Posts Categorized: michelle hodkin

Becca Fitzpatrick Provo Library Event

13 Oct, 2011 by in Heather Gardner Photography, michelle hodkin, provo city library, simon schuster 4 comments

Tuesday I got to see four amazing YA authors as part of a Provo Library event. Moira Young, author of Blood Red Road, Becca Fitzpatrick, author of Silence, Michelle Hodkin, author of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and Elana Johnson, author of Possession. All four answered questions from the audience, over 150 fans in attendance. Becca Fitzpatrick unveiled a new Silence poster featuring Patch and Nora and assured us book four will be in fact the end of the series. Her inspiration for becoming a YA writer came from the book “Speak ” by Laurie Halse Anderson. Becca’s other favorite writers include Ally Condie, Kristin Cashore and Kiersten White. Elana Jonson announced that Possession will be a three part series, with two more books being written in differing points of view than the first. All of the authors were incredibly personable and kind in the Utah Book Blogger after party. While signing my advanced reading copy of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin told me the ARC is in fact different from the finished copy. There is one word missing from the ARC that may make the sequel hard to understand as well as missing paragraphs. She made me oh so curious… Here are some of my photos from the event.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer Review and T-Shirt Giveaway

27 Sep, 2011 by in michelle hodkin, simon schuster, tshirt giveaway, who is mara dyer 19 comments

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
by Michelle Hodkin
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published: September 27th 2011
by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
ISBN 1442421762
book source: BEA
3 stars

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.

Hmmmm. This is one of those really hard reviews to write because there is so much you can’t say! Plus the plot of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is shrouded in mystery and suspense and I want to keep it that way. So here’s what I will say…

What I liked: The cover is a five. Wow. Beautiful. I could frame it! The author is awesome. I met her at BEA and she responds well to her fans.

This book sucked me in because I love psychological thrillers. Mara is dealing with some heavy duty issues such as PTSD and hallucinations which I really like to see addressed so openly in YA literature. I have a love-hate relationship with both the main characters. Mara has quite the trashy mouth which for me is hard to read. I like that she tells it like she sees it, just maybe not so colorfully. Main bad boy Noah was the love ’em leave ’em type before Mara came along. Even though I seriously wonder why both of them acted the way they did at times I was still rooting for them. By far the best character of the book was Mara’s brother Daniel. It is so refreshing to see a good strong sibling relationship!

What didn’t I like? There were some holes in plot and at times I was scratching my head wondering what in the world was going on. Santaria? The missing shop and priest?
Where did Mara’s best friend Jaime go- I mean I know he was grounded…but? Didn’t enjoy the paranormal elements. Also a little too much foreshadowing for my taste.

I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. So…I predict this book will be huge. While it was captivating, I still personally have very mixed feelings about it. In short, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is steeping in eery atmospheric undertones. It’s definitely one you’ll read all in one sitting.

Content- heavy swearing and violence, sexual tension and violence, petting, underage smoking. Not recommended for younger teens.

Find author Michelle Hodkin on her website here. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for the advanced reading copy!

Fire and Ice is giving away one “Who is Mara Dyer” black t-shirt courtesy of author Michelle Hodkin to our readers. To enter to win fill out this form. Giveaway is open internationally and ends October 11, 2011.

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