Review: The Evolution of Mara Dyer

The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) by Michelle Hodkin
Age Range: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Date Published: October 23, 2012
Pages: 544
Buy Links:
Amazon | Book Depository

Blurb:

Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past. She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren’t.

She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

♥♥♥

This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the Mara Dyer series. My review for it can be found here.


I jumped right into this second book right after finishing Unbecoming and now and find that I enjoyed this book so much that I almost want to lower my rating of the first one to represent how much more I loved the second book. Evolution picks up shortly after the ending of the previous book with Mara placed in a psychiatric care facility following her freak out at seeing Jude alive and in Miami. This book dials up the creepy immensely. With even bigger hallucinations and connections to family history. Troubles with animals and instead of the nightmare of high school Mara has to deal with group therapy where the mean girl is an actual psychopath.

The only way Mara can make it through is to make sure everyone believes that she does believe that Jude is dead. The only person she can be truthful with is Noah. They look for answers as to what they really are with some surprising discoveries that the two of them have more in common than they thought.

I’m a big fan of how the romance wasn’t in the spotlight as, it made me enjoy those parts more when they weren’t taking over so much of the plot like in the first book. This allowed for greater character development of Mara and the struggle she has to understand what is real and what isn’t real. This also left me feeling like I couldn’t trust what she thought was happening either. While it’s understood that there is definitely something supernatural going on with Mara it was interesting how easily everything fit into descriptions from psychiatric diagnoses (witch trials anyone?).

This book also really brings a good ending that left me wishing I had waited until the third book was out before I started.