Hallowed: An Unearthly Novel

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.Clara Gardener has had quite the school year. First she had to move to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a far cry from southern California, that’s for sure. Secondly the boy she was supposed to save (according to her purpose) was (socially) out of reach because, well, it is high school. Thirdly she fell in love with a boy she never expected to get along with, let along begin to care for. And last, but certainly not least, she and her mother were both almost killed by a deranged murderer, as are most murderers. Oh, yeah, and she messed up her purpose so bad that both her and Christian’s lives are pretty jacked up right now. That about sums up her time in Jackson Hole so far, and all Clara is hoping for this year is a bit of peace and quite. But becomes abundantly cleat to her that an angel’s work is never finished.Clara has always thought that she would have one great purpose and once she had completed it, she could go on living her life. But since she messed up her purpose, it seems that something else is brewing in place of that original purpose, and someone she loves is going to die, possibly because of what she did. She doesn’t know the how or why, not even who it’s going to happen to, but it is going to happen during springtime. Clara has learned from experience that purposes may look or mean one thing when, in reality, they are actually completely different from what you thought they were. Clara begins wonder if her latest dream is supposed to be a warning, a future she is meant to change, or if she is just meant to stand by and let it all happen? She took her future into her own hands once before, and look at what that got everyone! Clara doesn’t regret what she did, just the people she hurt because of that choice. But how on earth can she let thisdream come to pass, letting that person go without putting up a fight? The answer is as clear as day to her: she won’t.Can Clara stop what she’s seen, or is her entire world about to break apart? Will she ruin everything again by trying to stop the inevitable, or is she the one who can fix it all, past, present, and future?There is a commonly known illness going around and authors seem to be the only ones catching it: Second (or sophomore) Book Syndrome. It is very common, and very deadly to both the writer and their readers. The side-effects of this deadly virus are: Mediocre or runaround plot lines, Characters who seem to be bipolar and not like themselves, Half a**ed bad guys, Mind-numbingly boring filler so they can call it a book and not a novella, And the infernal love triangle that makes the average reader despise both the heroine and/or the heroe(s).Most authors I have read have been victims to Second Book Syndrome, but I am very glad to say that Cynthia Hand's "Hallowed" was not one of them, and that is why I bought all three of her books online right after finished them. Yes, I loved them THAT much. Paid through the nose, too, but I regret nothing!Alright, let’s start talking about the premise of this book, and all the reasons why I love it and its author.Clara knows that someone she loves very much is going to die, and she estimates that it is springtime when she will have to say goodbye to them. The only problem with this (besides that person dying, of course) is that she has no clue who it will be. Clara (beware) kind of goes a bit skit-so because she doesn't know if she can stop it from happening, and she doesn't know who to protect from it, and actions are quite understandable, although at times are a bit too stalkerish for comfort. We all have experienced loss of a loved one at one time or another, and so I wasn’t too bothered by her manic depressant attitude because I could empathize with her, but there were times when she was very selfish and did not recognizing it as being so, and that did bother me a bit. She hurt a lot of people in “Hallowed” because of her oblivious, self-centered nature, but she did learn some lessons that lead to good character growth in this book, and so that wasgood.Christian was also a great character in this book. I really began to see his sweet side and I was more willing to acknowledge that he was a good guy, whereas in “Unearthly” I was practically chanting Tucker’s name every time Christian was present. To be quite honest, I was still chanting Tucker’s name the entire book, but I could admire Christian for his kindness towards Clara during a tough time in her life and the friendship he offered her. The only thing I didn’t like was that Clara was still undecided when it came to her and Christian even though she was dating Tucker. That’s a no, no in my book, but I can forgive Cynthia because I got why Clara was torn whereas in most books there's usually no reason to be indecisive. I didn't like it, but I can respect it.TUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I have fallen in love with this boy, and I am still wondering why God hasn’t created any boys like my Tucker, and if He has, where are they in this universe?!! I had read this series while the Olympics were going, and every time I saw someone skiing or snowboarding, I started to cry because I was thinking of all of Tucker’s and Clara’s beautiful times together! Okay, I wasn’t crying, but I did go into fangirl mode in front of my sisters a few time. I'm kind of crazy/nerdy in fangirl mode if you haven't already noticed.Besides the fact that I love this boy, Tucker is just a fantastically written male character. He was smart, funny, and sweet while still being a really strong male lead. He was practically the only full-blooded human in Clara’s group, but he held his own in "Hallowed" and didn’t act like a weakling even when Clara kicks him in the emotional…well, I'll leave that for you to fill in if you would like. There are just so many layers to his character despite the fact that he was the good boy in this series. He wasn’t mysterious or broody, and maybe that was/is the reason why I loved his character so much.I happen to hate it when authors think that, for a character to be interesting, they need to make them broody and mysterious or misunderstood. That’s great for some people, but that is exactly what I dislike in male characters. I feel that the characters play too many games (never communicating is one of the worst products of these games) romantically if they are written that way; playing games in relationships, romantic or not, never ends well. Honesty is the best policy. I get that authors try to build tension or intrigue through those personality traits, but it doesn’t always work out well, and then the writers dig themselves into, not just holes, but trenches that are nearly impossible to climb out of when the time comes. Cynthia Hand, however, created tension between friends and family, romantic drama, and emotional turmoil without too many of those irritating games being played (Christian and Clara had some of those kinds of moments, althoughthe fault lies with Clara 99% of the time. And Tucker, my love, was never the issue, even when Clara did something stupid. YAY!). Yeah, maybe there were some of those games in this book, but Cynthia did a great job of writing them so that I wasn't irritated with her or the characters.P.S. Tucker is such a good quality character that he doesn’t need all of that drama to become a dynamic, intriguing, and unforgettable character. He is a BOSS and he has his own SWAG to go with it.Character drama aside, there are a lot of things going on in this book. The bad guy from the first book comes back and he isn’t who I originally thought he was; oh, he’s still as evil as they come, but there is more to him than meets the eye. I was also a little surprised by what Clara discovers about herself, and maybe I should’ve guessed it, but I didn’t because maybe, just maybe, I am extremely gullible. Then we find out who is going to die in this book, and I kind of cried, like a lot. Like a faucet, actually.Those tears didn't stop until a few minutes after I finished "Hallowed"; the last scene in this book was super emotional in a sad but happy way. I have to hand it to Cynthia Hand, she really got the waterworks going, and that takes a skilled writer to do that to me. Tahereh Mafi, although I loved her first two books and her novellas, she never made me cry. I think that is one of the signs of my favorite author(s) is whether they can make me cry or laugh alongside their characters. Cynthia Hand made me laugh, cry, and dance around my room in happiness, and I cannot wait to read more of her books. AMAZING!!!P.S. The only thing that I didn’t like about this book was Clara’s friend, Angela. I really wish Wendy, Tucker's super awesome twin sister, had been the main female friend, but other than that I really liked this book. check-out by blog: booksandwonderfulthings.wordpress.com

Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.The fire happened, but Clara's defiance may have changed what was supposed to be. Now aware of Christian's secret and feeling more drawn to him as the complicated roles they are supposed to play in each other's lives become more untangled, Clara is struggling to deal with that and keep her relationship with Tucker strong. The choice between free will and duty is never easy. Meanwhile, both her mother and her brother begin to act strangely and a new vision unfolds in Clara's dreams. If what she is seeing is true, someone she loves will be dead by spring.Wow. I... I've been staring at my keyboard for some time trying to come up with words for this book, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say. It's been a while now since I finished Hallowed and I've been digesting its content, but putting together words to match the very emotional response I had to the novel is so difficult. Whoever says detailing an emotional response to a book makes a review invalid can shove it. The emotional response it elicits from readers is the true testament to a book's worth.I found Unearthly to be a nice little book, fun but not overly involving, but Hallowed kicks it up many notches. The middle books of trilogies are often dull and feel like set-up for the last book, but not this middle book. It's been so long since I read such an emotionally intense book that had me laughing my head off on one page, crying like a newborn infant the next, and sobbing like someone close to me had suddenly died when I turned the last page. I can't tell you how long I sat there sobbing so hard I could hardly breathe. When I took breaks from reading, the whiplash of going from an intense book to a placid academic book was almost painful.I was so frustrated with the characters. Frustrated at Jeffery for not talking to his family, which could have solved a lot of problems. Frustrated at Tucker's jealous streak. Frustrated at how Christian says he isn't pressuring Clara when he is with all his talk of how important they are to each other. Frustrated that Clara feels like she needs to constantly prove to Tucker she loves him when his jealous streak emerges. Frustrated at Clara's mother for keeping so many secrets. For those frustrations, I love all the characters even more (except maybe Tucker and Christian) because those little things they do that I find so frustrating make them human. Their nuanced characterization is a great improvement from the first book and much deeper than I am used to.Clara has become one of my favorite YA heroines for her accurate voice, likable personality, and how she rings so true as a teenager. Some characters read like caricatures of teenagers or adults in a fifteen-year-old girl's body, but not Clara. She, with all her flaws and strengths and humor, is someone I could see walking down the halls of a high school, being the girl that is always walking hand-in-hand with her boyfriend in the hallway, and experiencing the true searing pain of being torn between two people. We need more heroines like her that feel real like us instead of reading as just a fictional character.It's never been a secret that I despise love triangles. There were times in the novel where I wanted Clara to just do something about it already, but this novel handles the triangle with the depth it needs to work without being annoying, along with eliminating the limited black-and-white mentality from the equation. Between Tucker, the boy she truly loves but can't share all of herself with, and Christian, who she is apparently supposed to be with because he's just like her and involved with her purpose, there is no room for looking at this in black and white. The heart is too complicated for the way it works to be examined in such a way, and the novel taking this into consideration and making both of the love interests likable is how Hallowed succeeds where so many YA PNR novels fail.If the novel had such a profound effect on me, why four stars instead of five? The story was so focused on Clara and her guy drama that it feels like other stories equally as interesting as Clara's were neglected. The story of her mom and Samjeeza, for instance. Jeffery's story. Angela's story. Maybe these will be expanded upon in the final book, in a novella, in short stories, or whatever, but I wanted to go back to those paths and follow them for a little while, not be forced to shuffle along on my current path.Many of my friends read Hallowed months ago when an ARC of it was made available on NetGalley, though my own requests for the novel were denied by the publisher over a dozen times. While I enviously watched and avoided every spoiler as if it were toxic (but one still made it into my feed due to forces not in my control--thanks, Cillian), I wondered what they could be taking about when they raved about it. I was familiar with their love for all things Unearthly; their hype and my personal reading project was what got me to read it in the first place. Now that I have read the sequel, a novel they showered praise upon more heavily than they did for the first book, I can see why they felt the way they did. I feel it. Oh, do I feel it.Unearthly was a fun little romp in YA PNR that I enjoyed specifically because it did not make me want to blow a gasket. With Hallowed, Hand ups the stakes and turned my fluffy enjoyment of the first novel into a full-blown emotional investment in the series. I'll be back for book three.

