Book #81: Hallowed

Title: Hallowed (book #2 of the Unearthly series)

Author: Cynthia Hand

Date started reading: June 06, 2012
Date finished reading:  June 08, 2012

Publish date: January 2012
ISBN: 978-0061996184
Number of pages: 416

Official summary: "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. " (http://www.cynthiahandbooks.com)

Official book trailers:





How I obtained the book: Bought for $4.24 at used book store

Memorable quotes:

• "I wonder if there's a return policy." ~ Clara about her gift of empathy
• "Patience is a virtue." ~ Angela
  "I'm not that virtuous." ~ Clara
• "I'm having an argument with myself. And I'm losing. So not a good sign." ~ Clara
• "Every moment I'm away from you, I die a little." ~ Clara to Tucker
• "Destiny can really put a damper on the appetite." ~ Clara
• "I laugh at the idea of Satan having an entourage, even though I know it's not funny." ~ Clara
• "I don't care if it screws up my purpose. I'm not going to let him die." ~ Clara about Tucker
• "Sometimes, Angela, you really are full of crap." ~ Clara's mom
• "I guess idiots love company." ~ Clara
• "You followed your heart. That's nothing to be ashamed of." ~ Christian to Clara
• "Nothing can ever truly separate you, not even death. Love binds you." ~ Clara's mom to Clara
• "If you hurt my brother, you're going to have to deal with me. I will bury you in horse manure." ~ Wendy to Clara
• "It's like somebody has hit the pause button on my life." ~ Clara
• "(Skiing is) my drug of choice." ~ Clara
• "That's the hardest part. The absence of certainty." ~ Christian
• "I feel like a bug waiting under God's enormous shoe, and all this dream is telling me, all it's leading me to, is to show up and stand there and wait to be crushed." ~ Clara
• "If (Samjeeza's) hate were the sun, it would burn us all to ash." ~ Clara
• "It's like there's an angel tabloid, and I've been on the front page." ~ Clara
• "It's like I'm a tiny boat adrift in an ocean of pity." ~ Clara
• "Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there's one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can't see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she's like, oh dear, however will I choose? ... So unrealistic, I always thought. Joke's on me, I guess." ~ Clara
• "The secrets never end." ~ Clara
• "Her jealousy is like something slimy in my mind." ~ Clara about Angela
•  "For you, time is like a line drawn across a piece of paper, a succession of events. A to B to C, one moment following another. Where I come from, there are no lines. We are the paper." ~ Michael
• "I've felt lost in a sea of my own guilt, and it truly feels like I'm underwater. ... I try to breathe and I get a mouthful of guilt." ~ Clara
• "It's funny how when people change, you forget the way they used to be." ~ Clara
• "Girl, you have a knack for drawing trouble." ~ Billy to Clara
• "My life is a soap opera." ~ Clara
  "A really, really addictive soap opera." ~ Christian
• "Patience is not your strong suit." ~ Michael to Clara

My commentary:

•  I am still in awe that I found this book less than four months after its release as a hardcover for only $4.24. It was missing the dust jacket, so the book store sold it much less than it would've sold it for if it came with the jacket. Frankly the dust jackets just annoy me most of the time, so I don't mind it much.
• This series is so utterly amazing. I figured I'd like it, but I didn't expect to love it so much. It has a more traditional take on angels and nephil than the other angel-related books I've read lately, but the author tells the story in such an amazing way that it feels fresh and very addictive. 
• I find it funny that I've ended up reading so many books lately that mention stuff from the Bible, from John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and from "The Book of Enoch." I really loved "Paradise Lost" when I read it in high school. It was one of the few things I read back then for school that I can honestly say that I loved. I even read ended up reading "Paradise Regained" for fun. Reading these books makes me almost want to re-read "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" ... almost... 
• *Spoiler alert* In this book, I was very surprised to learn that Clara's father was archangel Michael. I wasn't surprised at the fact that her father was an angel, not a human, but I totally didn't expect it to be Michael. It was a shock to think that one of the highest angels would've been married to a half-angel/half-human woman and have children.

Buy on Amazon.com: Hallowed: An Unearthly Novel