Book Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Release Date: January 4, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 435
Received: Library book
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Goodreads Page

Looking for something to read for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge? This would be a great pick!

Summary

From Goodreads: 

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny? 

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

Review

Assumptions, assumptions

So, here’s the deal: I wasn’t expecting to like this book all that much. I totally had it pegged insta-love with angels and not much else. I was prepared for a moping and mooning weak main character. Plus, with the massive amount of pages, I was bracing for some major Twilight Pacing Syndrome.

You know what they say about assuming…

I was so wrong! The book is told in the first person and narrated by Clara. Her voice is so easy to like and flows really well. I have the attention span of a goldfish, so big books don’t usually work well for me, but I didn’t feel the length of this book at all. I was sucked in completely, mostly because I felt like I was hanging out with a girl I would totally be friends with.

There were a few points where I surfaced for air and realized that not much was actually happening. Despite the fact that’s she’s part angel and the whole book revolves around her fulfilling her purpose, she’s a completely normal girl and does completely normal things. Which, you know, can be sort of boring to read about. Like following her for a few chapters as she works on an English project or learns how to ski. The thing is, Clara was such an appealing narrator that I was too busy enjoying myself to realize I should be bored.

Slowly uncovering information about the angel lore helped balance out the more mundane events. Though an angel-blood, Clara is pretty much in the dark about many things (particularly surrounding fallen angels) and so we get to piggy-back along with her as she discovers new bits of information and begins to piece them together. Cynthia Hand has done a wonderful job creating an intriguing and well-crafted mythology.

More than meets the eye

For a while I thought this book was hit with a huge dose of Twilight Pacing Syndrome because the first ¾ were more ho-hum and then the final ¼ picked up in action a lot. But by the end of the book I realized that a ton of those little events I thought were just filler and overwriting (even if they were fun) were actually significant clues. This first book was all about the maneuvering of the pieces, and the movements are subtly enacted across the whole book. Still, I wish this had been more apparent and that the first 3/4 didn't feel so meandering.

My head is spinning trying to put all of the clues together and make sense of what I read. Not because it was confusing or poorly written though. Oh no, Cynthia Hand did an excellent job of giving just enough hints to give me something to play with, but leaving enough things open that I’m impatiently counting down the days for the release of the sequel, Hallowed (with the infuriatingly vague date of “Sometime in 2012” maybe January).

Let’s be BFF 4 EVA

One final note about the characters because, you know, I have to talk about the characters. I loved them! Clara is the perfect type of teenager to read about: imperfect and unsure but never angsty or whiny. She felt real and genuinely nice.

Then there’s her love interests. Ah, can I please make Tucker real and keep him? There’s a love triangle but it isn’t annoying at all. It’s very different from the usual triangle, so if you normally hate love triangles, don’t feel like you’ll automatically hate this book. There is a twist to it that makes it a lot more palatable than the typical indecisive and borderline cheating main character.

Teeny, tiny spoiler:

But she’d better do what I want her to do and I don't care what happens! He called her Carrots for crying out loud! Can he possibly be any better than that? That’s a rhetorical question because the answer is obviously no, it’s impossible to do better than channeling Gilbert Blythe and one of the best scenes in literary history ever. Yes, I’m stomping my little foot on this point.

This is also one of those books where all of the characters commanded my attention, not just the main characters. They all felt real to me with fully developed personalities. Though I’m not sure yet on where they all stand with the Big Bad brewing in the background (woah alliteration!). There’s one cookie in particular I don’t trust at all.

When happily ever after ends

If you’ve read Unearthly already, please stop by Gina’s blog My Precious for an incredible  discussion about this book. It has a ton of spoilers though, so don’t read it if you haven’t read the book already. I totally clogged up Gina’s comment section with my scattered attempts at putting together all of Cynthia Hand’s clues (sorry!). I’m dying to talk about all this with someone!

Because of all of these hidden clues and maneuverings, a part of me does wish I had waited until all of the books in the series had been published. This book does end on a cliffhanger, though it is an appropriate point to end book one. I have a terrible memory, and I have a feeling that as difficult as it will be to remember all of the clues I recognized, it will be near impossible for me to remember all of the clues I missed that will play a major role later on. I think I will have to re-read Unearthly before I read Hallowed.

 Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

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This book satisfies the following challenges: 

• 2011 Debut Author Challenge
• Most Awaited YA Releases Challenge
• Morbid Romantica Challenge
• Library Reading Challenge
• 350 Page Books Challenge

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