The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer – book one
Mara Dyer (not her real name) was the only survivor of a
building collapse that killed her friends Rachel and Clare and her boyfriend
Jude, who was Claire’s brother. She doesn’t remember how she got there or what
happened, only waking up in the hospital. Upon her release, she suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder. Rachel had been her best friend since the first
day of kindergarten. Claire and Jude were recent arrivals to their Rhode Island
town. Mara psychologist suggested that she be placed in a long term care
facility. Her mother, also a psychologist, agreed by her father the lawyer did
not. Instead she asks her family to move away. Everything in her life, her
house, her school reminds her of Rachel. The family moves to Florida to start over.
No matter what, Mara’s mother hovers over her, always worrying and looking for
signs that she isn’t coping.
Mara and her older brother Daniel transfer to the exclusive
Croyden Academy for the Arts and Sciences mid-trimester, late for their first
day, Mara retrieves their schedules while Daniel reassures their mother on the
phone. The siblings go their separate ways after Mara reassures her brother
that she will be fine. Lost on the sprawling campus, she finds the vending
machines before she can locate her Algebra class. Having left the house without
eating breakfast, Mare digs out her last two quarters to but a package of
M&Ms. The package becomes stuck. Mara gets frustrated but she hears a voice
with a British accent talking to her. She turns around and sees a gorgeous, disheveled
boy smiling at her. Looking to see if there is someone else behind her, the boy
is gone when she looks back. A girl and boy walk by her then and the girls
tells her to “watch it.” Explaining that she is a new student, Mara heads off
to class.
Dreading walking into class late and drawing attention to her,
Mara experiences the first of several hallucinations that day when she walks
in. completely unprepared for it, she ends up falling to the floor, busting her
nose. Not the way she wanted to make a first impression, the teacher excuses
her to the bathroom to clean up. Looking in the mirror, she sees Claire’s face
instead of her own, rattling her even more. Pulling herself back together, she
heads back to class where she is miserable until the bells rings. Alone at
lunch, Mara sees and hears Jude. Distressed, she opens the first door she finds
and by chance, it is her Spanish classroom. Her teacher proceeds to belittle
her in front of everyone.
At the end of class, a quirky boy asks her how she is doing.
He is also in her Algebra class and introduces himself as Jamie Roth. Fine
really except the girl who made the rude comment earlier. Anna, Jamie says
after Mara describes her. He then asks her if she went near Noah Shaw.
Describing the boy with her, Jamie tells he that is Aiden Davis, Anna’s
boyfriend before she dated Noah and Aiden came out of the closet. Supposedly,
Noah dropped Anna after dating only a couple of weeks and he supposedly
Croyden’s resident womanizer. Mara realizes that she has just made her first
friend at Croyden.
When Mara’s mother picks her up after school, she sees the
dried blood on Mara’s neck. She lies that it was just a nose bleed but her
mother doesn’t buy it. Mara keeps the hallucinations to herself. Mother and
daughter ride home in silence. Mara heads to her room and her mother leaves her
home until dinner. On the evening news, there is a story about Jordana Palmer,
a murdered tenth grader and the possibility of new evidence. Mara briefly
hallucinates that the story is about her friends’ deaths in Rhode Island and
asks to turn off the TV.
The next morning in AP English, Mara discovers that she has
already covered the material her new teacher is about to go over. When the
teacher asks a question, Mara is the only person to raise their hand. The
teacher calls on Mara but a British accented voice calls out the answer
instead. The teacher reprimands Noah and Mara realizes the voice belongs to the
notorious Noah Shaw. To the teacher’s delight, Mara and Noah begin a spirited
debate over the answer. When the teacher moves on, Mara pulls out her copy of Lolita to read rather than listen to the
lecture.
Trying to get out of class when the bell rings, Mara
inadvertently knocks over her chair. Noah quickly helps her. When she drops her
books in the hallway, he stops to help again. He comments on her choice of
reading material. Soon, Mara is hurling insults at Noah but he is amused.
Heading towards Algebra class, Mara realizes that she is having a hard time
getting Noah Shaw out of her head.
Mara begins to have the same reoccurring nightmare where she
remembers how she ended up being with her friends the nigh they died. Arriving
at school early one morning, she goes for a walk to clear her head. She hears
whimpering and finds a severely abused dog cowering in a yard. Trying to help
it, the owner finds her. They exchange words and he chases her off. Thinking
bad thoughts about the owner, she runs back to school, making it just in time
for English class. When class is over, she bumps into Anna. Anna makes a nasty
comment to Mara and Noah quickly comes to her defense. He follows Mara to her
next class, trying to make conversation the entire way. Noah sits next to her
in Algebra class even though he isn’t a student in it. Noah stares at her
though the entire class while Anna sits seething.
After reporting the abused dog to animal control, Mara goes
after school to see if it has been picked up. When she reaches the house, she
sees police cars and an ambulance. Mara scans the yard looking for the dog when
she sees the owner dead. His death is exactly the same way she imagined it that
morning. It should be impossible and she goes into shock. While being checked
out by an EMT, she overhears the police talk about how the dog will be put
down. Not wanting that to happen, Mara sneaks away with the dog while no one is
watching. In bad shape, Mara knows that she must get the dog to the nearest
vet. Carrying it back to her car, she runs into Noah in the parking lot. He is
quite nasty to her until he realizes that she is trying to get the dog help.
Noah takes the dog from her and says that there is a vet close by. Mara goes
with him and is surprised to find out that his mother is the vet. She discovers
that she really doesn’t know who Noah Shaw is.
What happened the night Mara’s friends died in Rhode Island?
Why has she suppressed the memories from that night? Did Mara inadvertently
have something to do with the do owner’s death? Who is Noah Shaw? Can finding
love help Mara solve the mystery that is now her life before someone else gets
hurt?
Twists and turns abound for Mara as she attempts to figure
out what is real and what is imagined.
The Evolution of Mara Dyer – book two
SPOILER ALERT! Don’t
read any further if you haven’t read The
Unbecoming of Mara Dyer in its entirety.
Mara has been temporarily committed to a hospital; psychiatric
unit after her breakdown following the events of her father’s trial. Angry with
her parents, she quickly realizes that if she convinces everyone that she only
suffers from PTSD and knows her hallucinations aren’t real, she wouldn’t be
committed to an inpatient facility. Only Noah believes her when she says that
Jude is alive and behind some of the things happening to her. When her mother
breaks down that she only wants Mara well and not to end up like her mother,
she begins to realize that her abilities/curses are possibly genetic. Playing on
her parents’ guilt, Noah helps convince them that the unit isn’t safe. Mara knows
that she must go to an outpatient program instead.
Mara is pleasantly surprised to find her friend Jamie Roth
in the same program as herself, but that seems to be the only upside. Never allowed
alone, her father takes her to and from the program. Daniel must accompany her
but Noah is allowed to stay in her life. On quite friendly terms with the Dyer
family, Noah knows Mara’s mother approves of his presence in Mara’s life but
her father does question his motives. Determined to help the girl he loves,
Noah Shaw will stop at nothing to uncover the mysteries surrounding Mara and
himself.
Is Jude really alive and terrorizing Mara or is he just a
hallucination? Does Mara’s grandmother play a part in what she is going
through? Where do Noah’s abilities come from? Can Mara ever earn her family’s
trust again? And what happens when Mara discovers that Noah is still keeping
secrets from her?
With suspense, mystery, surprising revelations and a killer
cliffhanger, readers will be clamoring for the final book, The Retribution of Mara Dyer, due out October 22, 2013.
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