Author: Michelle Hodkin

BOOK REVIEW : The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3) by Michelle Hodkin

BOOK REVIEW : The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3) by Michelle HodkinThe Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3)
by Michelle Hodkin
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

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

Now, Here’s how you should end a trilogy.

Reviewing this book without any spoiler?

Well, I guess I’ll do what I can.

Can I remind you something? The sequel was very confusing. Awesome, but you know, it was this kind of plot, when we don’t understand anything. I must admit, I was afraid that Michelle Hodkin lost us in her final, and guess what?! I couldn’t have been more wrong. Because the only thing I can say is the plot ended to be very well-wrapped and even if I didn’t get all the answers I was waiting for, that was good enough for that wonderful mystery.

“One scalpel (held)
One tape recorder (held)
One human eye (brown) (held)
One blood-soaked surgical gown (worn)
One gold Rolex (worn)
I really wished the stupid hospital gown had pockets.”

Let me be short : I got shivers from the beginning to the end. Some parts were so creepy I had to stop reading to breathe, frightened under my blanket like a middle-grade child. Yet it isn’t an horror book, nah, but it contains the exact amount of tension and angst to make me worry all the freaking time – and especially at the beginning. Brrrr. What a rude rude world to live in.

Concerning the characters, that final book kept the flaws present since the very first book in my opinion : That is to say, the relative hollowness of the secondary characters. Of course Stella and Jamie are here, but, you know, I never really cared about them. Maybe that’s just me, but I think Michelle Hodkin failed to improve their characterization unfortunately. It didn’t affect me though, because I utterly enjoyed the fact Mara was finally able to evolve. Freed from her whining or annoying I’m guilty inner monologues, our heroine became much more interesting for me. A bad guy? Let’s kill him, dammit!


Hey, Mom, I’ve been tortured and experimented upon, but don’t worry because my tormenters are dead. Because, P.S., I killed them.

Of course Noah was my hero – even if I was waiting for him a ridiculous amount of time. His personality started to grow in the sequel and he ended to be that multi-layered man whose actions we can’t always understand and let me say, that’s f*cking great, because he’s never, ever boring. Oh, and because he speaks french! That’s amazing, isn’t it? Say it. That totally is.

As for the writing, I found it addictive as usual : Whereas I wanted to savor it, I couldn’t fail to eat that beautiful book. Of course it wasn’t perfect : we came through a cheesy crisis at some point, and I found myself wanting to roll my eyes, but what can I say? I can forgive Noah everything.

“Would I trade one of them to have Noah back?
Would I trade all of them to have him back?
I was stripped of all illusions, about this and myself. I knew without thinking that the answer was yes.”

BOOK REVIEW – The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle Hodkin

BOOK REVIEW – The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle HodkinThe Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1)
by Michelle Hodkin
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

*sighs* I don’t know what went wrong here…and there really isn’t much I can say to justify why I feel this way without throwing a spoiler in every two sentences.

Was the plot line intriguing? Yes. Did I enjoy the first half of the book? Yup. Was the male lead undeniably sweet, attentive, and attractive? Absolutely. But here is the most important question of them all: Was Noah the ONLY thing that made me want to finish after 65%? It’s sad to say, but it rings true. Noah is literally the only thing this story had to offer. I was fooled by the first 100 some pages, I’ll admit that. There was cute banter between Mara and Noah and I thought this might turn out to be kind of fun. I mean, I chuckled a couple times to myself so I’ll admit that also. But the point remains-at a certain area in this book, and I’m not sure when, Mara went from being a poor, tolerable girl suffering from unfortunate circumstances to an annoying (let’s admit it) psycho who quite frankly was too dumb to deserve Noah and his help.

More than once I wished Noah could be taken out of this story and placed into another more well-rounded novel. But then we wouldn’t have a story at all, would we?

The dialogue became corny and forced, and the situations became so…I don’t even know the word….wonky? That I could hardly contain my laughter. (view spoiler)

The thing is, I feel that what can only be described as a cliffhanger was supposed to save the story. You know, make people want to come back for more. But sadly, while it was kinda cool (if not completely silly and unrealistic) it wasn’t enough to save what I can only label as a time waster. Yes, I wasted 4 days wading through this swamp of crap and have nothing to show for it. And more than that? I can’t stand the thought of spending 9.99 on the next installment, even if I was a little curious about this mysterious cliffhanger and the fate of Noah.

And believe me when I say this: Kris-If it wasn’t for you, reason numero dos, I most likely wouldn’t have kept going. So, yeah, thanks for not making this a total waste of time…essentially. lol

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