WARNING: THIS BOOK TALK CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
WHAT. THE HECK. DID I JUST READ.
WHAT. THE HECK. DID I JUST READ.
WOW. WOW WOW WOW WOW AND WOW.
I'M- I'M SPEECHLESS.
I HAVE A RAGING HURRICANE OF EMOTIONS INSIDE ME RIGHT NOW. THEY WON'T STOP. I DON'T KNOW WHEN THEY WILL STOP. PROBABLY NOT UNTIL I READ THE LAST BOOK OF THIS TRILOGY.
On a much calmer note now, let me break down things that happened in this book.
Poor Mara was involuntarily committed. Imagine what's it like, to have been scared and threatened by the ex-boyfriend-whom-you-thought-was-dead-but-later-found-out-that-he-isn't, only to wake up to find that everyone thought you were crazy and insane and needed serious help immediately, including your parents. Even Daniel, Mara's brother, who to me, was the most second-trusted person in the book after Noah, thought that Mara was deluding herself.
NO ONE BELIEVED MARA THAT JUDE WAS ALIVE AND WALKING.
When Daniel told Mara that they only found Jude's hands, my blood ran cold. So what does this mean then? I believed, as Mara also believed, that Jude wasn't dead. He was out there. At first I thought, oh, well it could've been anyone's hands. Afterwards, I realized that it meant that they still never found his body. Which was enough verification that Jude was alive.
I felt so bad for Mara. I desperately wanted someone to believe her and help her. Unfortunately, now Daniel was also out of the equation, too. Which now leaves Noah as the only person who can really help Mara.
That idea that Noah used to get Mara out of the psychiatric unit? Genius. And so Noah-like.
I'm glad that we get to see more of Noah this time in the book -not like we didn't get enough of him in book one, but you can never have too much of Noah!- because I also wanted to see whether they could think of something that involved both of their special abilities, that they could work together and Mara could get better control of herself.
This creepy girl at Horizons called Pheobe was so annoying and I hated her so much, I was almost starting to wonder why Mara didn't envision her death scenario. It was so obvious from the beginning that something was off with this girl. I started piecing together clues with things she said, like 1) she helped someone to put the note in Mara's bag, and 2) she said that she had a boyfriend. Everything clicked into place when she said that she had a freaking boyfriend.
I'm sorry, Pheobe. No one's that desperate to get a girlfriend.
I knew it. I knew it was Jude all along. I was imagining a crazy Jude going out with crazy Pheobe. Either it was this, or that Jude was manipulating her, which, as any person who read the book would think, that the latter sounds to be more credible.
I was slightly confused by the dreams Mara had. Of herself in India, where she met the Man in Blue and was given a doll, the same doll that was passed down from her grandmother to her. It was creepy to know that Mara threw out the doll after having the dream, but then sleepwalked to retrieve it back. Oh, and also she never remembered going to get the doll.
A lot of things were still unexplained. Why Mara kept losing track of time in the first book, why she couldn't remember things that she did during her sleep, why she looked faintly different when she woke up after having the strange dreams.
I was tricked, at the fair, where Mara was told by the so-called fortune teller to stay away from Noah. I had really thought that somehow, Mara would slowly kill Noah.
I mean, it was possible. I didn't realize that it could've been fake.
Luckily, Noah -as always- was smart enough to realize that the fortune teller was bribed -the amount of brilliant things that Noah could do is astounding.
Blood boiled in my veins when they found out that it was Jude who arranged all that. Couldn't he just let them have a relatively happy and normal day for once? Mara and Noah could've actually had some fun with each other at the fair, but noooooo. Jude had to ruin everything.
He be like
*grins maniacally*
And then we get to the part which I thought was the end of the book, but wasn't. Mara was kidnapped by Jude. All the time when Mara was stalling, I was thinking, WHERE IS NOAH? WHY ISN'T HE HERE YET?! WHERE IS HE?! MARA IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE HERE!!!
Jude was so evil and crazy. And also unforgiving. I didn't know he loved Claire that much. Maybe his actions of revenge were for Claire and also for himself. He did seem to be pretty intent on scaring Mara, but what would he do with Claire if, and that's a big if, she's alive again? Go back to living their normal lives with their parents? Hadn't their family suddenly disappeared? Why're you so intent on bringing back Claire, Jude?
Afterwards, when Mara was found, everyone thought she was crazy, yet again. Except this time, they thought Mara was on a whole new level of crazy, and sent her away to a residential treatment center, which seemed so stupid at that time because that was the time when Mara needed help the most, but still her parents unfailingly did the wrong thing again and sent her to the residential treatment center.
Then, things got really screwed up at the residential center. First, Noah showed up. I hadn't thought about that! I knew that he was somehow going to get to Mara but I certainly didn't think of him entering the center as a "student", although I was so very thrilled that he was there, with Mara! Things wouldn't be so boring as it seemed after all.
Then another plot twist happened. Noah found footage of Mara's house in Dr. Kells' computer. DR. KELLS WAS IN ON IT!! AND I NEVER SUSPECTED A THING!
I was so focused on being suspicious of Pheobe that I never thought there could be another person who was helping Jude. And it was Dr. Kells. It was no wonder that Jude could scare Mara so easily. I'd hated Dr. Kells from the beginning, and this only made me become so much more angry at her.
Why was she doing this?
When Mara found out that Pheobe was also helping Jude, I was like
The ending was totally mind-blowing. The plot twist came so suddenly that I didn't have time to prepare myself for it. It smacked me right in the face, full.
Dr. Kells was the one who was playing with them all along.
Could she get even more hateable in the next and last book?
When Dr. Kells showed Mara of her participation , of the words written on the whiteboard- I DIDN'T MISS IT. I WAS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO.
YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.
"N. Shaw: manifested......, deceased."
....deceased? Did I read it right? WHAAA?
I read it again. And again. Because it didn't make sense. Of all the many chances that Noah could die, it had to be now? At the end of the book? Are you freaking kidding me?!
At first, I thought it was a typing error or some sort, because Mara didn't say anything about that. I thought it was just something that Dr. Kells wrote on for fun. Or maybe she was referring to another N. Shaw...?
I was wrong. So very wrong.
I still refuse to believe that Noah Shaw is dead. He has to be alive.
HE HAS TO BE!!!!
For Mara, and for so many reasons. Am going to make a discussion on this.
The Evolution of Mara Dyer had everything I wanted in a book. It was suspenseful, it was beautiful, it was happy, it was tear-jerking, and it was just perfect. My rating for this book? Way too good for just five stars.
Dear Michelle Hodkins, I have just one thing to say to you:
NOAH LIVES. OKAY? OKAY.
I NEED THE THIRD BOOK. I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS. ARGHHHHH.
That's it for my book talk, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you want to read my book talk on The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, you can click on the title or here.
On a side note, I need more friends on Goodreads. Be my friend!
Lastly, I hope you have a great day, and happy reading!