Audiobook Review – The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, Book 2) by Michelle Hodkin (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Mystery
Length: 10 hours and 38 minutes (560 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: January 21, 2014
ASIN: B00HCPU6L4
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Mara Dyer series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This was a fantastic continuation of the Mara Dyer series. These books have been such creepy, mysterious, and addictive reads. I really have been enjoying them and can’t wait to see how things wrap up in the third book. There are spoilers for the first book in this review, so just FYI.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator sounds exactly like I imagine Mara Dyer would sound and does a great job with character voices and emotions. If you like audiobooks I would definitely recommend listening to this series on audiobook.

Mara wakes up to find out she has been forcibly committed by her parents after the incidents in the first book. She is working to get “better” so that she can get herself moved to outpatient care and hopefully be at home to protect her parents from Jude. However Jude’s attacks are getting more and more creepy and manipulative and Mara is finding herself increasingly haunted and frustrated. Noah fully supports her and Noah and Mara struggle to figure out the truth of their strange powers while trying to protect Mara’s family from Jude. What they find is bigger and scarier than anything they could have imagined at the beginning of all of this.

This is one of those books where you wish the poor heroine could get some sort of break. Horrible thing after horrible thing happens to Mara and her parents never believe her about what is going on (granted if Mara actually calmed down and calmly talked to them about everything I think they would be a bit more understanding). I am really hoping that Mara finds some happiness in the third book because this second book was a pretty big struggle for her.

I continue to really enjoy Noah as a character; he is almost supernaturally supportive of Mara…although we see a darker side to him as well in this book. Many of the other side characters that Mara meets at the outpatient care facility are also very intriguing and Jaimie is in the book quite a bit as well.

Some of the mystery behind Noah and Mara’s strange powers is revealed but many things are as yet unexplained. The book is well written, incredibly hard to put down, and very intense. It does, however, end on a huge cliffhanger again…which is something I hate.

Overall this was an incredibly engaging paranormal mystery. The characters are intriguing and easy to relate to and the book is just about impossible to put down. I am incredibly curious to see how things wrap up with the last book in the series. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy creepy paranormal mysteries.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge