Length: 435 pages
"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."
★ ★ ★ ★ STARS
Spoilers ahead
I absolutely love Cynthia Hand's writing style! This was my first book that I read of hers and I was incredibly surprised.
I honestly could not believe it when it turned out that Tucker and Clara were falling for one another. I mean, I can't seriously be the only one who thought that the two of them would basically be constant enemies? But boy was I happy when they got together.
This was the first book about angels that I have read before. I mean, The Mortal Instruments obviously also has angels in it, but this was very different and I really loved the perspective it gave us on what kind of creatures angels are.
I am still completely at a loss for words on what happened at the end of the book, with Christian also being angel-blooded and the fact that he HAD THE SAME PURPOSE AS HER (???). Goodness, that really shocked me.
That aside though, I did feel like the ending was just a tiny bit cliché, with Clara flying off to save Tucker instead of Christian, but it didn't really bother me one bit to be honest (probably cause they're just so darn cute together!).
I am incredibly intrigued though by Clara's mom, and what exactly her backstory is. If I'm to take a guess at what she's hiding, I'm going to guess that maybe her purpose didn't work out either, and she suffered serious repercussions? (Maybe something that led her to meet that fallen angel?).
The only thing that kind of bothered me was this (and I seriously hope I won't get any backlash for saying this): as a Christian myself who strongly believes in a loving God who grants everyone free will, I don't really like the book "trope" where God and a "divine destiny" (if you will) gets pitted against someone's wish to love someone (or someone else). I strongly believe that we are all free to love who we want to and just generally portraying God as someone who will punish someone for loving someone is - even though it's something fine to use in books and movies and whatnot as a plot device - an inaccurate representation of the Divine and might mislead people into believing something about God that isn't true.
(Ok, enough religious ranting, LOL )
What I also really appreciated about this book were the friendships. I absolutely loved Clara's relationship with Angela and Wendy and it was really interesting to compare the two of them. I wonder whether Wendy will soon be in the know about what Clara is (considering Tucker knows everything now) and whether Wendy and Angela will ever really become good friends. I also really loved Angela and how they her mom owned that theater.
And I am also insanely curious as to why Angela's wings are pure white. I mean, is there something going on that we don't know about?? (I mean, probably, this is a trilogy after all)
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