The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Book: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Genre: Young Adult (Psychological Thriller)

Rating: A

Plot from Goodreads:

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.

Review:

That little plot summary makes it seem a lot more like a romance novel than it really is. There is a relationship and it is one of the focal points but i found myself more interested in Mara's thought process and how she reacted to things. When you first meet Mara she had just moved to a new state to start over. After her best friends dying, and her not remembering it, she was having a difficult time. She would have hallucinations, she would see her dead friends. These hallucinations were beautifully written and I could really feel how she felt.

Next thing she know she is starting a new school, a preppy private school. She made a fool of herself on the first day because of her hallucinations and already made enemies. She then met a boy named Jamie, who's funny and quirky personality really helped with relief and made me smile. I was sad to see Jamie's character leave from the story but it was because the story got darker and there was no longer a place for Jamie's humor. Then there is Noah Shaw. How do i start to talk about Noah. I hated him. In the beginning at least, I did grow to love him when he started to reveal his little secrets. And of course he was attractive and English which just made him even more gorgeous.

Michelle Hodkin's writing was fast paced and it was believable. The way she made the novel a mystery until the end and still some questions hanging was amazing. In the beginning of the book the main character explained in a letter that she was using the name Mara Dyer as a pseudonym. I went through the whole book wondering what Mara's name really was because the name Mara just seemed to fit the main character.

I wish I could say more but everything else i could say could give away the amazing plot twist at the end. You learn so much in a short amount of pages that I had to re-read them. And let me say I was surprised and I was not even made it ended in a sort of cliffhanger. My only comment is go to your local bookstore and pick this book up. This book was unbelievable and a must-read for anyone. This book was a great mixture of things, and I think any age or gender would enjoy it.

Until Next Time!

-- Haley <3

Anna Dressed in Blood

Book: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendra Blake
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Romance (YA)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 316 (Hardcover)
Favorite Character: Anna.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.


Review:
I really liked this book. I thought it was just going to be normal ghost-hunter thing, but it was really so much more then that. The characters had depth and there was an amazing plot. And the writing in this book just took my breathe away at times, it was amazing how this story was written, I think. I loved the way things were explained and how the people were written.

I really enjoyed Kendare Blake's writing style, nothing particularly stuck out to me, but it also didn't get in the way of the story. I just enjoyed the way that some thing were described or said. Really, I just loved this book.

I'd suggest checking this one out if it sounds like something you might you like. (And that cover is gorgeous, on the hardcover copy, the letters are raised in the title and it's like they have a halo of blood. It's amazing)