The ornate script on the board twisted in the candlelight, making the letters and numbers dance in my head. They were jumbled and indistinct, like alphabet soup. When Claire pushed the heart-shaped piece into my hand, I startled. I wasn't normally so twitchy, and hoped Rachel wouldn't notice. The Ouija board was her favorite present that night, and Claire gave it to her. I got her a bracelet. She wasn't wearing it.
Seventeen-year old Mara Dyer used to be a typical teenage girl. That was before three of her friends were killed. In the hospital she learned that she and her friends were in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, The Tamerlane. The building crushed, killing her friends, leaving Mara unharmed.
She has no memory of even going to the hospital.
"You have to tell me," I begged,
my throat filled with ash.
My mother looked at me with glassy eyes
and a heartbroken face.
"I would if I could, Mara.
But you're the only one who knows."
Eight weeks after the tragedy, Mara's family moved from Rhode Island to Miami, Florida. One her first day of school without her best friend, Rachel, she is filled with anxiety. She sees Rachel and Claire, and hears Jude's laughter. Rachel, Jude, and Claire are her friends that were killed. She knows they are hallucinations.
She also meets a Noah Shaw, a boy with a reputation.
Mara begins to remember what happened that terrible night in Rhode Island.
I woke in the middle of the night with a scream in my throat and an anchor in my chest, soaked in sweat and terror. I remembered. I remembered. The flood of recognition was almost painful.
The dream - the memory - kept replaying itself on a loop, disturbing me more than it should have. Why now, all of a sudden? What could I do about it? What should I do about it?
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer witnesses the memories coming back to Mara about that night in the asylum, questions the connection she has with Noah Shaw, and forces the reader to wonder about other aspects of the story that were left hanging. The book trailer doesn't have anything to do with the story, either does the dust jacket. I found it interesting, but scary, the first two-thirds of the book. The final part felt like an entirely different read.
The book finishes with
end of volume one
I suppose we can expect volume two soon...
Rating: 2 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual suggestion, sexual inference, tobacco usage, Ouija board
To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!
