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trudilibrarian 's review for:
Hallowed
by Cynthia Hand
3.5 stars
Liked this even better than the first one, so that's good. Review to come!
Clara has an unusual problem: unlike most girls her age who are stressing about SAT scores and getting into the college of their dreams, Clara has a celestial-ordained purpose (with a capital P) hanging over her angelic head --like the proverbial Damocles sword AND a Black Wing who has marked her out as an enemy. What's a Black Wing you say? It's pretty much as it sounds -- Fallen Angels (exiles from Heaven thrown out after the War whose wings have lost their majestic white hue).
I ♥♥♥ some of the myth-building in this one -- Black Wings are awesome and I hope to get much more of who they actually are and what they want in Book 3. Earthly angel-bloods -- the offspring of full blood Angels mixing with humans -- are fascinating too. They represent a pseudo-superhero mystique that I can get behind. There are no tights involved, or capes, but they can fly and leap tall buildings. Clara is one of these and we learn much more about her parentage -- and the angel-bloods themselves -- this time around, and I found all of it to leave me wanting more. In a good way though, not a "will you get to the point" way.
There was still more adolescent angst in this one than I can normally tolerate, and I could actually have done without the puppy love story. I appreciate that Clara is desperately trying to cling to some normalcy in a life that has spun hazardously out of control, but jeesh ... with everything that's going on maybe making out with your super hot, super sweet boyfriend shouldn't be such a priority. In Clara's defense, she's doing the best she can under the circumstances, and as a believable and likable heroine I am cheering for her.
I was also very moved by the death scene (even while feeling a little emotionally manipulated). It rang true and I did cry. The last scene where Clara's father takes her to "heaven" to witness her mother running across a gorgeous landscape towards who knows what made me smile through my tears too. Kudos to the author for pulling that off.
So I did enjoy this one, even more than the first, and I am looking forward to Book 3, where my hope is Hand pulls out all the stops and we get some heavy angel-on-angel action, a Heavenly War on Earth where the stakes are A LOT higher than merely who Clara chooses to love for the rest of her life.
Liked this even better than the first one, so that's good. Review to come!
Clara has an unusual problem: unlike most girls her age who are stressing about SAT scores and getting into the college of their dreams, Clara has a celestial-ordained purpose (with a capital P) hanging over her angelic head --like the proverbial Damocles sword AND a Black Wing who has marked her out as an enemy. What's a Black Wing you say? It's pretty much as it sounds -- Fallen Angels (exiles from Heaven thrown out after the War whose wings have lost their majestic white hue).
I ♥♥♥ some of the myth-building in this one -- Black Wings are awesome and I hope to get much more of who they actually are and what they want in Book 3. Earthly angel-bloods -- the offspring of full blood Angels mixing with humans -- are fascinating too. They represent a pseudo-superhero mystique that I can get behind. There are no tights involved, or capes, but they can fly and leap tall buildings. Clara is one of these and we learn much more about her parentage -- and the angel-bloods themselves -- this time around, and I found all of it to leave me wanting more. In a good way though, not a "will you get to the point" way.
There was still more adolescent angst in this one than I can normally tolerate, and I could actually have done without the puppy love story. I appreciate that Clara is desperately trying to cling to some normalcy in a life that has spun hazardously out of control, but jeesh ... with everything that's going on maybe making out with your super hot, super sweet boyfriend shouldn't be such a priority. In Clara's defense, she's doing the best she can under the circumstances, and as a believable and likable heroine I am cheering for her.
Spoiler
I laugh every time Clara lights up like a super nova when things get hot and heavy with Tucker. I'm also not surprised the way their relationship fizzles from hot to not. Grief has a way of doing that, and if that weren't enough of a wedge, there's Christian. I don't know how I feel about this guy yet -- he's soooo perfect and such an obvious angelic ally for Clara, perhaps even a pre-ordained celestial match -- but I still want her to choose Tucker in the end because I'm a proponent of free-will vs. destiny every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Christian appears to be the one Clara is supposed to be with, therefore it makes me resist the match. Christian is beginning to manifest some interesting characteristics though, that I hope Hand continues to build on in Book 3.I was also very moved by the death scene (even while feeling a little emotionally manipulated). It rang true and I did cry. The last scene where Clara's father takes her to "heaven" to witness her mother running across a gorgeous landscape towards who knows what made me smile through my tears too. Kudos to the author for pulling that off.
So I did enjoy this one, even more than the first, and I am looking forward to Book 3, where my hope is Hand pulls out all the stops and we get some heavy angel-on-angel action, a Heavenly War on Earth where the stakes are A LOT higher than merely who Clara chooses to love for the rest of her life.