The Girl in a Cafe

Disturbing, creepy and enthralling are three words I could use to describe The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. In a good way. This has been on my to be read shelf for a long time, and when I saw it in Waterstones, I couldn’t resist getting my copy and reading it straight away.From the first page, I was hooked. I had no idea what to really expect - my original thoughts was that Mara was just being haunted by her dead friends, but this book is so much more than that.Mara Dyer doesn’t know how she’s ended up in hospital. Or how her best friend Rachel, her boyfriend Jude and his sister Claire ended up dead. Wanting to put everything behind her, Mara convinces her parents and brothers to move far away to Miami (sidenote - has anyone else noticed that Miami is trending right now in YA fiction? I’ve read like, five books all set in Miami!) where no-one knows what happened. Yet being the new girl, Mara automatically draws attention - both good and bad. Especially where one Noah Shaw is concerned (cue swooning). Something is happening to Mara though - she’s seeing things. Her dead friends. People dying - and then they actually start dying. And Mara’s not sure what’s real and what’s not anymore. The Unbecoming is a long read. 400 odd pages, off the top of my head. However, this is one book you get so sucked into, you don’t want to put it down. I have to admit, there were times that I found myself lost and having to re-read a couple of pages because things jumped so quickly. Then you think you’ve figured out the plot when WHAM! Something changes, and all of a sudden that prologue starts to make sense. Mara as a character was very likeable. She had a great relationship with her brothers, and a not so great one with her parents, which may seem normal to begin with, but with all the PTSD, her mother thinks she’s crazy and is distant with her and her father is MIA because he’s too busy working on a court case. Mara is flawed - which makes her more realistic. She’s complex , but her way of thinking is exactly like mine. It’s hard to describe if you haven’t read the book, and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone!Just don’t read this book late at night. I was convinced I was seeing things at one stage!My only problem with the book was that it didn’t really seem to be going anywhere. Then I found out that there’s a second book due out, and I literally cannot wait. Until then, I don’t know how I am going to cope. With an ending that rivals any of Cassandra Clare’s books (and she holds the title for cliffhangers!), The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer left me with a whole bunch of emotions!