I loved "Unearthly", really I did, it was a much more interesting take on Angels than any other YA book I'd come across so I was hoping that "Hallowed" would continue the trend but couldn't help but worry that it would be a middle-book-syndrome flop. Luckily for all of us, "Hallowed" was not only as good a read as "Unearthly" but leaps and bounds more interesting to read (shocking since we've already been given a lot of the surprises).I felt like throughout the book Cynthia Hand was dropping subtle hints about why she's even bothered writing this series. There are some pretty deep messages woven in about family, discovering yourself, secrets, lies and betrayals and some really sensitive topics like dealing with loss which Hand seemed to me to deal with in a delicate (not preachy) way. I loved that her message was only really there if you looked for it rather than rammed down our throats and really respected her for that. Additionally, I think she handles the subject of God and more notably heaven very well and again in a way that, if you didn't believe, I still think wouldn't rub you up the wrong way.Following on from the events of Unearthly, Clara appears to be having a bit of an internal battle between who she loves and who she wants to be with. Although it might seem simple at first: She loves Tuckers so surely it's obvious right? But if your destiny is to be with someone different that's pretty hard to ignore and I really enjoyed reading about this and seeing how Clara dealt with the decisions she had to make. I think she's maintained the same aspects of her character that I loved about her from "Unearthly" but matured as a character - there was none of this whiney "Oh I love them both and Oh no I have to choose" business, she just got on with it for the most part.There's a pretty major event within this book which I really can't talk about without giving anything away but, around the topic, "Hallowed" is essentially about another vision that Clara is having. You may remember the whole business of a "purpose" that Clara (and Christian through Clara) didn't fulfill in "Unearthly" and now we're seeing the knock on effects of that. But I thought that would be the end of the "purpose" since she failed it and the visions would be over. BUT Hand is far better than that and has very cleverly explained how Clara still gets her new visions.The thing I loved most about this book was the new Angel details we find out. Angela (Clara's slightly more Angel-blooded friend) creates an "Angel Club" whereby Clara, Angela, Clara's brother and Christian all get together and sort of share angel facts they've learned and practice things like their glory. I think this was a fantastic way for us as readers to delve into the Angel world without it being too much information at once.There's so much more I want to say but I think I'll just leave it at this: Get yourself a copy (and have a look for the "Radiant" novella intended to be read after it). You really won't be disappointed.

