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crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
3.0
“We think of happiness as something we can take. But usually it comes from being content with what we have, and accepting ourselves.”
Clara Gardner is now at Stanford with her friends, Angela and Christian. She's getting new visions - ones where she is in a dark room, scared to death. Plus, there's Angela's visions. And to make things more complicated, Clara has to deal with Christian - does she want him to be just a friend or can she get over Tucker to be something more with him?
[b:Unearthly|7488244|Unearthly (Unearthly, #1)|Cynthia Hand|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1324782984s/7488244.jpg|9621771] very much impressed me with its grounded heroine, the interesting twists the story took, the time it spent building relationships (or maintaining them, as with Clara and her mother and brother), the well-developed romance between Clara and Tucker (and how it didn't resort to Romantic Triangle), and the growth of the characters. [b:Hallowed|11563110|Hallowed (Unearthly, #2)|Cynthia Hand|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332883896s/11563110.jpg|14532305] was a bit more disappointing, if only because it chose to go more in the Romantic Triangle route, but it was still pretty good. Twice, Hand has proven herself capable of writing great characters, creating an interesting world/mythos, and forwarding the plot. So going into "Boundless", I was probably putting my expectations a bit high - which is why I found it so utterly disappointing, even as I finished the last page.
NOTE: I will try REALLY REALLY hard to make sure this review contains no spoilers, but I'm only human. If you aren't interested in reading this book but are dying to know which boy Clara chooses, I'll reveal it in the spoiler tags:
Our favorite characters all return - minus some key characters that died in the last book. They are now in college and having to struggle through the change in surroundings and the changes from the last book. The characters are fine, I don't hate them (though there is a brand-new villain added I guess because Samjeeza didn't make the cut? Huh?), but I guess I'm just disappointed with how much they mope about, pondering and thinking about stuff instead of DOING something. Don't get me wrong; rushing in and just doing something isn't the best route. But I would venture to say that the first 300 pages of this 438 tome is various characters going through the motions and thinking about crap. Clara gets a vision and talks to someone about it, but she's no closer to figuring out what happens next. Angela is being secretive and won't talk to anybody. Jeffrey meets up with Clara and tells her she ought to get freaky with Christian. Clara misses Tucker. (What happened to Wendy?! So much for that friendship, I guess!) Christian can't get that Clara likes him as a friend and pines after her. Intersperse this with various college minutiae, and it becomes a rather dull novel.
Then when stuff finally happens, nothing happens. There's a time when Clara and Christian are listening to the new baddie grill Angela about the location of her baby - and they do absolutely nothing, even though Angela sent them a clue to where the baby was (if I can figure out the clue in 10 seconds, being probably the densest person on the planet, these guys should have been able to figure it out MUCH faster). No, we can't have that because we have to have a "chase" scene to find the baby.
Or another scene when Clara, Christian, and the baby are fleeing Wyoming. This was getting my pulse racing - and then they stop in a hotel and meander about for the next 50 pages. We get to hear about the baby's feeding schedule and how Clara feels like a coward (which she is). Oh, and there is a completely pointless scene where all the angelbloods meet to decide to give the baby to Billy - and that's it. So much for the kidnapped Angela! These losers are too busy setting up tents to bother with even attempting to rescue a 19 year old mom.
Or how about the final showdown when Clara has disarmed a baddie and the baddies are outnumbered 5 to 1 and STILL the main baddie is able to escape with one of their own? Did NO ONE think of perhaps tackling the baddie? Stabbing the baddie with a glory blade? Maybe Angela or Jeffrey couldn't, because they hadn't been trained to use glory blades, but Christian could have. At least, Jeffrey and Angela could have tackled the baddie before the baddie left with someone else.
This is just plain sloppy - padding and stretching things out to be more "intense" and "action-y". I'm sorry, but would you be nearly as hyped up if in "Terminator", Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese stayed in that hotel for a month, picking out a home in a nearby county, buying cheese and bread, and maybe planning their baby room? I don't think so!
Then we have all the "twists" and additions to this world that just come from no where. Suddenly, everybody is related to each other. Suddenly, Clara can time travel - and by the way, she isn't even perturbed or even a bit careful about what sort of blather she tells her future mother (she blurts her name, her relationship to her mother, her birthday - and then worries about disrupting the "space-time continuum". A bit late for that, honey). Suddenly, we have to go to hell - which requires an angel and a "friend" to "ground her" (cue eyeroll), because we can't have Clara do anything by herself, without a man. And what better way to create tension between Clara and Christian than to force them to have to do everything together?
And then, to make this entire trilogy seems pointless, we learn why everyone has been having these visions this whole time. I don't want to delve into the why as it's probably spoilery, but I'll just say, my response was, "That's IT?!"
Furthermore, this mission seems INCREDIBLY petty, given that angels are supposed to fight EVIL (the book ends on a "we are fighting against EVIL" note that almost sounds like sequel bait). So what the hell is Clara doing saving two people from hell? COME ON!! I appreciate stories that aren't all "the world is going to end", but you don't establish this world one way and then give such a mediocre purpose.
By the end of the book, I was fully prepared to give this 2 stars, even when the book finally decided to get going (around page 300). But what redeemed the book in my eyes was which boy Clara chose. And the conclusion - it was corny, sure, but I liked it! I also really liked how Angela got tattooed with all of her "sins". That scene really drove home to me how we (society) tell ourselves so often things like "You are a bad person", "You are a slut", or "You are a bad mother" until they become true - until they are tattooed onto us.
