BASICS
Title: The Unbecoming of Mara DyerSeries: The Mara Dyer Trilogy #1
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Release Date: September 27th 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 1442421762
Number of Pages: 452
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
MY OPINION
“Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.”
While I did enjoy the mystery and Mara's madness, I really disliked the whole romance (and in the end the paranormal aspect too). When I was reading the book I actually forgot that its genre was paranormal. And to be honest, I'd have liked the book more if it had been "realistic".
This book revolves around Mara Dyer. A girl who has lost her friends and her boyfriend in a mysterious accident which she can't remember. Traumatized by the events she starts to hallucinate. And soon other people turn up dead...
Anyway, as I've already said: I didn't like the love story. Honestely, I thought it was terrible. Mara and Noah had no romantic tension between them and Noah's sudden obsession with Mara was weakly explained in the end.
Especially in the first half of the book he's the typical cheap YA love interest. He's "too hot for his own good", is smirking and winking constantly and every girl swoons over him. Except for Mara of course. She's different. She's the special snowflake. While literally every other girl in this book is a slut in Mara's eyes, she obviously doesn't care for love at all. At least that's what she's telling herself.
She's oh so uninterested and different from all the other girls and that's the reason why Noah's so obsessed with her. He simply can't allow a girl that's not fainting when he walks past.
And because the author wants to show us that his life hasn't always been easy, she gives Noah a childhood were he wasn't hot. What a poor boy. It's like "he was unattractive but suddenly became hot and didn't know how to deal with all the female attention". Excuse me, while I puke.
He is ridiculously perfect. He has the perfect looks, smile, body, the obligatory British accent, he speaks multiple languages and is able to quote classics ad-lib. Like, how old is he? 17, I guess? Has Michelle Hodking ever met a 17-year-old boy?
You know what I call that? Wish fullfillment.
Noah's actually just an annoying and pretentious asshole, at least in the first half of the book. But suddenly he turns around 180 degree and appears as extremely kind and caring. I didn't know what to make of this sudden change.
This book spreads a really problematic view of women. Anna acts like a "bitch" because Mara talked to her ex-boyfriend once. Give your "villains" a good backstory, guys! Heartbreak isn't sufficient! Please, do not use an unrequired love as your go-to excuse for creating an antagonist.
Mara is marketed as the "good one" because she's our main character and we are supposed to root for her. Meanwhile Anna is the bad one (= "slutty one"). God help us all, in the end the amount of sex one has is all that matters.
There's this one line that goes like (I'm pharaphrasing): "She should probably punch Noah in the name of feminism but then he starts touching her". And her anger is like - poof - gone.
To hell with feminism! A hot boy is touching her face!
Just like Christian Grey, love interests like Noah give girls the wrong impression of a good boyfriend.
They are in no way supposed to be controlling or making fun of you. They imply that that type of boy/man is attractive or sexy - which is.not.true.
Another line that made me furious was somewhere at the beginning: Jessie tells Mara that he has slept with girls only to drop them right after (he even refers to Noah's ex-girlfriends as condoms - they're used one time and then thrown away, like wtf) Anyway, Jessie refers to a girl that got depressed and tried to kill herself after Noah broke up with her. Mara's reply is basically that the girl was obviously overreacting.
So, the girl was the unreasonable one?! She overreacted 'cause it's no big deal if you get dumped by someone you love?
But there's not a word about Noah's part in the whole affair.
Noah pushes the boundaries of being an asshole too often for my comfort.
As much as I disliked the afore-mentioned paranormal aspect of the story, I disliked even more that had to make way for the "romance". If you can even call it a romance. There's no romantic tension (or sexual for that matter). It consists out of cringe-worthy sexual innuendos and douchbaggery from Noah. As soon as the hot dude enters the picture, Mara forgets all her problems, which is not realistic. Like, there are people dying, girl. She doesn't only forget her problem, she forgets the plot too.
Mara's thoughts and interactions with others (if there are any because she's probably the most self-centered person in the world), basically her whole behaviour doesn't feel natural or in any way realistic. Hodkin's writing in general is pretty uneven.
This book is part of the type of YA book with mediocre writing, overly sexy main characters and no deeper meaning. The characters are portrayed flat and shallow and consist out of stereotypes.
There's the "bitchy" popular girl who hates the protagonist for some vain reason.
The mean girl's side kick.
The bad boy love interest.
And then there's Jamie. I love diverse characters. But here's it: Plural. I'd have loved several diverse characters in the story, instead we got it all summarized in one character. There could have been so many interesting and complex characters! Don't get me wrong I'm happy that we have even one (sometimes there is not a single one) but couldn't there have been more?
This book a clear case of cover fraud.
RATING
1 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment