Spoilers
This had the potential to be an amazing read, the heroine was on the verge of going full on crazy/vengeful and the mystery/WTFery was getting really good. Sadly, it ended the way most YA PNR usually does with nonsensical non-answers and a speshul snowflake heroine who thinks she's a badarse but is actually just a boy-obsessed-twit who gets her sappy-speshul-snowflake ending. Ugh.
-The plot didn't consist of much, most of it was repetitive. The first 75% or so was just Mara/Jamie/Stella going from A to B to C to D whilst occasionally bumping into trouble of some sort. There wasn't enough focus on Horizons/the experiments/the powers, there was too much of Mara angsting, and worrying and searching for her precious Noah.
-I mostly hated Mara, she could have been awesome but her obsession with Noah was nauseating, it took over her whole personality. She wasn't even bothered about finding out who she was and why her and her friends has been followed, locked up and experimented on. Nope, it was all about Noah. Pathetic.
There were things I did love about Mara: Like her repeatedly using proper swear words when the situation called for it unlike most do goody heroines.
Also, her murdering/hurting people was great, it was even better when she felt very little guilt/remorse for punishing people. It made a nice change from the usual overly forgiving, always guilty heroine.
-I was glad Noah wasn't in it much, I would have preferred if he wasn't in it all though. He was such a generic hero. He had no personality apart from his mummy/daddy issues and his manslut ways.
-I don't know why there was the whole 'Is Noah Dead?' cliffhanger at the end of the book 2. It was obvious he would be alive. I don't know what the point of cliffhangers like that are. It's such a cheap trope. It would have been more original and satisfying if he had actually been dead or at least evil instead of the usual cliches.
-Was I meant to find Noah/Mara choosing to be with each other at the end romantic? Was I meant to be rooting for them or something? They were so selfish getting together when Noah could have changed the world (though I don't get how). Also, I hated how Noah's suicidal tendencies were romanticised, like all that was needed was the power of Mara's love to save and cure him. The guy needed professional help, he didn't need a destructive relationship. I would have enjoyed the ending more if Noah/Mara parted ways after they sexed it up, now that would have been romantic and epic - them giving up their love and not being able to be together for the sake of everyone else. It was such a great opportunity to make Noah/Mara tragic heroes instead of the insufferable twits they were.
-I liked most of the secondary characters, especially Jamie and Daniel, their interactions with Mara was great. Stella and Mara's friendship was the most enjoyable though, probably because it was the only significant relationship Mara had with another female character. I was unimpressed that Mara was only really close to/interacted with guys.
-I rolled my eyes at Mara's pregnancy scare, the whole thing was done purely for some cheap drama midway through. It was obvious Mara wouldn't be pregnant because YA heroines have to remain virgins/baby free because they are only allowed to shag it up/be impregnated by the manslut heroes. It would have actually been interesting if Mara had to deal with an unwanted baby that was forced on her by crazy scientists. But no, we were stuck with the same old, formulaic YA romance/dynamics.
-The reasons for Mara and co having powers was down to them being born with a special gene. So the powers were all genetic based, yet the rules about the carries of the gene were utterly nonsensical. Apparently, if a carrier of one of the superpower genes wasn't killed by its foil (a person with the opposite sort of gene) then the anomaly would manifest again later on in their bloodline. What? How would that even work?! If a dominant gene is passed on then it'll manifest full stop. How would Mara's grandma dying affect Mara's genes? It was like saying someone who had a cancer gene would never get cancer because their grandma who had the original gene got cancer and died and that would magically make their own genes dormant. That's not how science works! Ugh, it made no sense.
-This was such an unsatisfying ending. There were so many things left up in the air, and the few answers that were given were unclear.
What was Mara's real name? Why did she even change her name to Mara in the first place? It wasn't like she was a criminal or in danger. Or was the Mara Dyer trilogy actually supposed to be the books she was writing at the end or something. If so, what a fucking cop out.
What was with Mara's reflection when she was drugged up? The drugs were meant to block her powers completely but instead she got a convenient new sort of power which just so happened to tell her exactly what had been going on when she'd been out of it. How perfectly contrived.
What was the point of all those grandmother flashbacks? They didn't add much to the overall story. All they did was show Mara's grandma having the same sort of powers as Mara.
Why was Mara able to heal herself when she was dying? Why would her fully manifesting into her powers save her? Healing wasn't even one of her powers. Also, how did she even get powers in the first place? Didn't her grandma cancel them out by dying or something? Wasn't that the whole reason why she was hanging around with Noah's mum so that Noah could kill her and stop the curse/gene from carrying onto Mara or her siblings?
If Noah's dad didn't want Mara anywhere near Noah why did he manipulate things so they'd end up near together? If he thought she was so dangerous why did he and Kells trigger her powers and push her so much that she went crazy and murdered people? Where did Noah's dad disappear to after Mara was dying? Why didn't he come back for Noah and take control of him now that he was free of Mara? How did Noah survive the knife wound at the end? If it was his healing powers then why did he think stabbing himself in the heart would work in the first place? Both Noah and Mara coming back from the dead was ridiculous, one of them should have died.
Why was Jude bothered about his watch in the recording? What were with those drugs in Mara's stomach? If they were able to stop her from using her murderous powers then why did Kells want to kill her if the drugs were working? She was no longer dangerous.
Why did Lukumi impregnate Mara's grandma? Did he want another person with shadow powers or something? How did Lukumi/Lenaurd not recognise Mara when he first saw her? Wasn't he following her family? What was Lukumi trying to even achieve? Was he trying to help Mara or did he just want Noah? What was his end goal? How could he be centuries old when his powers were having visions and not healing? Why was Noah such a big deal? Surely, there were other healer/hero types that had been born? How exactly could Noah's powers change the world? Why was Mara's grandma slow to age as well? Why did Noah's dad think Mara would be such a menace to the world? Her grandmother had the same sort of powers and she managed to not go on random killing sprees. The only time Mara killed (when she was finally aware of her powers) was in self defence. There was no real reason for Noah's dad to want her dead. Him fearing she would make Noah weak was ridiculous, they were both teenagers - so why would he think they'd spend the rest of their lives together? Nothing made sense.
-The writing was pretty good, it was easy to read and the various descriptions were done well. Well, except for the cringey sex scene at the end.
-Didn't like the pop culture references, it took me right out of the story.
I wasn't expecting great things from the Mara Dyer finale, but I was expecting a decent resolution to the mystery. Instead I was just left more confused by the piss poor explanations. I wanted less Mara/Noah angst and better world building and answers. I would only recommend the trilogy to anyone who wants a series that at its heart is just a cliched PNR YA love story.