"My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something. A pseudonym. A nom de plume, for all of us studying for the SATs. I know that having a fake name is strange, but trust me- it's the most normal thing about my life right now. Even telling you this much probably isn't that smart. But without my big mouth, no one would know that a seventeen-year-old who likes Death Cab for Cutie was responsible for the murders. No one would know that somewhere out there is a B student with a body count. And it's important that you know, so you're not next. Rachel's birthday was the beginning. This is what I remember." - Mara Dyer's opening letter in "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer"
Mara Amitra Dyer is the main protagonist of the Mara Dyer series. She is a 16 year old girl, born on March 15th, from Laurelton, Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, her best friend was Rachel, who dies in a tragic accident. This leads Mara and her family to move to Miami, Florida. Her parents are Marcus and Indira Dyer. She has an intellectual older brother named Daniel, and a younger brother, Joseph.
Appearance & Personality[]
My gaze shifted to my mother. We were so different. I had none of her exquisite Indian features; not her perfect oval face or her lacquer-black hair. Instead, my father’s patrician nose and jaw were reflected in my own.
Joseph looked more like our mother, and shared her stick-straight hair, unlike me and Daniel. But the two of them inherited her complexion, while I had my father’s Whitey McWhiterson skin. And there was no family stamp of similarity in our faces.
Even in the dark I can see her flushed cheeks, her berry-stained lips parted, the few scattered freckles that dust her cheeks. I don’t touch her skin, but I fill my hand with her hair, and let the strands that look like double helices fall from my fingers, the dusky city light making the few amber strands in her dark hair shine. -Mara's description of herself and family in "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer"
Mara is described as not having her half-Indian mother's features like her brothers Daniel and Joseph, instead she is very pale with curly black hair and a patrician nose all which she inherited from her white father. Noah Shaw describes her as looking older than her age and having freckles on her cheeks. Throughout the series, her appearance changes a lot due to the drugs being given to her by Deborah Lowe and her coming into her powers. During this, she looks older and skinnier, having a protruding collar and cheekbones often not being able to recognize herself in the mirror. She is a B student at Croyden who wants to study art at university, and she always carries her sketchbook around. She hates math. Her older brother Daniel notes that Mara is as smart as he is, but lazy. She is a dog lover. She rescued an abused puppy, but distanced herself from animals because her ability scares them. Her favorite books are Lolita and The Velveteen Rabbit. Her favorite color is midnight blue, shown when she wore a midnight blue dress on a date with Noah. Her favorite band is Death Cab for Cutie. She hates Indian music. She loves dancing which is implied when she attends a costume party in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and in a deleted scene from The Becoming of Noah Shaw when she danced with Jamie. It is said that she shows signs of a dissociative personality disorder in The Retribution of Mara Dyer.
Biography[]
Mara Amitra Dyer was born to Indi and Marcus Dyer, having an older brother, Daniel, and a few years later, a little brother, Joseph. Most of Mara's childhood is left unspoken. However, it is established that she at least lived in Laurelton, Rhode Island, for quite some time before the first book. Her father was a successful criminal defense attorney and her mother a psychologist. Before the first book, Mara was best friends with Rachel since preschool, however their friendship had become strained when Jude and Claire Lowe moved into town. Claire and Rachel quickly befriend each other. While two months before the accident, Jude and Mara enter a romantic relationship.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer[]
Mara is first shown at a birthday sleepover for Rachel, Claire in attendance. Claire had gotten Rachel an Ouija board, and the three were playing. Rachel asks how she will die, the planchet slowly spells out "M A R A." It is unknown if the planchet was moved or if it truly was a spirit they were communicating with.
The book then jumps forward to Mara waking up in the hospital, disoriented and freaking out. Her parents then cautiously explain how there was an accident. Earlier in the week, Mara, Rachel, Jude, and Claire were in the Tamerlane asylum, an old and condemned building. the building collapsed, leaving Mara the sole survivor. Mara has no memory of that night and has no memory of why she would ever go into that building, having been forewarned not to go there by her parents. Mara attends Rachel's memorial service, a closed casket service. Mara is diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
Sometime later, Mara's family moves to Miami, Florida. Where she attends Croyden, a ritzy private school. On her first day, she runs into Noah Shaw.
