Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Well, this was another popular title that I kept seeing over and over so I picked it up.  I have mixed feelings about it...

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can 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 mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.
After Mara survives the traumatizing accident at the old asylum, it makes sense that she has issues. She lost her best friend, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s sister, and as if that weren’t enough to cope with, her family moves to a new state in order to give her a fresh start. But that fresh start is quickly filled with hallucinations—or are they premonitions?—and then corpses, and the boundary between reality and nightmare is wavering. At school, there’s Noah, a devastatingly handsome charmer who seems determined to help Mara piece together what’s real, what’s imagined—and what’s very, very dangerous.

What I liked (no major spoilers):
The plot of this story was fresh and I didn't get that deja vu feeling that I had read something similar before. Noah was a charmer and I was into him right away.  I loved how he persisted until Mara could resist no more. The scene when Anna steals her sketch book and mocks her and Noah sweeps in and saves her is my favorite because I think this is the moment of change when she realizes that he doesn't think of her as just another conquest to add to his wall. The romance was perfect and not overdone or rushed in any way. 

I could completely relate to Mara's family and how torn they were.  Careful to keep a watchful eye on her behavior, continually worrying and hoping for the best but fearing the worst.  Daniel was ever the protective big brother and in my opinion, the one who had the most faith in her ability to overcome her issues. The writing was beautiful yet not too intricate.  I empathized with the characters and what they were going through, wishing I could fix things myself at times. Finally, I couldn't put this book down.  The story was a roller coaster of highs and lows. Twisted, weird, but completely engrossing.  Read it in one night.

What I wasn't so thrilled with:
This book was a little bit darker (in the depressing way) than I like.  I wanted more of a resolution at the end because I can't imagine having the power she has and being able to live with what I've done.  I don't know how the author is going to make having this ability positive in any way.  The final shocker at the end surprised me to say the least but can't decide if I like this new twist to the story.  I almost feel like they have enough to deal with, why add this?  I'm sure however, that the author will make it fit beautifully, even if I can't see it clearly right now.  I was torn about getting the second book because some of the reviews say it is even darker than the first but I think I have to read it just to see what happens.