Sitting in a hospital room not knowing why you’re there might seem like the most confusing thing in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, but actually the entire structure of the book ends up beating it out.

Mara Dyer wakes up in a hospital room with no memory of anything or anyone. The doctors tell her that there was a horrible accident that left her mentally handicapped. After the accident her family, mother and father left, decide to start over in. They move to a new town, get new jobs, and Mara starts at a new high school her sophomore year.

Oddly enough, after the year begins and and she begins to make new friends, her memories start to resurface. After her memories begin to come back, people around her begin to drop like flies for odd reasons. In the beginning pages the reader begins to think about all the possible outcomes for the book, but the writer, Martha Hodkin, falls short of creating climaxing scenarios and riveting characters.

After a few pages in the story begins to lack a protagonist and a set storyline. During the story it switches back from areas of scenes from Paranormal Activity to full-blown Twilight.  After she arrives at her new school, she is immediately befriended by the hottest guy in school, Noah, and the single weirdest kid in school, Jamie. She cannot make any other friends because of the love interest between Mara and Noah. There is no originality within the storyline from other books published about teenage love and mental illnesses.

Also, the author does not  want to just focus on the connection between the two main characters so she decides to throw in another problem that came with the horrific accident at the beginning of the story: terrible hallucinations. As time goes on, she begins to see things that are not there that make her begin to feel very different.

As a writer, the author should have known the book needed more of a set storyline and also a more original theme. I personally would not recommend this to anyone who likes conflict, organization, or any type of good writing.