"You have an anger-management problem." -Noah's first spoken line/ first time speaking to Mara
Mara later befriends Jamie Roth.
The first time that Mara noticed her unusual power was one day on her way to school. She comes across a malnourished and beaten dog chained up in someone's yard. When she lingers too long, the owner comes out and threatens Mara. After she leaves, she wishes that the man were dead, his head bashed in like he beats on the dog. When she comes back to check on the dog again, she finds police at the dog owner's house. The man is laying dead in his yard, every detail as Mara imagined it. Mara takes the dog once investigators leave, and with the help of Noah Shaw, the dog is taken to his stepmother who is a vet. Noah names the dog Mabel, and the two find a common interest in animals.
Mara begins to fall for Noah as they begin to date after Noah stands up for her when Anna attempts to embarrass her (again). Mara says her Spanish teacher Mrs. Morales is tyrannous and even though Mara does amazing at her final test, she fails her grade and get accused of cheating. Angry, Mara then envisions Mrs. Morales dying by choking on her own tongue and she does. Mara is freaked out by this and continues having strange hallucinations and visions. One night, Noah comes to her window, claiming that Joseph has been kidnapped. He knows this because he can see when people are in pain, and he has a vision of Joseph. When they go to save Joseph, Mara accidentally kills the alligators that are coming after them in the swamp where Joseph is hidden. When Mara finally realizes she may have the ability to kill with her mind, she tells Noah. Noah uses his connections to get them into a private zoo exhibit, where Noah tests out Mara's theory by putting a leech on Mara's arm to scare her. She then accidentally kills all the insects in the room out of fear. She finds out about Noah's power to heal then she finds out the man who kidnapped her brother also killed a teenaged girl and Mara attempts to kill him with her mind, instead injuring both him and her father. Mara then goes to the police station to report herself, where she sees Jude, and knows that he's alive.
Relationships[]
Noah Shaw[]
Noah Elliot Simon Shaw is Mara's main love interest. When she first meets Noah she finds him annoying, but absolutely gorgeous. Though, he is persistent in getting a date with Mara in a short period of time. After Anna stole Mara's sketchbook with drawings of Noah in it, she exposes those drawings to Noah, but he pretends that he knew of her drawings to protect her. He asks her out again after that, she agrees and the pair become close and begin to confide in each other. The couple realize why they were drawn together and learn everything about one another. Even that they both have a "power" of sorts: Mara's being the power to cause destruction or kill inconspicuously and Noah's is to heal or hear people's pulse's. When Mara finds the same symbol stitched into her grandmother's doll, that Noah wears around his neck, it is believed that Noah's real mother and Mara's grandmother knew each other.
In the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Mara gets committed to a mental institution and Noah joins her. When Jude appears at the mental institution, Mara makes the building collapse.
She wakes up in a hospital room with Dr. Kells telling her that Noah is dead. However, at the end of the Retribution of Mara Dyer, Noah turns out to be alive and they reunite when Noah's father forces him to kill Mara, because Noah is destined to achieve greatness. Noah's father threatens Mara and Noah by putting Mara's brother, Daniel, and Jamie in danger. In order to save her brother and her bestfriend, Mara tells Noah to kill her before telling him that she loves him and Noah kills her. But because Noah doesn't want to live without Mara, he tells Jude to kill him. Nevertheless both of them resurrect. When Mara wants to leave Noah to keep him safe, he doesn't want her to and eventually he convinces her to stay in New York with him.
In the Becoming of Noah Shaw, Noah starts to distrust Mara, after Stella told him about her killing people in the Retribution of Mara Dyer. Mara confesses to Noah that she is responsible for his father's death and Noah breaks up with her.
Jude Lowe[]
Jude was Claire Lowe's brother. He and Mara shared attraction to each other much to Claire's annoyance. On the night of the accident Mara and Jude share an intimate moment even though Mara does not want to. When she refuses to go any further Jude tries to rape her. Before he can she makes the building to collapse. He is believed to be dead until the end of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.
