Review of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Title: Unearthly Author: Cynthia Hand Pages: 435 Publication Date: Jan. 2011   Source: Review copy, unsolicited

Back Cover

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.

First Lines

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

In a Sentence

While Unearthly was a decently enjoyable read, I felt that there wasn't much to mark it as different from other books in the genre. 

My Thoughts

Alright guys, I'm going to start off by saying that I'm in the minority when it comes to Unearthly, because, unlike most book bloggers, I did not fall head over heels in love with it. BUT...before I upset any of you, know this: it's not like I hated Unearthly either. In fact, my feelings towards this book probably lie on the positive side of mediocre, in that I liked more aspects of Unearthly than I disliked. However, there were still a few issues that I had with it that negatively affected my overall opinion of the book.

First of all, it took me quite awhile to actually get into the book. I found the beginning of Unearthly to be incredibly slow. While I wouldn't exactly call it painfully tedious, I definitely had no problems with putting down Unearthly during the first 200 or so pages. During the first half of the book, I only read two or three chapters a sitting because I had trouble with staying interested in the story. Though I had been warned by some of my friends that the book had a slow start, I didn't expect the slow pace to drag on for nearly as long as it did. My interest in Unearthly didn't pick up until around page 243 (for those of you who've read the book, this is about halfway through Clara's prom). 

Clara herself annoyed me at times. Her obsession with Christian nearly drove me crazy. I understand that, as an angel-blood, anxiety over receiving her Purpose is natural, but personally, I felt she (and her mother) went a bit overboard with the whole Christian thing. I can see why keeping an eye on him would be important, but was it really necessary for Clara to spend all of her waking time pseudo-stalking him and mourning over the fact that he was already taken? When it came to this part of the plot line, I have to say I agreed with Clara's friend, Wendy:

"Christian has a girlfriend, as you might have noticed...I suggest you get over it" (188, ARC).

Clara's obsession with Christian bothered me even more because I found Christian to be a wholly bland and uninteresting character. There was nothing about him that suggested he was any different than your run-of-the-mill paranormal romance love interest. Not to mention Christian made up one branch of yet another love triangle. Don't get me started. If you guys don't already know how I feel about most love triangles...well...you can probably make a pretty good guess from my tone.

However, despite my problems with Christian, I liked quite a few of the other characters in Unearthly. First of all, I loved that both Clara's mom and brother had active roles in her life and the plot. While there could have been a little more development concerning their characters, I suspect that this will happen later in the series. I also liked the character of Tucker. His country-boy charm and sense of humor was one of the reasons why I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first half. 

I also felt that the last couple pages of Unearthly were well-written. The quote below is probably my favorite from the book:

"We didn't ask for any of this; we were born into it. And yet we're supposed to serve blindly, to follow rules we don't understand, to let some larger force map out our lives and tell us who we should love and what, if anything, we should dare to dream" (435, ARC).

I think this brief passage pretty much sums up the underlying theme that Cynthia Hand was trying to get across with this book. I've personally experienced how difficult it can be to question or break away from a way of thinking that you were born and raised in, and I appreciated the fact that Clara had started to realize the importance of making your own decisions and thinking about things instead of letting someone else make all of your decisions. Even if she only went against the system because of her own feelings, that still takes guts, and her doing so made me respect her more as a character by the end of the book.

Overall, Unearthly was a decent read, but it didn't blow me out of the water. However, I am interested enough in the story to continue the series with book number two, Hallowed. 

Links

Add Unearthly to your to-read list on Goodreads.
Find author Cynthia Hand online.

Not sure about this review? Compare our tastes in books. (Goodreads)

___________________________________________

Rating

A few flaws but worth reading