Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning (Good Reads)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Hallowed by Cynthia Hand, the sequel to Unearthly.  But I was not prepared for how SAD it would be, and what a nice meditation about family and love and letting go it was.  

Originality: 3. Angels and demi-angels and the underworld revolting is everywhere in YA land right now. But points for being in the mountains, I guess.

Absurdity: 8. I mean, they have WINGS and FLY.

Level of Paranormal Romance: 6. Christian, stop angel-stalking my girl Clara. Because you are angsty, angel-y, and boring.  On the other hand, Tucker. Oh Tucker, you are cute and country and adorable. As is your relationship: “Your hair smells like wind, did you know that?"  Yep, me and Tucker, smelling each other.”  I literally snorted out loud when then Tucker’s dad walked in on the wrong situation. HA. Being able to fly to your boyfriend’s bedroom makes a whole lot of trouble.

Level of Harry Potter-ness: 5. This book is not fine literature, but it does have its lyrical moments. Most of what I like about it is how sarcastic the writing is (which is Clara’s point of view). I love how self-conscious and funny Hand is about the tropes of YA lit:

“I sneaked out to his house a couple times in the middle of the night to watch over him while he slept, just in case, I don’t know, his comic book collection decided to spontaneously combust. This was dumb and admittedly creepy in an Edward Cullen kind of way.” 

“Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there’s one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can’t see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she’s like, oh dear, however will I choose? William is so sensitive, he understands me, he swept me off my feet, oh misery, blubber, blubber, but how can I go on living without Rafe and his devil-may-care ways and his dark and only-a-little-abusive love? Upchuck.” 

And now they will go off to college, which makes me feel a bit more justified in reading these, since I am not THAT far out of college. Success!