Helpful Score: 1
By now most of you know how I feel about YA paranormal romances. Well just leave that at that. But there are a handful of YA paranormal books that I would be less skeptical of, less hesitant in considering reading, and Cynthia Hands interesting and well-written angel series is one of those few. Despite it unfortunately taking on a few more YA paranormal cliché characteristics, HALLOWED remains a well-written and even funny second book in the trilogy.
One of my favorite parts of Unearthly was Clara and her narration. Too many paranormal YA female protagonists have no personality, no sense of humor. Clara has both. I cant get enough of the moments when she actually pokes fun at her own fictional genre, referencing the melodramaticness of YA paranormal romances, love triangles, and stalker paranormal love interests. I love when fictional characters are, metaphorically, self-aware: it happens so rarely that Im inclined to laugh out loud and share with everyone around me when it happens.
Unfortunatelyalthough in some ways I suppose it was inevitableHALLOWED acquired a few more YA paranormal conventions as it continued Claras story. Despite its subtle jabs at Twilight, Twilight fans will like this series, and HALLOWED reminded me of that pervasive YA paranormal franchise more often than I would have liked. HALLOWED dilly-dallies: the story within probably couldve been told in 150 pages instead of more than 400. It contains few surprises: a large portion of the book seemed to consist of Clara waffling between Tucker and Christian.
Sadly, the attractive and confident Tucker of Unearthly is reduced to being stubborn and petty and just not all that appealing in HALLOWED. Methinks I spot a setup for the third book in here? And Clara finds out something shocking about herself, thereby changing her from (relatively) ordinary girl we can empathize with to character whose struggles are legitimized by her newfound understanding of herself and her role. If Hand had wanted to blow readers away with so-called shocking revelations and twists in HALLOWED, well, lets just say that all I felt was a tickle of a breeze.
HALLOWED wasnt as strong of a read as Unearthly was for me, but fans of Unearthly should still love this second installation in the series. Despite its at-times conventional plot development, HALLOWED is still a well-written and unique take on the angel conceptemphasis on well-written. A strong successor to both the deserved and not-quite-so-deserved financially successful YA paranormal series.
One of my favorite parts of Unearthly was Clara and her narration. Too many paranormal YA female protagonists have no personality, no sense of humor. Clara has both. I cant get enough of the moments when she actually pokes fun at her own fictional genre, referencing the melodramaticness of YA paranormal romances, love triangles, and stalker paranormal love interests. I love when fictional characters are, metaphorically, self-aware: it happens so rarely that Im inclined to laugh out loud and share with everyone around me when it happens.
Unfortunatelyalthough in some ways I suppose it was inevitableHALLOWED acquired a few more YA paranormal conventions as it continued Claras story. Despite its subtle jabs at Twilight, Twilight fans will like this series, and HALLOWED reminded me of that pervasive YA paranormal franchise more often than I would have liked. HALLOWED dilly-dallies: the story within probably couldve been told in 150 pages instead of more than 400. It contains few surprises: a large portion of the book seemed to consist of Clara waffling between Tucker and Christian.
Sadly, the attractive and confident Tucker of Unearthly is reduced to being stubborn and petty and just not all that appealing in HALLOWED. Methinks I spot a setup for the third book in here? And Clara finds out something shocking about herself, thereby changing her from (relatively) ordinary girl we can empathize with to character whose struggles are legitimized by her newfound understanding of herself and her role. If Hand had wanted to blow readers away with so-called shocking revelations and twists in HALLOWED, well, lets just say that all I felt was a tickle of a breeze.
HALLOWED wasnt as strong of a read as Unearthly was for me, but fans of Unearthly should still love this second installation in the series. Despite its at-times conventional plot development, HALLOWED is still a well-written and unique take on the angel conceptemphasis on well-written. A strong successor to both the deserved and not-quite-so-deserved financially successful YA paranormal series.
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