Unearthly ~ Cynthia Hand review

Unearthly
HarperTeen
January 4, 2011
448 pages
Buy/info at Amazon


Clara is not only a teenage girl dealing with the usual teenage girl struggles, she's also a Quartarius--one quarter angel. Thankfully for Clara her mother is a half angel and there to help her through coming into her angel-yness (her father's not around or any part angel).

Clara has started to have visions--well a vision, multiple times. The vision is there to tell her her 'purpose'. Every angel or angel-blood has a 'purpose', something they were put on Earth to do. After a while Clara is able to piece together the clues in her vision and knows where the event is going to take place.

Soon, the family-Clara, her mother and her brother Jeffrey are moving to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to help Clara fulfill her purpose.

On the first day of school she meets Christian--the boy at the center of her vision and their lives become linked. There's also Angela, the girl who possibly gives Clara a strange look during the classes' '3 Unique Facts About Me' exercise, Wendy--one of the self professed Invisibles who pretty much instantly becomes Clara's friend, and Tucker, Wendy's infuriating twin brother.

And, of course, there's Clara's need to learn how to be a Quartarius, to learn what being an angel-blood entails and just how she's meant to fulfill her purpose. All while being the New Girl at the same time.


Unearthly being about angels automatically made it different than the other, current paranormal stories, but Cynthia Hand's writing and imagination made it a different worth reading. Each of the characters had their own thing (or things) going on that made them interesting to read about and great additions to the story. I really loved that the setting was so fully utilized in this story, they didn't just live in some town because, the location inspired events in the story and was used almost as a character itself.

And I can't say enough for my love of the romance in this book. It was not solely a romance but the romantic relationship in Unearthly was better written than most I've read in books where there was no supernatural element or other plotline. Hand created two characters I was rooting for from the beginning all the way through to the end. I loved both of them and I loved them together.

The first few chapters of the book had me thinking it was just a really good book, but then when I picked it up again and it really got going, the story sucked me in and I couldn't put it down. (I had a cold and I kept thinking, 'Just a few more pages,' until I got up to take my cold medicine but the only getting up I did until the ending was to turn on a light!

The development, pacing, characters, plot, and mythos of Uneartlhy are all brilliant. I really can't wait to read more from Cynthia Hand and I applaud her for this fantastic debut.

a glorious 10/10


(read this both via NetGalley egalley and a print ARC I won from PitchDarkBooks)