ellawh's reviews
138 reviews

4,25/5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very funny yet also mysterious in the paranormal department, so to speak. I often hear it compared to Shatter Me, which I kind of understand. They both have the insane girl with a lethal power trope, which I love every time. They are both published in 2011 (this book is actually published before Shatter Me), and both have the kind of feel of books written in the early 2010’s (they have a special flavor that you either get or you don’t.) However The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is not a dystopian book, it’s more of a paranormal mystery, set in today’s society.

Short back story
The story begins when Mara wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. She has it explained to her that she, along with her friends, were found in the ruins of an abandoned asylum, rumored to be haunted. Mara is the only survivor of the accident. However she has no memory of ever going to the asylum, nor what happened and why only she survived. Wanting to leave their old life at Rhode Island behind, she and her family moves to Miami. Mara gets diagnosed with PTSD, but what she doesn’t tell anyone is that she isn’t only traumatized, she has begun seeing dead people.

The characters/Romance
I adored all of the characters, they were really funny, and even made me laugh out loud on many occasions (which I rarely do). The banter was 10/10.

Mara is a lovable main character. Which is always a win win in my opinion, my biggest pet peeve in books is when the main character is lacily written, overlooked, and solely used as a vessel for the reader in the story. I want to root for the main character. Mara is funny, strong, yet shows weakness too. Her love interest is very funny and likable too (not to give too much away). Their banter was, as I said, 10/10, and they were all tension and slow-burn.

They bonded over their love for literature, which I think always gets us book lovers (it just doesn’t get old), especially when the references in the book were fun and more unique (unlike reusing the same Pride and Prejudice reference again, and again).

There is really not too much to say about this book without spoiling it (it’s a mystery after all), but if you like girls going mad, slow-burn+tension+banter, solving-a-mystery-together-trope, and paranormal mystery, then this book is definitely for you.

Every time this book gets another 5 star review a devil in hell gets their horns.

How this book has 4,69 stars, as of writing this, is beyond me.  I really wanted to love this book, but I just didn’t. And every time I see a review of people saying they were hooked and that this is the best fantasy novel they’ve read in a long time, I’m starting to question whether they are getting paid to say that, or if someone is holding a gun to their heads.

This book wasn’t haha this is so bad, the kind of book where I can laugh at how silly it is, but still enjoy reading it. This was just bad. I was so agonizingly bored this whole time reading it, the best part of this book was when I finally got to give it a 1 star review. I have many things that I want to point out.

A weak plot and high potential of plagiarism??
This plot was the epitome of predictable, I don’t mind a book that is a little predictable, it isn’t inherently bad. But this plot was literally the plot of Divergent but with dragons involved.

It was so painfully similar to divergent. A main character that is very petite, fragile, and weak? Check. Her having to make this big choice of what fraction/quadrant to attend? Check. Her choosing the one that’s athletic and military? Check. A broody buff guy in a high leader position (who first hates her and makes fun of her for being weak) as her love interest? Check. Her getting there and having people who hate her, and ultimately having an assassination attempt, but being saved by this “boyfriend” of hers? Check. Having two forgettable friends that don’t really matter to the story? Check. Her leaving that place and joining the rebellion? Check. I could honestly continue for forever.

Does a muscular guy with tan skin and black hair, who can wield shadows, and would do anything for his girl, sound familiar? Who also at first comes off as broody and uncaring at first, but then fittingly enough reveals the undying love he has felt for the main character since the day he laid his eyes on her? Cough… Rhysand …

Also, does a girl with brown hair, which fades to a gray at the ends, and who have the power of lightning, sound familiar? Well of course! That’s Mare Barrow, sorry, I mean Violet Sorrengail. Honestly, this one is really stealing someone’s brand (not only someone’s but our queen Victoria Aveyard’s).

Victoria Roth, Sarah J. Maas, and Victoria Aveyard, I’m just saying, get that bag…

The plot was weak. The stakes felt forced, which come on the author could easily do something to make the stakes high. I just couldn’t care less. She doesn’t want to go to war collage, which fine, I wouldn’t want to go to a school called war collage either. But since her mother happens to be some a general, she’s forcing her to. She really doesn’t want to go there, but does she do something about it? Does she try to join another quadrant? No. She just says that she has to go there, but she doesn’t really do anything about it. Overall the stakes were forced, which I found disengaging because I couldn’t bother to even try to care. The big revelation in the end wasn’t mind blowing.

The characters (…)
Every good story has one thing in common: well written characters. Which obviously this one didn’t have. If I had read this book without getting to know the age of the main character Violet, and someone asked me how old I think she is, I would have said perhaps 15 years, maximum, but if we’re only to considers her narrating I would say 13. But no she’s 20. This woman is so childish, and not in a way that makes her funny. I adore funny characters, whose narratives are a little unreliable (Percy Jackson I’m looking at you). However characters who say this (while being in mortal danger…):

“Even the diagonal scar that bisects his left eyebrow and marks the top corner of his cheek only makes him hotter. Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level.” Violet dear you just watched a bunch of people fall to their brutal and imminent death, and almost got murdered. But sure…

I doubt this book will age well, Violet speaks like a teenager on TikTok. These weird comments are very common in the book, she could be in danger or have very important things to do, but then make weird irrelevant and sexual remarks. I understand that it’s an attempt at humor, but it just felt very odd. This book was weirdly sexual when it wasn’t needed.

