Sunday Series Review: The Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin

Today Kim is reviewing The Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin. She enjoyed this series!

Books in the Series:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
The Evolution of Mara Dyer
The Retribution of Mara Dyer


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Published: September 11, 2011
456 Pages

Mara Dyer believes life can’t 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 strangely unharmed.
There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer
Published:
October 23, 2012
545 Pages

Mara Dyer knows she isn’t crazy. She knows that she can kill with her mind, and that Noah can heal with his. Mara also knows that somehow, Jude is not a hallucination. He is alive. Unfortunately, convincing her family and doctors that she’s not unstable and doesn’t need to be hospitalised isn’t easy. The only person who actually believes her is Noah. But being with Noah is dangerous and Mara is in constant fear that she might hurt him. She needs to learn how to control her power, and fast! Together, Mara and Noah must try and figure out exactly how Jude survived when the asylum collapsed, and how he knows so much about her strange ability…before anyone else ends up dead!

The Retribution of Mara Dyer
Published: November 4, 2014
470 Pages

Mara Dyer wants to believe there’s more to the lies she’s been told.
There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.
She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.
She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.


Kim’s Rating of the Series: 4 Stars

Kim’s Review:

I have been wanting to read this trilogy for years, and finally, I got the whole series for Christmas! I couldn’t wait any longer, so I read Mara Dyer as soon as 2019 hit. I mostly enjoyed this trilogy. It wasn’t so much creepy as it was intense. I found myself sympathizing with Mara, she had to go thru some pretty horrible stuff, and overall, I was impressed with how she handled everything. There were a couple of typical idiot teenager things, but those didn’t bother me. I am constantly astounded by how dumb teens think adults are . . . HA! A majority of the time, if teens would just go to their parents, the problems would be solved!

To be fair, not all of Mara’s problems were that simple, so I let her off the hook! I really loved Noah, but even he fell into that “oh I love you and I’ll always love you” thing that teens are famous for. He was a strong character and he showed a lot of maturity and helped Dara out quite a bit. The story absolutely wouldn’t have been the same without him. Jamie was easily my favorite character of the whole series! He cracked me up and without him, the story wouldn’t have worked! He brought a realistic and even skeptical perspective that made everything more believable.

Unfortunately, I cannot give 5 stars to the series. The first two books got 5 stars each, but Retribution only got three. The ending was so anticlimactic! There were loose strings that were never addressed and almost no closure. I was really disappointed! The journey was far better than the destination. And this series had everything going for it! The pacing was perfect! The story just flowed from one book to another. But the ending ruined it . . . so sad! I would definitely save this series for older teens; some mature elements. But would recommend this series to anyone looking for an intense, psychological read, just skip the ending! 😀

Purchase Links:
The Mara Dyer Trilogy
Amazon US
Amazon UK