Throughout all of The Evolution of Mara Dyer, Jude is stalking Mara to play with her mind. Going through the trauma of losing his sister may have actually caused him to become crazy himself. Dr. Kells had made him do things, as it was revealed at the end of the second novel, so we have no idea just how much of these events were actually Jude's doing. At the end of the book Mara wakes up confined to a hospital bed, as she often does, and she reads a list of patients. Among them was both Jude and his sister Claire; underneath her name was the word deceased, and his did not say that he was dead. He should have been because Mara had done everything in her power to make sure that boy wasn't alive, but he is.
Jamie Roth[]
Jamal Roth, aka Jamie, is Mara's first friend (and only one, other than Noah) when she moves into town and goes to Croyden where she is to spend the remaining year of her high school life. Jamie was described as a Jewish young man, adopted, bisexual, 16 year old, with dreadlocks, a sense of humor and a warm smile. Jamie kept warning Mara about Noah, given that Noah has a notorious reputation. Jamie was then kicked out of school after a false accusation, saying that Jamie threatened Aiden (an a-hole) with a knife that Aiden planted in his bag. The unfortunate happening ended the communication between Mara and Jamie.
In the Evolution of Mara Dyer, Jamie meets Mara again as they are sent to the same therapy sessions (Horizons LLC). He and Mara remained good friends.
In The Retribution of Mara Dyer, it was then revealed Mara with the others, have been kept captives in a No Name Island near No Name Key, Florida. They were held there as subjects for Dr. Kells' diabolic experiments regarding their mutual diagnosis. It was then apparent, that Jamie, like the others was also a G1821-3 carrier, and currently manifesting. He has the ability to tell people what to do using his crystalline voice. This could have been the reason why Anna (see Anna) then died after drunk driving through a cliff. Together, Jamie, Stella and Mara was able to escape from No Name Island, throw away evidences of their existence, in search for answers, a cure, and for Mara, Noah. Jamie brought them to his aunt's (mother's best friend) house in New York. They stayed there for a while. Jamie's ability proved to be valuable and his humor added a bitter comedy within the series.
At the last part of the Retribution of Mara Dyer, Jamie, along with Daniel, were both kept hostage in the same building where Mara and Noah almost died. Jamie, used his ability to trick the police, and coax his cousin, Rochelle, to be Mara's legal lawyer during her trial-- mostly for legalities. In the end, Jamie, as the good friend he is, remained good friends with Mara.
Anna[]
Throughout the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Anna is a constant antagonist. The year before Mara came to school, Anna was obsessed with Noah Shaw and followed him around acting like his girlfriend. He apparently broke it off, leaving her heart broken in the process (if she has a heart). When Mara comes to school, Anna immediately takes a disliking to her as Noah is very interested in Mara. Anna steals Mara's sketchbook that has many drawings of Noah in it, and proceeds to mock Mara in front of many students. Noah comes and saves the day by lying and saying that he knew all about it. That is the start of Mara and Noah's relationship. Jamie Roth, who has the ability to convince people to do things with his charming voice, tells Anna to drive off a cliff when they run into each other after she helped get him kicked out of school. It is no coincidence when soon after Anna drives off a cliff in a drunk driving accident.
Daniel Dyer[]
Daniel is Mara's older brother and close friend. Throughout the book, Mara finds companionship in Daniel as he is one of her only family members who continues to treat her semi-normally after the accident. They are very close and Daniel develops a relationship with Noah as they are both very intelligent and interested in Science.
Phoebe[]
Phoebe is a mentally insane patient at Horizons, where Mara goes for therapy sessions. Phoebe continuously bothers/threatens Mara by placing pictures of her sleeping with her eyes scratched out into Mara's bag claiming her boyfriend made her do it. It is later revealed that Jude is behind it and tricking Phoebe into doing his bidding.
Stella[]
Stella was one of Mara's friends. After Jude took four students and Mara almost killed him, Stella fled the island with Jamie and Mara. She left the trio after Mara nearly killed three teenage boys, and has not come back since. Stella liked Mara and always tried to see the best in her.
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