REVIEW: The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Mara Dyer

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

My rating: 

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.
She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head.
They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.
She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

"I didn't think you had to make the choice you said you made then. But if I did have to choose between someone I love and a stranger, I would choose the one I love."

REACTION AFTER READING THE BOOK

I have mixed feelings about is book.

On one hand, I liked all the scary bits, where Mara gets taunted by all these weird happenings, dreams, and creepy bloody messages. But on another hand, I feel totally torn, that I sort of guessed how this book was going to end. Or at least this specific book, not the series.

It was suspenseful, but only towards the last part of the book.

There were a lot of things that happened in this book, that made me extremely angry. No, it's not about Mara. Mara was fine, not in her most admirable state, but she wasn't my problem. It was the people around her that I hated.

Anways, before I go any further, let's go to the summary shall we?

HOW IT BEGINS

I woke up on the morning of some day in some hospital to find a stranger sitting in my room.

THE GIST

Like the first book, this one starts with Mara in a hospital again.

She seems to have a thing for hospitals. Anyways, yeah, this story starts of with Mara at a hospital, with someone who she doesn't know watching over her. She had no recollection about what happened before ending up in the hospital. She does remember some things, which I'm not going to mention because its a spoiler for the first book, but other than those little details, she cannot remember.

After talking to the stranger in her room, she finds out that she has been involuntarily admitted by her parents... I'm sure you guys guessed it by now... to a psychward, only with a fancier name. LOL. So then, her mum visits and she's very apologetic about why she was here and blah blah blah... She starts to remember and tells her about what happened and why she acted all crazy, but her mum, did not believe her. As usual. fuck that shit

I'm not going to go into more details about this because most of it are spoilers from the first book. But what this book mainly focuses on was, Mara being part of this school-like program where she gets the "treatment" she needs to cure her of her psychosis and delusions.

Aside from Mara's treatment sessions and occasional nightmares, more secrets get revealed on why she and Noah are different. On why they have the abilities that they have.

More secrets are revealed. Yey!! Not really.

THE CHARACTERS

Mara

For some reason, I didn't feel as connected to Mara on this book. I understand that a lot of things have been happening around her, and she couldn't grasp on what is real and what isn't, because of all the people around her who believes she's really crazy. You see her struggle with controlling herself. You see her most of the time, win against her fear. But, I feel she has become too dependent on Noah.

"Without Noah, I would be truly completely alone in this. My father might be right. If I lost Noah, I might just lose my mind."

There was a lot of "Noah this", "Noah that", "Can't wait to see Noah", "I need Noah". And No girl. Just no. You have to battle your own monsters girl. Noah can't do all of that for you. I know he promised you that he will protect you, but he can't always be there. I get why she's gotten so dependent on him. It's because he's the only one who believes in her, and I get that. But she crossed over that bar of being too dependent.

But on a positive note, I think this is one Michelle Hodkin's way to arc Mara's character and prepare her for the last book, and I applaud that. It's very risky, because it could make or break a readers interest in reading the last book.

All in all, Mara wasn't at all bad. It just wasn't my thing to be honest. I prefer my characters to be weak at first then get better, that starting strong, dipping low, then going back up again. Just personal preference.

Noah

I still love Noah. His character is constant, and I liked that. He has so much self-control and I really admire that. But, he hid a lot more things from Mara on this book and that kind of got him a bit of a shake of the head. I don't get why male characters do that. They make their love interest look weak. It's like they don't trust them to take in a bad news or event.

However, Noah takes matter into his own hands. His overprotective side was perfect. Overprotectiveness usually is a bad thing for me, but in this case, he had every reason to be. There's a crazy person who's scaring the shit out of his girlfriend... he should be overprotective. Right?

The Other Characters

I have to start of with saying I love seeing Jaime back. I think it's one of the things that made me happy in this book.

Second thing, I want to say that I hate Mara's parents. I hate them so bad. The things they said, and the things they do and how ignorant they were to the entire thing when part of the secret has been revealed. I hated that. Hate. Hate. Hate.

The ghost is a prick. He's not really a ghost but yeah... He's a douche. A stupid person. A violent maniac. Enough said.

And I don't trust those doctors.

THE ROMANCE

I think this is one of the reasons I couldn't give this sequel 5 stars. There was a lot of push and pull going on between Noah and Mara. I liked how their conversations go, especially when they're being silly and teasing each other, but the other aspects, like their togetherness as a couple, it worried me.

Noah didn't want to push Mara. Mara wanted to be pushed. So... See my problem here?

HIGHLIGHTS

- I still found most of the parts that were creepy, were really creepy. I liked the atmosphere the author made when it was on those scenes.

- The characters were all three dimensional. None of them fell flat and unnecessary. Everyone played their roles well. Especially the antagonists. They really made me hate them.

- Noah Shaw. He yet again, gains a whole point just for existing on this book.

- Jude. I hate that person to bits. And that makes him a great antagonist.

- And that cover. It looks so pretty. All of the covers for this series is pretty.

LOWLIGHTS

- This book was pretty slow. Everything about it was slow. I feel that it dragged on some parts and moved too fast on others, like the ending. It dwelt so much on the "let's-scare-mara" part that it completely forgot that I need more information on the "why-this-was-happening-to-mara" part.

- Questions were answered, but too abruptly. I felt that there should have been more time for us to digest what was happening and not just dumping all the information, just to make it at least a bit fast-paced. Nooooo.

- The dreams were completely confusing. I hated those. Maybe I'm just stupid, I dunno, but I didn't like those bits. I didn't get what they signified.

- The conclusion was revealed in a choppy way. For me at least. The author thrown a bit of information here, then a bit of information again here. Then a big information here. I get that. I think it was there for the suspense part, but... I feel the information was still... lacking.

- It was so damn predictable. I knew about Jude. I knew about the other antagonists. I knew that there were reasons why Jaime was back. I knew what that stupid girl who I will not mention about was doing.

FINAL RAMBLINGS

I reread The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer just shortly before I read this so I could easily compare the two. And I could honestly say, that I liked the first book better in every regard. It was good, but not as good as the first one, hence, the four star rating.

I just didn't think everything wrapped up perfectly. I feel there were plenty of plot holes. I get that this is the second book and everything is not supposed to be revealed on this book, but I want something concrete at least and I didn't get that. All I got was, a lot of tiny things that is supposed to make sense, but didn't for me.

I wish I liked this book better. I delved into this book with high expectations. Too high though. And I wish I didn't.

Will I be reading the last book? Maybe. Or maybe I will, but not right now. It's not at the top of my priority right now.

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