Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand
Author: Cynthia Hand
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Pages: 435 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Read in March 2011
Summary (lame one taken from Goodreads): 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?
My thoughts: This is actually the second “angel” book I have read (unless we’re counting Cassandra Clare’s books, but they don’t seem quite the same as the recent crop of teen paranormal angel romances) and I should admit right away that when I hear “angels”, I think of the pictures in the Precious Moments Bible, which my mom had when I was a kid. Then I think of The Prophecy and Dogma.
So, you can understand that I was unprepared to like this book. Angels are either cutesy or creepy or the subject of satire. I expected to roll my eyes a lot reading this one, figuring it would fall on the “cutesy” side of the Precious Moments/Christopher Walken spectrum, but Hand manages to make her angels transcend all of those things (well, okay, the Black Wings are creepy, but villains generally are) and tell an excellent story. I did roll my eyes a few times, but that’s more of a reflection on me and my trouble suspending my disbelief for angels in the first place. (Except for the whole color-coded white wing/black wing division of good/evil - might as well give all the evil angels long mustaches to twirl while they’re tying the good angels to the train tracks, as well.) Still, I did not roll my eyes at the characters or the romance/s, which is where I expected to do so.
Clara is a refreshing heroine; she’s neither stupid nor preternaturally wise, she treats her family and her friends with respect (most of the time - nobody’s perfect), and while she’s good at a lot of things without trying (skiing, riding horses, etc.), she has to practice at the things that really matter (like flying without crashing into trees). Also, I liked that she doesn’t blindly follow her purpose once it conflicts with her experiences and feelings, and that she takes responsibility for the repercussions. I liked the push-pull tension of her feelings for Christian and for Tucker; normally, I don’t like love triangles, but Hand sets up this one realistically, without making any of the characters obviously “good for Clara” or “bad for Clara”. They both have appeal and she has the ability to choose (so far, at least).
I liked all of the mysteries in this story and the uncertainty we are left with at the end. It’s not just all about Clara’s purpose, though her figuring that out is obviously the main plot, and the slow, piece-by-piece revealing of the details holds the tension well (especially since we still haven’t learned why this is her purpose, a key piece of information). But it’s also about everybody else’s secrets: her mother’s job that seems to leave her so drained; her mother’s past with her own apparent love triangle; her brother’s sneaking around; her angel friend’s mysterious guy in Italy. I suspect they all have to do with the Black Wings and their rumored war, but nothing in the way of answers is given. Talk about reasons to make me come back for the sequel!
For a book about angels with a purpose, I think Hand did a remarkable job keeping religion out of the story. It’s kind of all predicated on the existence of God, and of Heaven and Hell, but it doesn’t take over the story; it’s transparent and possible to ignore. That may get harder to do in the sequels, but right now, the angel mythology has the right mix of practical and spiritual.
Yes, I did my typical overthinking thing and wondered (among many other things I won’t go into here) how much angel blood it takes to make somebody receive a purpose. Like, if Clara has a kid with a human, their baby would have even less angel blood than a quarter - is that enough? When does the blood get watered down so much that the angel part is completely bred out? Or do those super-watered-down angel bloods just get less big, less important purposes, like giving stray kittens a home or something? (See what I mean by overthinking?)
Overall, the great relationships among the characters and their many, many secrets (almost none of which are revealed) kept me reading and puts the next one at the top of my to-read pile.
Cover thoughts: Sometimes I wonder about these kind of covers. I do love the swirly font, and the feathers, but I'm getting tired of the "girl in beautiful dress posed in unrealistic setting" trend. Yes, it's artfully done, but what the hell is she doing wandering around the woodsy, rock-strewn mountains of Wyoming in that kind of dress?