Unearthly (Unearthly, #1)

by Cynthia Hand

This is my new favourite book and series!! I loved it! Absolutely loved it! As you can see from my five club rating

When I finished this book I went out and ordered it from my book store. I wanted to have a copy of my own.

The quote on the cover of this book describes how I feel about this book. Exactly.

To be honest, the blurb didn’t sell me on it. Because it sounds like the story was going to have a lot of religious views, because it’s about angels and all. Also then because it’s about angels and the first book I read on angels was Fallen, which I hated, so you can imagine my hesitancy. I felt like it told the whole story in a nut shell so what is there left to read? Well the answer is quite a lot really. And it’s not that religious at all. There are references here and there but it doesn’t dwell on religion.

As soon as I started reading I was captivated by the writing style, it was written in first person present tense which usually leaves me feeling like I can’t get drawn in to the story. But with Unearthly that was not the case. The tense worked incredibly well, it was unobtrusive and exciting. I found I actually couldn’t put this book down because I was so excited to see what was going to happen next.

It was a little slow for the real story to start but to be honest I didn’t mind. I didn’t get bored at all through this story. I felt the beginning was a good start and a good way of explaining things without the reader feeling like they just got a whole lot of information dumped on them and hardly had any time to process or understand it.

I took my time to read this book because I loved it so much. I actually found myself late at night stopping myself from reading more just so I could read it for a day longer, just so I could feel excited to get home from work or class and pick up the book to read more of it. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Hence the five club rating!

I found it very easy to connect with Clara, she had imperfections, she had real worries, she wasn’t dramatic or annoying, she seemed so real and thought like a real person in her situations. She wasn’t so immature that you felt like she acted like a kid. She wasn’t so immature that I’m sure older readers will also be able to connect with her as well as the younger ones (I’m 22 is that says something).

I absolutely loved that the relationships took time to grow and become what they were. They didn’t just happen instantly. The one thing I hate is when the main character falls in ‘love’ at the very beginning and its obvious a quarter of the way through that the guy she’s in love with is also in love with her. Where’s the fun in trying to capture the guy that way? It’s like, “Helloo, you both like each other so what the hell is keeping you apart?”. There is no fun in reading that. So the fact that this book did not do that is one huge plus for me and makes me sigh in relief!

I found myself asking so many questions. Like her brother Jeffrey, you just know he’s up to something but you have no idea what. And her mother Maggie, what on earth is she hiding from Clara? It must be huge! I have huge suspicions about her friend Angela. And her friend Wendy? Hmmmmmm, I just have a niggling feeling about her and her twin brother Tucker (Which I could be totally wrong about). You feel like this and it excites you trying to figure out the answers to all these questions. No wonder I wanted to read Clara’s story forever.

The ending left me a little confused and feeling quite down though. I know I’ve said quite a lot that I like good-feel endings but this is different. I loved the whole story and yes the ending did make me feel sad and anxious but it was a good sad and anxious. It definitely left me asking a lot more questions. So many questions need to be answered still, but there aren’t so many that it’s ridiculous. It’s the right amount to let your imagination go crazy trying to put all the pieces together. To want to buy the second book straight away to find out what really happens.

I am very excited to read the next book. So excited that I want to leave it a while purely because the third book does not come out till next year! I must sound crazy if I say I love this book so much but a year is a very long time to wait for the third book when I know I will want to read it as soon as I finish the second book. So I don’t want to put myself through that pain just yet!

Cynthia Hand is now one of my favourite authors. Following Juliet Marillier (I love most of her books, mostly the Wildwood series although I loved Heart’s Blood just as much.) and Richelle Mead.

I highly recommend you give this book a go! Then let me know your opinion on it!

Miss J
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