I don’t know if I was in one of my spells when I read this but I was so annoyed with Clara it took me weeks to finish it. The reading slump was already a factor but what made it worse is Hallowed’s very slow pacing.
Hallowed by Cynthia Hand
Unearthly, # 2
Hardbound, HarperTeen, 403 pages
YA Fantasy, Paranormal
Read from January 20 to March 09, 2013
For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn’t prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.
Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves 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.
In this compelling sequel to Unearthly, Cynthia Hand captures the joy of first love, the anguish of loss, and the confusion of becoming who you are.
Note: This review contains spoilers.
I have a bad history with YA sequels so I was bit cautious in reading this. I gave up on YA paranormal years ago because I feel like everything in this genre is overdone, repetitive, or a pathetic copy of what’s the current “publishing/bestseller” trend but Cynthia Hand has her way in writing that makes her stories easy to read and that made me hope that YA paranormal may still offer new things to it’s readers. I really liked Unearthly and I don’t want this series to end up in my hate list.
The thing is I have prejudices with love-triangle plots in teen paranormal. And since it’s practically present in all series I’ve read in this genre, I should be used to it, yes? But no, it still annoys me to death. This is why Clara’s absurd decisions when it comes to Tucker and Christian in almost half of the novel always gets in my nerves. She’s very firm in her feelings for Tucker but she can’t f*cking stay away from Christian. Yes, there are a lot of angel-blood thing going on between them but why make both guys suffer? They’re both amazing guys and Clara’s messing with their heads (and hearts)! I also don’t like her thinking of throwing her future away for a boyfriend. That irritated me most. Tucker is a great guy alright but he isn’t and will never be enough for Clara or for any person to turn down a bright future. Ever heard of the saying, if you truly love someone set them free, if they comes back, it’s meant to be?
That is my major beef with Hallowed, oh wait, that’s only secondary with its slow pacing. I was so bored. I have to drop it a few times. There’s not much action and everything seems so… slow. I understand why the pacing has to be like that but I’m used to fast-paced fantasy books. And because my reading slump in 2013 was in epic proportions, the pacing was really a pain in the ass. Although after Clara finally made a decision of what’s she’s going to do with her life, the pacing was a lot bearable. It’s one of the reasons I rated Hallowed 3 Kiss Marks. I was leaning to a 2 or 2.5 rating but Cynthia Hand knows how to touch love, loss, friendship and making difficult decisions in a very mundane way and that made a difference in my rating. It’s easy to relate with her characters. Underneath their supernatural world, Clara and the rest of the gang are normal, hormonal, growing up teenagers.
“There’s nothing more inspiring than the complexity and beauty of the human heart.” – Cynthia Hand
Clara is clearly not my most loved character in this book but there are those that I really liked. I am Team Tucker since the very beginning, my heart went out to him in this book, but I also almost came to a point of jumping ship to Team Christian. They are both wonderful boys and even if Clara will not end up with Tucker, Christian is also worth it. (That way, I’ll have Tucker for myself!)
Reading Hallowed will not answer the mystery surrounding the visions of these young angel-bloods. We see the connection, we get a few answers in some of our questions from Unearthly and we get to see more of the angel world in this trilogy. Even if I didn’t like Hallowed the way I loved Unearthly, this series is still worth reading.
I will be reading Boundless this year. It’s time to put this series behind my back.
Mediocre: I can tolerate it but I want more!
Other Reviews:
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Challenges:
Book # 29 of 2013
Blurb and Book Cover: Goodreads & HarperTeen
Book Copy: Owned
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