Also posted at: [...]This series is no doubt one of the most under-rated series EVER. I feel like it should deserve more hype and I just WANT TO GIVE EVERYONE A COPY OF THIS IF I WAS MILLIONAIRE. But unfortunately I'm not.This. This is what every angel book should be like. And this is a story about angels that you expect angels to look/act like. I love the idea of every angel having their purpose, it's very similar to what type of angels I `believe' in. And I adored that our main protagonist have to choose between free will and destiny, Tucker or Christian, God-will-love-you or God-will-be-pissed-at-you scenario. It's definitely my kinda story.Cynthia's writing was fabulous. I can sympathize and relate to Clara soooo much. What I love about our heroine is that even though she's part angel (more on that later), she still acts and talks like a regular teenager. There are times when I found myself agreeing with her choices.I agree with other people saying that this is definitely more emotional than Unearthly, and this is one book (except for Forbidden by Tabithat Suzuma) that nearly made me shed tears. God. That ending, I feel like I might have a breakdown just by thinking about the ending. But don't worry, there's lots of funny moments in this book (I couldn't stop laughing at a particular scene with Clara, Tucker, his parents and the bed scene). :DTowards the end, some MAJOR revelations and secrets were revealed and HOLY COW. My mouth was hanging wide open, I found my mum looking strangely at me. So embarassing. But so worth it.This is one book you do not want to miss. If you loved/liked Unearthly, then I'm sure you'll love/like this one as much (if not, more). It's paranormal at its best, but sometimes read as a contemporary (which I didn't mind). It's got everything you would want in a novel - fascinating storyline, outstanding characters, descriptive setting and A ONE YUMMY COWBOY. Oh dear Jesus.

Hallowed is a beautifully powerful sequel to Unearthly. Clara has troubled herself over the events of the last book concerning her angelic purpose. It didn't go to plan, but now there's an even more troubling vision clouding Clara's mind lately. A funeral, only months away, tells Clara that someone she loves dearly will leave this life forever. She will have to face some secrets about the angelic world she lives in and face emotional distress no one her age should have to face.This book was a very emotional and revealing follow up to Unearthly and I enjoyed Clara immensely. While she's a worry-wart for pretty much the entire book, it's not without reason and I think it shows maturity, the thing Clara gains most of all in this book. The supporting characters become much more complicated and interesting than in the first book. I find myself intrigued by Jeffrey's angst and happy that Clara and Christian get to spend more time together (even if Clara doesn't want to). I couldn't get enough of the love triangle. It's so much more fabulous than the first book. Some more fabulous things include the addition of new mentor-type characters for Clara that come with some really interesting backgrounds.In addition to the characters, the plot was just fantastic. After mind-blowing revelations, romantic tension, and a prom scene that actually didn't make me want to throw up, I am seriously craving the third book! If you love love triangles, angel mythology, and serious secret reveals, then you will love this series. I hope to see more clashes between the good and bad angels in the third instalment!

I loved 'Unearthly' but 'Hallowed' left me with mixed feelings, I didn't really get engrossed in it, rather finding it very easy to just stop reading. The repetitive questions and extremely drawn out answers just got very annoying by the end, the constant 'oh no's' and 'its the end of the world' got so repetitive and plain boring.But there are a good points to this book, for example, the heart wrenching scenes near the end, unfortunately ruined by a really cheesy 'okay I guess this will do, ill give up now' - like... what?I am hoping for more from 'Boudless'.

This is the second book in the Unearthly series, and it is outstanding, everything you want in a paranormal romance and more, i've read and loved 'Twilight', 'Fallen' 'Die for me' 'Shiver' 'Finding Sky' but Unearthly has slightly topped them for me, its gripping, emotional at times and just so hard to put down I read the first two books in two days and cannot wait for the next. The characterisation is particularly very good, its so easy to like and identify with the main character Clara, and as is the love triangle with Clara Christian and Tucker, impossible to choose is an understatement! I am so glad I read these books and they are more than worthy of 5 stars