Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand
Published: January 17th, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 416
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Challenge: none
Other: Second book in the Unearthly series. The third book will be published in 2013.
Buy the book: Bookdepository

Note: this is not the first book in the series, and can therefore contain (minor) spoilers for the previous book in the series. Reading of this review is at your own risk.

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her 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.

After the wonderful surprise that Unearthly gave me in Hand's debut, Hallowed takes the series to the next level. It's very different from the first book in the series, but it was SO good.

Where Unearthly mainly focused on Clara's visions of the forest fire and Christian, this book centers around Clara getting more involved in the angel world and the new vision that she's been having. I'm having a difficult time to put my thoughts into words without spoiling the story, since everything mostly surrounds one event, so this review will be short.

What I will say is that Hand proves that she can write an emotional story. I was completely sucked into the book, and got quite emotional at times. There's one particular scene that made me cry because it was so beautifully written, but there were several scenes that were simply making me experience it as if I was actually there.

While I was firmly on Tucker's side in the first book, things have shifted now that I've read Hallowed. Christian was so much more likable in this book than Tucker was, even though Tucker is going through some crazy stuff with his supernatural girlfriend and it's totally understandable that he's struggling to cope.

Since this book was so different from its prequel, I can't say if it's better. I can say that it was awesome and if you haven't read the first book in the series yet, I suggest you go do that this year. You won't regret it.

My overall rating:


Four and a half stars for Hallowed and me going crazy while waiting for the final installment! Need it now!