Hallowed (Unearthly #2)

This is one of the few times I actually liked a sequel in a series of books.
In Unearthly we find out Clara is part-angel. She moves to Wyoming because that is where she will fulfill her 'angelic purpose', which is saving a boy from a fire. This boy turns out to be Christian, who is also part-angel. But in the end she saves Tucker, another boy she meets, and thus she defies her purpose. Hallowed follows up on this event.

Before I began this book, I feared it would turn out to be like too many books with a love triangle: cheesy and no story but the love triangle. Luckily I was wrong!

Where in most second books in trilogies nothing important happens, this books is full of new events that actually affect the story.
The book is mostly about Clara's new visions. She sees a cemetery and certain people are not there. At first she thinks it is Tucker's funeral, but later it turns out it is her Mom's. The whole part in the book of Clara's mom dying is very sad and I wished the writer would not have done this, I would have loved to know more about her past.
We also meet Clara's dad in the book. He turns out to be a real angel, this turns out to mean Clara is much stronger than she initially thought. I liked that now her mom died, she still has some kind of parent figure to go to.
I missed Jeffrey (Clara's brother) his humor this book. I thought him really funny in the first book, but he was sort of depressed in Hallowed. Of course, that's not hard to understand with his mom dying, but some more humor in the books would have been nice. I did not really understand his purpose, but it seems he is growing darker and darker.
The bad guy in this book (the dark angel Samjeeza) seemed a lot less convincing than in the first book. When first he wanted to kill her, now he just turns up sometimes and talks a bit, nothing else. I had higher expectations for this, I had thought he would have had some sort of revenge planned.. Maybe in the next book?
And then of course: the love triangle.. What I liked about the love triangle is that Clara is not constantly thinking about who she should be with and changing her mind about it every minute. She really loves Tucker, but he will never understand her and her angel problems like Christian does. And of course she has the whole purpose thing, which seems to point to her ending up with Christian in the end, which she is fighting. I am not really 'Team' anyone here, but I guess in the next book a fight with the dark angels will begin and Christian will be a lot more helpful than Tucker there..

I would definitely recommend this book! It is a good sequel, which is rare. The book answers a lot of questions from the first book and does not get boring. I'm excited for the last book in this trilogy!

http://www.evelinesbooks.blogspot.nl

Meh, I say, meh. I liked this book alright, but I was a little put off by Clara’s constant “I didn’t complete my purpose what does that mean” whining that seemed to permeate the entirety of this book. Every time she brought up the indecisiveness of her choice at the end of “Unearthly” I just wanted to shake her. How can she think her life is meaningless when she did what she did? How could she think that God would wish her to make a different choice in the end?
Although that frustration was excessive throughout the book, it didn’t take away my feelings on it completely. I did still find myself thoroughly engrossed in the situations in the second book of the series.

I absolutely loved the blossoming romance between Clara and Tucker. The little things they did together that I found so completely perfect for them. I almost wished the book was entirely about Clara and Tucker and all the other stuff with Christian and her destiny fell away. I was steadfast in my determination to read every word of the book instead of just skipping all but the Clara and Tucker bits. Cynthia Hand writes good love scenes.

When I realized that Clara was going to lose someone close to her I ran through all the characters feverishly. Tucker? Jeffrey? Christian? Wendy? Angela? Who could she lose that would rock her so heavily. I came to the conclusion at the same moment that Clara did and I wept. I openly and without shame wept. My sobs generated a bit of an unease within my house, but such is the problem of a bookworm. We care about our fictional characters and don’t want any of them every to do… Unless they are exceedingly annoying and in that case, we pray for them to die.

A new evil that was vaguely mentioned in “Unearthly” is discussed more openly in this book by way of leading up to the grand finale of the third book. I loved that Cynthia Hand trickled information about the “big baddies” slowly throughout the three books instead of shoving it down our gullets in the first book and just casually reminding us of them in the subsequent books.

I devoured Hallowed in a matter of hours. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning following Christian, Clara, Tucker, and the various other characters down a road of weakness, strength, and love. I never expected to love Christian since, being a team Tucker member, he was the enemy, but I started to really start liking Christian. Why, Cynthia?! Why do you have to make the third in the love triangle almost as endearing as the one I love?! Starting to understand why Clara is having such issues.

“Hallowed” was the perfect middle book in the trilogy. It introduced the “big baddies” that will be the focal points of the last book, it caused it’s reader to feel heartbreak in preparation for the (most likely) happy ending of the final book in the trilogy, and it showed a few characters that were not the main protagonists to have deeper sides to them that originally thought. I think Cynthia did an excellent job with “Hallowed”… despite Clara’s constant turmoil over her purpose, her heart, and her existence in general.

Review posted on: http://www.ladybugliterature.blogspot.com

Unearthly left me wanting more, and only a few chapters into Hallowed I got more than I was expecting! Clara is worrying about what it means for her to have failed her purpose, and she’s plagued by a new vision. Is it a new purpose? Or is it just a peek into events to come? Either way it’s going to be heartbreaking! When the time came, I had such a hard time holding back tears, but I had to since I was sitting in the middle of a student lounge. It was just so sad, even though we’re told exactly what’s coming. Poor Clara has a lot to deal with in this book.

Aside from the tragic event mentioned above, she also has normal teen problems to deal, which I liked reading about in addition to her angelic issues. She’s struggling making a decision about her future, mainly what college to attend in the fall. Thankfully, she has her best friend, Angela, to help with that. She also has to deal with the aftermath of getting caught in her boyfriend’s bed at 6:30 in the morning! And prom, and homework, and dealing with a moody younger sibling. Typical teen stuff.

Her angel problems are no picnic either, but we get to learn a ton of new information about them. Clara’s mom is finally breaking the silence regarding her secrets, and some of them are pretty major! Clara’s whole sense of identity is being reconstructed on top of everything else she’s being faced with.

This sequel does not disappoint in any way. We get answers to many of the pressing questions left over from Unearthly, plus we’re bombarded with so much new information that bring up their own questions. There’s also plenty of scenes with Tucker and Christian, and now I’m torn about who I think Clara should be with! Hallowed reveals new sides to both of them, and it truly made the love triangle that much more intense. We also get more of Jeffrey and now his moodiness makes so much more sense. I really do not want to wait for the next book!

So I’m feeling pretty darn conflicted after finishing Hallowed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but all the hype gave me too high of expectations. Plus, I’m just feeling generally conflicted about the characters themselves since everything I thought I knew from Unearthly kind of got flipped on its head.

The story itself was great. There was just enough recap to help the reader remember the important stuff from the previous book, but not so much that it bogged the story down. I liked that we followed Clara through her last year of high school all the way to graduation and I’m desperately hoping we actually get to see her in college in the next book. That’s something I so very rarely get to see in YA.
I also really appreciated that the broad storyline was carried over from Unearthly but Hallowed focused mostly on its own story arc and believe it or not, things actually get wrapped up. I know, that seems like a completely impossible thing to ask of a sequel, but Hallowed does it with style.

Then we have the characters. I’m not even sure how I feel about anyone anymore. Let’s start with Tucker. I was totally Team Tucker before starting Hallowed, but I kind of missed snarky Tucker from the debut. I haven’t transferred allegiance to Team Christian or anything, but Tucker didn’t hold quite the same appeal for me this time.
Then there’s Jeffrey. He’s definitely one of my favorite characters and by the end I was feeling so sorry for him :[
The Nusthell: Though hype led Hallowed to be a bit of a letdown for me, I still enjoyed it. It’s a solid sequel that could actually do a good job of standing on its own. If you loved Unearthly then you’re likely to love Hallowed as well.