extraordinary character.  Not only does she possess a special ability that seems really hard to describe, but she's believe to be slightly mentally unstable.  A fact that I was never really sure on...Is she crazy or not?  The funny thing is, even after this book I'm not entirely sure what the answer is.

Mara has a hard time convincing those around her that she isn't crazy.  Her reactions to events tend to bring unwanted to attention.  Those around her don't understand what is happening to her and I fully understand how it can make her come across as crazy.  I often wondered if she had convinced herself that some of the things going on around her were actually happening.   I think the thing that I found most interesting is that she's so focused on finding Jude that she never stops to think about how she is coming across to others.   She has to realize that the just because she thinks she's telling her family and her doctors what they want to hear, does not mean that is what they are getting out of the conversations.  To me, she really just came across as more crazy.  

The events of this book are intense.  As often as Mara is in the custody of psychiatrists, hospitals, or under house arrest, you would think very little could manage to happen.  But Noah has the uncanny ability to infiltrate were ever she goes.   It's no surprise that his access to unlimited money can open doors.  What's also amazing is that Jude has the same kind of access but completely untraceable.   The fact that he's off the radar made wonder if she was really hallucinating everything she thought he was doing.

There are a few hints and the powers the Mara and Noah both have.  I'm curious as to what the connection is between all of them.  I'm sure there's something there.  The ending was also a complete cliffhanger.  That can't be how it actually ends...really.   Please tell me we will learn otherwise in the next book!

 

Review - The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Series: 1st in series

Pages: 452

Published: September 27, 2011 by Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 9781442421769

Source: Around The World Tours

Description: Mara Dyer doesn't think life can 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 mysteriously unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

I Give This ...

 

I think I'm being a little generous giving this 4 stars.  But, I really don't feel like it was a 3 either.  It has potential, a really interesting paranormal aspect, and a great psychological undertone.  But, it also has it's drawbacks.

 

I felt like Mara's character was really well drawn out at first.  We open with after the event that has killed 3 of her friends and left with no memory of the entire night of the accident.  But you can tell she is traumatized by what has happened.   Her parents have moved her far away in hopes that a fresh start can help her cope and get on with her life.  But, what they don't know is that Mara is on the edge.  I think PTSD is just the beginning of what was wrong with her.  And as she gets little flashbacks of what happened that night, things really start to unravel.  

 Mara starts to have hallucinations, and they aren't very pleasant.  Her deceased friends appear in front of her at random moments along with other odd events.  On top of that, her tidbits of memory are leading her to believe that things weren't so happy between her friends/boyfriend and herself.  The more she thinks about all of this, the more stressed she gets.  And it seems the more stressed she gets, the more she hallucinated.  She's trying to hide this from her family and deal with being at a brand new school were she's attracted some unwanted attention.

Which leads us to Noah.  He's drawn to Mara (of course he is) and he's not use to being told no.  I really didn't like him at first, but in this case he reputation didn't really mix with the person he really was (although, I don't think it was all false either).  I liked him after he really started to show Mara who he really was.  But, I hated how the romance took over the story.  I'm glad they had a connection and in the end I think Noah could really help her move forward.  I wanted the psychological and paranormal to take the focus of the story because they really were fascinating. 

I'm not sure were the story is going at this point.  I'm hoping that the awesome part of the story begins to take a center seat.  I don't mind romance, but this one it really overpowered the better part of the story.