Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on January 12, 2015 | 3 Comments


Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle HodkinThe Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Series: Mara Dyer #3
Published by Simon & Schuster (11.4.2014)
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 470 pages
Source: I own it


3 Stars

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 thoughts

It has been a very, very long time since a book has disappointed me so much. It is with a heavy heart that I write this review. *sighs dramatically*

I liked the first book, but didn’t love it. The second book was really good, and I liked it much better. After seeing review after review, RAVING about this book and how incredible it was, and seeing people’s WTF status updates, I expected this book to be mind blowing. Maybe because of that, my expectations were set sky high. Maybe it just didn’t do it for me. Either way, I was left feeling horribly underwhelmed.

I felt like nothing really happened until after 300 pages. I was bored. It seemed like I was just being strung along for the entire first half. Waiting. And because of that, I hoped even more that the ending would have some kind of crazy build up that would make up for it. Sadly, there wasn’t. Not for me, at least.

View Spoiler » I was left thinking, That’s it? I was simply not satisfied with the way it played out.

View Spoiler »

Let’s discuss my feelings about Mara. Sigh. I usually love antiheroes, and in book 2 she earned my respect with her fierceness and unwillingness to back down. But in this book, she was almost…cold. Unfeeling. She killed people and didn’t really feel much remorse for it. Yes, some of them kinda deserved to die. But when a MC is partly evil, there has to be some sort of balance there, some redeeming qualities. It felt to me like her only real redeeming quality was her love for Noah. I didn’t find her relatable in this book.

The main thing that dragged this book down for me was the complete lack of empathy on my part. There was barely a blip on my emotional radar. Even during the banter between Jamie and Mara I barely cracked a smile. What the hell? This was one of the things I loved about the last book, and something that boosted the series for me: The humor. For some weird reason, it didn’t have any effect on me in this book. Which makes me sad!

Despite all those complaints, it’s not that I didn’t like it. (It kinda sounds like I didn’t, doesn’t it?) I did mostly enjoy it while I was reading. The pacing was slow, but it wasn’t unenjoyable. I just expected much, much more.

Favorite quote

“Maybe sometimes we can only see the truth about ourselves if someone shows us where to look.”

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3/5 
Premise: 4.5/5 
Writing style: 4/5 
Originality: 4.5/5 
Characters: 3/5 
Pace: 2/5 
Feels: 1/5 
Cover: 3.5/5 
Overall rating: 3/5

The Mara Dyer trilogy

mara dyer mara dyer retribution of mara dyer

Overall series rating:

3 half heartbeats

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , ,

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3 responses to “Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

  1. Ack, I’m sorry you didn’t love this one Jessi! I understand what you mean about her not being relatable any more. I struggled with her character and her choices too, and she definitely had me cringing from time to time. But then again, I kinda like that Michelle took things there. I don’t know. But disappointing series enders are the worst. :(

    • That is true! I usually love darker characters and antiheroes, but I struggled to find anything redeemable in her because she seemed to do things without remorse. I think if there had been some feeling there I would have loved it D:

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