”You are not attracted to toxic men, I remind myself, and yet, here I am, getting all attracted.”

“Don’t mind her, she’s just sexually frustrated. Makes a girl crabby.” “I really need to get laid.”Neither comments were the feminist statement she thought they were…

“My mouth waters at the muscles expanse of his back and that sculpted ass.”…


Violet just wasn’t a memorable main character to me. She was supposed to be “smart” and “fast”, but that’s all her characteristics. Though honestly, I never got the impression that she was the smartest of her year, as they said countless of times in the book. She never had a moment when I adored her wits and was impressed by her intelligence. There was a lot of telling that she was smart, but no showing whatsoever. It’s not that she was dumb, she just wasn’t any smarter than anyone else.

Nor were the other main characters memorable.

Bad romantic subplot and bonding over their horny dragons??

This was the most mid romantic subplot I’ve ever read. It was supposed to be an enemies-to-lovers, because his father is the leader of the rebellion and her mother got him killed. Which means he wants her dead, fair enough. One second he hates her, and then he had always loved her. And she spent most the time  they spent together describing his sculpted ass.

Since their dragons are mated and they can feel everything their dragons can, both of them bonded over the intercourse of their dragons, because they could feel it themselves??? I’m not even going to… How did someone write that and think that it was a good idea. How did an editor read that and think it was fine?

“I feel like I’m in fucking fire.” That’s putting it mildly. “Yeah that happens.” I hate it when that happens :(

“I debate rubbing against him like a cat in heat while demanding he appease this unimaginable ache.”

I heard people describing this as slow burn… this was not slow burn. One moment they hated each other, the next they loved each other. It was built on pure attraction, and I couldn’t care less. I have nothing to say but that it was bad.

Horrendous world building
The first thing that set my alarm bells ringing reading this was the military school being called War Collage…

1.  No military school gets called that, it sounds extremely childish (which is a common theme through out this book)

2. It smells of poor world building (another common theme!). The author could have spent one more minute to come up with a better name. It’s so bland and boring, it doesn’t set the story out. Which is one of my problems with this book, she didn’t try to make it unique. Imagine J.K R*wling naming Hogwarts Magic School. Which honestly would have made more sense than War Collage.

The world building sucks, I know nothing of the kingdom she lives in. Rebecca Yarrows described like nothing in this book, but the love interests sculpted ass I felt so distant to the character and the images in my head have never been more blurry because she never described anything visually.

I’m actually impressed because the author manages to do the most stupid info dump I have ever read. I was just staring at my kindle not believing what I was seeing. As a way of distracting herself when in danger Violet would chant facts about her kingdom that she of course knows because she was a scribe, how convenient!! The next best thing about this books was skipping the info dumping Rebecca Yarrows would do in moments of suspense, because conveniently it calms Violet. This is so dumb, because you know, those moments are supposed to get a reader on the edge, I can’t come up with a better way to make make a suspenseful scene not suspenseful. I actually adore her for that.

Weird plot twist for shock value
Fourth Wing, seriously has the worst plot twist ever. Violet was mad her love interest Xaden had kept information from her and lied to her. Xaden swore he hadn’t lied to her. But then conveniently enough he reveals that he is the bestie of her older brother whom she thinks is dead and would do anything to see again, and he knows that?? Also, Xaden wanted to kill her in the beginning (which made them the enemies in enemies-to-lovers) because of who her mother was, but he was fine with her brother being the son of his father’s murderer?? Make it make sense.

This book was so bad, I would give it 0/5 stars if I could, I’m so happy that this torture is over.

This book was definitely a good sequel, I often find the second book in series to be quite weak, a means to an end—the last book, the ultimate climax. However I feel like this was a good second book.

 

 
I am still a little thrown off about the way Alina behaved, and how she and Mal grew a part. If she doesn’t get any character development, or something happens to her and Mal in the next book, I might lower my rating. I adore Nikolai, but I still think Alina and Mal should be the endgame. I am personally not a fan of a good build up of relationships, to then just introducing a new character, leaving the old love interest to rut. I also feel very bad for Mal.

I decided (as of this moment) to give this book 4,75 stars, while I can’t really come up with any complaints (as long as Alina’s behavior and her relationship with Mal will become worse), I want to save my 5 stars for other books. This book didn’t leave me satisfied, it left me on edge. Which I suppose might be good thing, because I’ll immediately start reading the sequel after finishing this review. I like Alina a lot, I don’t want to see her fall  apart any further.