Hallowed - Cynthia Hand (Review)

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

(Unearthly #2)

January 17th 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers

416p

CONTAINS SPOILERS OF UNEARTHLY

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.

Clara did not fulfill her purpose and thing did not came out as they were expected to, but life must go on and Clara needs to find answer to all her questions. Unfortunately a lot of things get complicated and that just adds confusion to Clara´s life. There´s Tucker and there´s Christian who apparently hasn’t given up on her, Jeffrey´s acting strange and her mother ´s is still avoiding her questions… but there´s something else, something awful about to come…and Clara does not know how will she manage to overcome it.

In hallowed we can see a way more human Clara (ironic, right) because she´s struggling with a lot of issues, her heart tells her one thing and her mind another, and there is a lot she does not know and is just frustrating for her not to know what to do or not being able to do what she wants without creating a big mess.

It was a great second part, with more action, way more drama, more mystery (kind of, with all the things her mother´s hiding from her) and I think it was better than Unearthly in a lot of aspects. The writing is awesome, I loved to know more about other characters, I loved how my favorite characters grow up and got more mature and it was great to find a new twist (I was certainly not expecting THAT) in the story without taking the essence away, because it still is about Clara´s purpose but is also about her family, about herself, about Tucker and Christian and Jeffrey, I really liked that.

I don’t know if it was just me but I found Hallowed way more touching than Unearthly, I cried, I laughed and I really empathized with Clara and I just kept wondering what was really happening, making guesses and it was great to be submerged that much in the story.

The ending was just so sad…in a lot of aspects and I seriously hope things work out and that will have a lot a Tucker and Christian as well in book three.

I really like Unearthly (as you can see here); it was something refreshing… the whole angel, purpose thing and especially because it was a girl. I love the writing and it was a great book for me. So, yes, I was very excited to read more about Clara, Tucker, Christian and angels and purposes and was really hoping Hallowed did not disappoint. I didn´t…and a loved it.

Hallowed was definitely a wondrous read, a gripping thrilling sequel that I’m sure you´ll want to read.

Plot 5/ 5

Characters 4.5/ 5

Writing Style 5 / 5

Finale 4.5/ 5

Cover 4.5/ 5

Total 5/5