Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Retribution of Mara Dyer

Michelle Hodkin

(Mara Dyer #3)

Publication Date: November 4, 2014

Hardcover, 470 pages, Simon & Schuster

Genres: YA, Paranormal/Sci-Fi

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Mara Dyer wants to believe there's more to the lies she’s been told.

There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.

She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.

She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.

My Review

Mara Dyer has not been having a good past couple of months. She’s been haunted by a supposedly dead ex-boyfriend, committed to a psych ward, and even been forced to start a new high school. But now, Mara might face her greatest challenge yet, escaping from a place that no one knows about and, more importantly, finding answers about who she is.

This last book in the Mara Dyer trilogy leaves no room for quiet thought. There’s one event after another, after another, and they keep piling on and building until… Actually, the events never really come to a reasonable and thought-out conclusion. Things just happen, and the reasons for them seem a little shoddy, especially since hardly any tangible answers are given.

Mara herself is similar to the plot. She doesn’t know what’s happening to her and she’s just not sure how to go about finding this out, so she does what every teenager who has developed bizarre powers does: she goes on a quest of sorts with some new and old friends to find out who she is.

The writing of the book is the typical haunting and peculiar type of writing Michelle Hodkin has always used in this trilogy to keep readers on the edge of their seats and it most definitely works. Despite the terrifying-ness and haunting-ness of Michelle’s words, this book was too easy. What does this mean? It means that Mara had no real trouble she had to encounter to get answers. Throughout the book it was apparent that if Mara and her crew wanted to figure something out, all they had to do was wait for me to turn two or three pages. They didn’t have to dig very deep. Additionally, things are just confusing at times. Yes, there’s a lot of action in this book, but that action is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that there is no apparent logic in the decisions and revelations that were sometimes made. There needs to be more drawn-out answers.

All in all, this series-ender is an action-packed, creepy story that, while it may have some holes in it,—much like Mara’s own mind—will provide a satisfying ending to the series.

**Note: I borrowed a copy of this book to review from the Book Review Board of Missouri.