Book Review: Unearthly (Unearthly #1) by Cynthia Hand

General Information:

• Publisher: HarperCollins/HarperTeen
• Date Published: January 4th, 2011
• Pages: Hardcover, 435 pages
• Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Main Characters:

• Clara Gardner
• Jeffrey Gardner (Clara’s Brother)
• Maggie Gardner (Clara’s Mom)
• Christian Prescott
• Wendy Avery
• Tucker Avery

Review:

The book starts off with Clara having a vision. She sees a boy alone in the woods, just standing there. Clara knows that she is seeing the future. It’s part of her purpose. She has to save this boy from the fire that is surrounding them.

Clara is an angel, which is the reason why she is having those visions. It’s her “purpose,” and every angel gets one in their life.

After Clara sees where her purpose takes place, her and her mom and brother move to Wyoming from California to fulfill her purpose. It's destiny, after all.

Jeffrey isn't thrilled about it because he’ll miss his friends, but he gets over it. Clara isn’t either, but she deals with it because that’s where she has to fulfill her purpose. It is an important event in her life. She can't possibly avoid it.

On the first day of school, Clara sees the boy she saw in her visions. It’s Christian Prescott.

Later on, Clara meets her new friend, Wendy at her new school, and she also meets her brother Tucker. He’s mean to her, but she just ignores him. You know what they say, if a boy is mean to you, that means he likes you, right? We will see.

Clara keeps having visions and she has to figure out how to adjust with being an angel and being a normal girl.

Clara soon realizes that the vision about saving the boy, it's something more; she just can't figure it out...not yet, at least.

Thoughts:

I was surprised at how great this book was. I was scared to jump into another angel book after reading “Fallen,” but I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of angel books tend to be a hit-or-miss because some authors never quite do them justice. Or it's just cliche that you don't even want to bother with them. But with Unearthly, I liked how the author involved many characters into the story, and how it wasn't predictable. Clara's mom was really involved in Clara's life. She taught her about how to deal with certain situations that being an angel brings her. Clara has to go through struggles about being a teenager, and it's believable, which I liked. Clara is a very relatable character. She is not made out to be 'Miss. Unbeatable.' She has her flaws and knows it. She is a character that is realistic. I really enjoyed that.

But to be completely honest, this book has become my ultimate favorite Young Adult novel of all time, and I am a hard person to please. So if you are looking for a book to read, I HIGHLY recommend reading this as soon as possible! You will not regret it!