Mara Dyer: Series Review

The Mara Dyer series of books by Michelle Hodkin were unlike anything I've ever read before.
I'm really at a loss at what to write about them in a way that will get my point across and won't let me seem like just some crazy fangirl! They might not have been the very best books ever written and they weren't my ultimate favourites, but boy were they good!

The first book in the series is The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.
Mara Dyer wakes up from a coma in an unfamiliar hospital, having no recollection of the incident that killed her best friends and boyfriend and hospitalised her.
After moving away and leaving her old life behind, Mara soon comes to realise that there is no escaping the incident and it will follow her wherever she goes. Not only is she seeing the faces of her dead friends everywhere, but she is seeing the deaths of people before they even occur...
Before I picked up this book, I was a little unsure at what it would be about. I almost expected Mara to have physic powers or something! I had wanted to read this for far too long, though, so I was really happy to be engrossed in it.
I've never read a book that's so creepy and mysterious yet so fantastically gripping. It did take me a couple of hundred pages to get into the story, but when I did there was no putting it down! I don't quite know what it was about it that made me so enhanced, but whatever it was made it incredible. I loved how realistic the characters were; it made it less paranormal and more life-like, as if it really could be real.
What really set these books apart from any other book was that for a lot of it, you couldn't tell how much of the story was 'real', and how much of it was happening in Mara's head. Her PTSD made it so that she relived a great deal of moments related with the incident, but in other parts of the story it was incredibly difficult to distinguish between reality and imagination, despite this being a fictional book. It really played with your mind.
The ending of this book was quite a cliff-hanger. It was full of suspense and left me itching to read the next book.

Spoilers for all of the books ahead.

 Please don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled!!

The second instalment of the series, The Evolution of Mara Dyer, was just as creepy and unnerving as the first. It continued the series really well, leaving a suitable and appropriate gap between the two books. Unlike the first book, where Mara was only just finding out about herself and her abilities, this book went more towards the direction that Mara was actually crazy, and she was being treated for this appropriately. However, Mara now knows that she isn't crazy. She's gifted with a unique power, but she's not the only one. In the same way that her boyfriend Noah can heal with his mind, Mara can kill with hers. Can their powers cancel each other out?
That isn't even the half of it, either. Mara now knows her ex-boyfriend, Jude, who was declared dead, is in fact alive and is hunting Mara down...
This book was just as good, if not better than the first. It really was incredible. It was really interesting to meet all of the new characters who were in the same 'position' as Mara. I hate books with unchanging characters, so the amazing character development really pleased me. While I was at first a little confused from the chapters set 'Before' in India, it soon became clear who was narrating them and it was intriguing to read.
I am so glad that I decided to wait until all of the books in this series were released before reading them because I doubt I would have survived having to wait for the next book! The cliff-hanger at the ending was a huge plot twist. It was quite confusing actually; you were left thinking 'Oh my... What is this? What just happened? Did I misread that? Let me just go back and check...'
When I put down this book, I was almost in shock. While I was certain that Noah wouldn't be dead, there was a part of me sure that he was. And as for the fact that Mara was a living and walking experiment... Well, I didn't know what to make of that!!


The trilogy wrapped up with The Retribution of Mara Dyer. This book had a more dangerous feel to it since we knew the full potential of Mara's abilities.
Unsure whether she's been told the truth, Mara is locked away and drugged up on medicine to keep her unaware of her situation. She must break free from their control and locate the remainder of her friends before completing the one task on her mind; finding Noah.
As I've already mentioned, this book felt a lot more tense and dangerous than the other two. I was really quite scared for the characters and what might happen to them. Of course, they could tell people what was happening to them, but who would believe a group of teenagers claiming that they had superpowers and had been forced to murder their captives in an attempt for freedom? I wouldn't! This left an 'anything could happen' feeling to the book, so you had no idea of where the story would take you.
I also thought this book was quite a bit gorier than the rest. Mara has clearly seen and been through a lot, seeing dead people most of the time, but when I was reading about her having to cut a dead man's eye out in order to escape, I really did feel a bit queasy!
Reading the last half of the book was a bit of a blur for me. I normally take my time reading to devour every last detail, but I was reading this as fast as I could to find out what happened. For a part of the book, I genuinely believed that it would end in a Romeo and Juliet style way. I expected them both to die. I've never been so happy to be wrong! Despite them having a few... difficulties... it turned out well in the end.

I absolutely loved the ending of this book. While it wasn't complete bright sunshine and happiness, it gave hope for the characters and didn't like you with too many questions, unlike other conclusions to series (Yep, I'm talking to you, Mockingjay!!).
The really short chapters at the end of the book (you'll definitely know which ones I'm talking about if you've read the book!) were a little... overwhelming? But I was glad they were included as authors tend to shy away from there kinds of things and I think it was a pretty important moment for the characters. 
So overall, The Retribution really wrapped the series nicely. I was terrifically happy with how it concluded! However, reading this book especially made me feel a bit uneasy. I don't really get scared of things that couldn't possibly be real, so monsters, vampires and zombies never really got to me. But I do get a little bit worried about things that are real or could potentially happen. The circumstances in this book were explained in such vivid detail that I'm pretty sure they could occur. Spooky, huh?


I said at the start of this post that these weren't the very best books I've ever read. I gave each one of them 4 stars (If I could, I would have given the last two 4.5 stars), and I did actually have a couple of issues with them.
My main problem was the amount of bad language in them. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit of swearing in books. A lot of the time it's actually needed and makes the story better. However, when f-words are used every other page, it just kind of loses its effect.
Another issue I had at the start was the fact that Noah smokes, and not in the Augustus Waters metaphorical way, either. In the first book, he just came across as one of those arrogant, badly behaved boys who felt the need to smoke to gain attention. Of course, by the end of the series when I understood his reasoning, it was plausible and fit well with his character, but at the start it just seemed to add to his reputation.
The amount of gore, in the last book particularly, made me feel slightly queasy, but I do think it was needed in the story and was fitting.

I would recommend these books to anyone who likes paranormal fantasy books and has an open mind. Due to the vast amounts of profanity, the series probably requires more of a mature audience, so this is not a children's book! I think it would be suitable for over 13s though.

That's all for now; bye bye!

Charlotte xxx