Book Review: THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER

Source Photo and Cover Art: http://www.heatherlandis.com/

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: the beautifully-covered, hauntingly-mysterious cliché-parody. Michelle Hodkin's bestselling primary novel of the Mara Dyer series tells the story of young sixteen-year-old Mara, whose friends' untimely deaths shock her into psychological trauma, forcing herself and her family into a new life. Once they all settle into a new place, Mara cannot shake the doubt, guilt and uncertainty that plagues her daily. Now nothing is certain; everything a question.

A Week Without Wifi

So if you're reading this, you're probably quite similar to me: the internet can no longer be classed as a pastime, or a hobby, but rather an alternate life, that simply runs alongside your regular one whilst they dip into one another occasionally. Although I wholeheartedly agree with this viewpoint, it can get a little concerning when I think about how much I can rely on the internet for everything. It becomes a platform that I spend way more of my life on than doing things away from the screen and this very dependence had me worried that I couldn't function normally without it (starting to sound like an addiction to you? Me too.)

The other day, when I met up with one of my close friends, Ellie, we started discussing this fairly bleak habit that we both harbour. Cue a pact: go an entire week  (Wed 1st April - Wed 8th)  without using the internet. None, nothing, nada. Even the thought of it was nearly insurmountable. An entire week?! Yet this very reaction prompted us even further, for it shouldn't be that hard or shocking to go a short seven days without logging into the nearest Wifi hotspot.

This is the story of how I tried, did fairly well at and then ultimately failed this pact. Yet there's a lot to learn here about how certain aspects of the internet are crucially useful or necessary (without being dramatic) and how others can be easily suspended if we put our minds to it. However, more importantly, this challenge also allowed me to take a step back and enjoy the beauty of the outside for a change. Here we go: