"Not A Review" Review: The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin

Thank you Skylar @ Life Of A Random for motivating me to read this book despite a certain degree of prejudice I may or may not have harboured against this book. (Why, you ask? Well, the cover for one. I do not like decapitated females in pretty dressed with male arms around them.)

This is a book which becomes less in terms of read-ability once I write a review (hence the title). Because it will sound horribly like a cliché once the review is done. What with a heroine who has a messed up history that even she’s not clear on, the “typical bad-boy-falling-for-her” phase (complete with the cigarettes, the jacket, the messed up hair, the scruffy chin, the untouchable attitude, the sighs of women scorned ensemble - wait did I mention the “Attraction At First Sight” that happened?), the typical “she-falls-hard-despite-his-reputation” phase, the “I’m-dangerous-for-you-please-leave-me” phase …

Need I continue?

I do not have the patience to be as experienced in the field of clichéd ships as Miss J, but from my few experiences, I put together a post on how corny ships have got to stop sailing across YA pages. And although Mara and Noah technically qualify as a cliché (boy, I’ve got to stop using that word) –

I ship them. (dramatically gasps)

What do you know? Turns out the disillusioned spinster can be a hopeless romantic.

In my defence, it’s because there is a plot OUTSIDE their love story (yes, well the love story takes up a chunk of the plot too - HELL I CAN'T MAKE UP MY MIND) which features a lot of PTSD (ooh, yes I’m a heartless bitch I love PTSD stories) and sibling love and witty dialogues and how Mara desperately tries to rationalize whatever the hell is going on with Noah (buts fails miserably) and the overall plot. Yes, the bitch who won’t give decent enough stars to books likes the plot. And even though technically (lately this word is my excuse for everything happening) the writing was just average I suspect it was a prime contender for Reasons Why I Liked This Book.

So, putting things in perspective –

VERDICT: 3.5 stars

(God you guys have no idea how much the literary and the romantic idealist sides of my brain enjoyed a tug-of-war over the rating - how much I edited this un-review-y review. Eventually the former won.)

(Can you comprehend what I feel about this book?)

(I am a bad reviewer.)