Lady Danielle

Conceivably, I was prepared to hate this book (I mean, I sharpened my knives and gathered my pitchforks, people!). I even grabbed a notebook and a pencil. I was thatprepared. The book started off with a kick (usually all books do), but it continued to wow me and I found it hard to let this book go. I stayed up till four in the morning to finish the very last page. This goes to show I can't let the negative ratings control my decisions. Sure, this had some fatal flaws, but at the end of the day everything has a hamartia. 

Waking up in a hospital with tubes in you with no memory as to how you got there and finding out you're the only person who knows what happened to your friends is hard. But having hallucinations and seeing your dead friends is harder. This is what Mara Dyer has to deal with. On top of that, she moved away from everything and everyone she's ever known to an entirely new state, town, and school. Let's add that on her 'my life sucks' list.

[...] I tuned him out while shovelling some basmati rice onto my plate. I'd already taken a bite when I noticed something fall through the prongs of my fork. Something small. Something pale.
Something moving.
White maggots writhed on the porcelain, half drowned in curry. I covered my mouth.
"You okay?" Daniel asked, then ate a forkful of rice.
I looked at him wide-eyed with my mouth still full, and then back down at my food. No maggots. Just rice. 

The writing in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was hauntingly amazing and vivid. This is one of those books-that-linger kind of books, and talk about that ending ! My heart is still racing. I am definitely picking up the next book to see what happens. A lot of people saw Noah as the jerk, the douchebag and then some. I didn't see him as any of those. On the contrary, I thought he was pretty awesome. Let me also add this was not an insta-love story, thank God.

About those flaws... here's why I'm not giving this 5 stars:
*After meeting Noah, Mara did stray away of finding out what happened the night her friends died and how she woke up in the hospital with only minor bruises.
*Jamie - the Black. Jewish. Bisexual. 
*The clichéd bad boy meets new girl story (we've read it all before in Twilight, Obsidian, etc.). 
*Though I loved the romance, I hate that it kind of took over the whole premise of the book.

In the end, I still place this book in my favourites shelf. This was a breathtaking debut. It'll mind-boggle you, scare you, and sweep you off your feet. The story begins with Mara, Rachel, and Claire playing with a Ouija Board....

"Ask it how you're going to die, Rachel."
"How am I going to die?"
We looked at each other as the piece moved under our hands. It semi-circled the board, sailing past A through K, and crept past L.
It settled on M.
"Murder?" Claire's voice was soaked with excitement.
The piece glided in the wrong direction. Away from U and R.
Landing on A.
The piece zigzagged across the board...
R.
We remained silent. Our eyes didn't leave the board as the piece jerked back to the beginning.
To A.
Then stopped.
We waited for the piece to point out the next letter, but it remained still. After three minutes, Rachel and Claire withdrew their hands. I felt them watching me.
Six months later, they were both dead.