I wasn't completely sure what to expect when I started Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. On the one hand, the cover is absolutely stunning, and I had heard a lot of great things about the book. But, on the other, I have not had the best of luck with angel stories. Most of the angel stories I've read are okay, but not great, or bad.
But, I worried for nothing. This was by far the best of all the angel books I've read, and I have high hopes for the remaining books in this series.
Hand created some great characters for this novel. Clara is your typical high school teenager. She wants to be liked, wants to fit in, have friends, and a hot boyfriend definitely couldn't hurt. Oh, but she's also an angel. When she turned 14, her mom told her that she's really 1/4 angel, and that makes her smarter, faster, stronger, and basically better than everyone else. Plus, she has wings, and once she gets the hang of it, she'll be able to fly. Her mom also tells her that she will start to receive her purpose. Every angel-blood is sent to earth with one specific purpose — their reason for being. A literal raison d'etre.
When Clara starts getting her purpose, and realizes they will need to be moving from sunning California to super cold Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she's not too happy and neither is her younger brother, who just found out about all this angel stuff.
Her mom's really cryptic about the whole angel thing, continually telling Clara that she needs to discover things on her own. Clara's mom really bothered me. I really hate the whole, I'm not telling you anything — including dangerous/potentially life-threatening information because it's for your own good, thing. It's like, not telling your kid that talking to strangers is usually pretty bad, because you don't want them to know that there are bad things out there. All that does is make sure your kid, or whoever is woefully unprepared when they are faced with a bad or dangerous situation, and we see that more than once in the book. But still, Clara's mom keeps a lot of information from her, even more than Clara realized and this really bothered me.
I thought the love triangle was handled very nicely. One of the best I've read. Christian is the boy from Clara's vision, an integral part of her purpose. And, he's gorgeous. He's popular and everything a teenage girl wants in a boyfriend. And Clara is drawn to him, right from the start, and kind of thinks he might be drawn to her as well. But, he has a girlfriend, and they don't run in the same social circles. Her mom keeps pushing her to focus on him, especially when Tucker, the twin brother of her new best friend starts becoming a bigger part of her life. Yay! For once, the best friend/normal guy gets to be the winner! Christian is that annoying boy with whom the heroine shares one glance, and Boom! Instant connection. They always end up together, and I'm beyond tired of relationships in my books that have absolutely no foundation. But Clara and Tucker start out as friends. They get to know each other slowly, and love grows from there. It was wonderful!
Cynthia Hand has a great ability to write realistic and believable characters, even if they can fly. Her writing flows smoothly, and a lot of the writing is beautiful. Also, I live about 1 1/2 hours from Jackson Hole, WY, and I can totally relate to a lot of the culture shock Clara goes through. It gets really cold there, and they really do have arches made out of antlers all over the place.
This is a series with a lot of potential, and I can see it being really great. Of course, there are a few eventualities that would really piss me off if they ended up being realities (like her dumping Tucker for Christian...) but I can definitely see this becoming largely about the role of choice in our lives versus destiny or fate. How much of our lives do we really get to chose? I can't wait to see what Hand thinks for Clara. The next installment should be wonderful, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.
*Disclaimer: I received this book through Around the World Tours.