It's nice to have closure on this world, but I can't say I'm 100% happy with the outcome. Hand ended her trilogy with a splutter, not the crash-bang I had been hoping for. Not the worst end of a trilogy I've ever seen (at least Clara is with the right guy!), but certainly no where near the best. I don't know that I'd recommend this book; if you are a die-hard fan and must know, then it's a no-brainer to read this, but if you are only "meh" on the series, skip it and look to reviews like mine for who Clara ends up with.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Very little in the way of swear words and even then mostly the mild ones ("damn", "hell" - and not "hell" as in "not heaven").
Angela is said to be sexually active with her Italian boyfriend, along with a boy at college. There is a plot twist that involves her sexuality as well. Clara and Christian share intimate moments, but it never goes much beyond kissing. Same with Clara and Tucker. Nothing explicit.
Violence is tame. A character dies after falling from a great height, but there is no gore. Angela suffers from mental/emotional abuse because of her family and feeling guilty for not being the best she could be. Clara and Christian learn how to use Glory Swords. There is a final battle with the baddies, but it is not overly violent or gory.
Clara Gardner is now at Stanford with her friends, Angela and Christian. She's getting new visions - ones where she is in a dark room, scared to death. Plus, there's Angela's visions. And to make things more complicated, Clara has to deal with Christian - does she want him to be just a friend or can she get over Tucker to be something more with him?
[b:Unearthly|7488244|Unearthly (Unearthly, #1)|Cynthia Hand|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1324782984s/7488244.jpg|9621771] very much impressed me with its grounded heroine, the interesting twists the story took, the time it spent building relationships (or maintaining them, as with Clara and her mother and brother), the well-developed romance between Clara and Tucker (and how it didn't resort to Romantic Triangle), and the growth of the characters. [b:Hallowed|11563110|Hallowed (Unearthly, #2)|Cynthia Hand|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332883896s/11563110.jpg|14532305] was a bit more disappointing, if only because it chose to go more in the Romantic Triangle route, but it was still pretty good. Twice, Hand has proven herself capable of writing great characters, creating an interesting world/mythos, and forwarding the plot. So going into "Boundless", I was probably putting my expectations a bit high - which is why I found it so utterly disappointing, even as I finished the last page.
NOTE: I will try REALLY REALLY hard to make sure this review contains no spoilers, but I'm only human. If you aren't interested in reading this book but are dying to know which boy Clara chooses, I'll reveal it in the spoiler tags:
Spoiler
Clara ends up with Tucker.Our favorite characters all return - minus some key characters that died in the last book. They are now in college and having to struggle through the change in surroundings and the changes from the last book. The characters are fine, I don't hate them (though there is a brand-new villain added I guess because Samjeeza didn't make the cut? Huh?), but I guess I'm just disappointed with how much they mope about, pondering and thinking about stuff instead of DOING something. Don't get me wrong; rushing in and just doing something isn't the best route. But I would venture to say that the first 300 pages of this 438 tome is various characters going through the motions and thinking about crap. Clara gets a vision and talks to someone about it, but she's no closer to figuring out what happens next. Angela is being secretive and won't talk to anybody. Jeffrey meets up with Clara and tells her she ought to get freaky with Christian. Clara misses Tucker. (What happened to Wendy?! So much for that friendship, I guess!) Christian can't get that Clara likes him as a friend and pines after her. Intersperse this with various college minutiae, and it becomes a rather dull novel.
Then when stuff finally happens, nothing happens. There's a time when Clara and Christian are listening to the new baddie grill Angela about the location of her baby - and they do absolutely nothing, even though Angela sent them a clue to where the baby was (if I can figure out the clue in 10 seconds, being probably the densest person on the planet, these guys should have been able to figure it out MUCH faster). No, we can't have that because we have to have a "chase" scene to find the baby.
Or another scene when Clara, Christian, and the baby are fleeing Wyoming. This was getting my pulse racing - and then they stop in a hotel and meander about for the next 50 pages. We get to hear about the baby's feeding schedule and how Clara feels like a coward (which she is). Oh, and there is a completely pointless scene where all the angelbloods meet to decide to give the baby to Billy - and that's it. So much for the kidnapped Angela! These losers are too busy setting up tents to bother with even attempting to rescue a 19 year old mom.
Or how about the final showdown when Clara has disarmed a baddie and the baddies are outnumbered 5 to 1 and STILL the main baddie is able to escape with one of their own? Did NO ONE think of perhaps tackling the baddie? Stabbing the baddie with a glory blade? Maybe Angela or Jeffrey couldn't, because they hadn't been trained to use glory blades, but Christian could have. At least, Jeffrey and Angela could have tackled the baddie before the baddie left with someone else.
This is just plain sloppy - padding and stretching things out to be more "intense" and "action-y". I'm sorry, but would you be nearly as hyped up if in "Terminator", Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese stayed in that hotel for a month, picking out a home in a nearby county, buying cheese and bread, and maybe planning their baby room? I don't think so!
Then we have all the "twists" and additions to this world that just come from no where. Suddenly, everybody is related to each other. Suddenly, Clara can time travel - and by the way, she isn't even perturbed or even a bit careful about what sort of blather she tells her future mother (she blurts her name, her relationship to her mother, her birthday - and then worries about disrupting the "space-time continuum". A bit late for that, honey). Suddenly, we have to go to hell - which requires an angel and a "friend" to "ground her" (cue eyeroll), because we can't have Clara do anything by herself, without a man. And what better way to create tension between Clara and Christian than to force them to have to do everything together?
And then, to make this entire trilogy seems pointless, we learn why everyone has been having these visions this whole time. I don't want to delve into the why as it's probably spoilery, but I'll just say, my response was, "That's IT?!"
Spoiler
Turns out all these stupid visions were so that Clara could rescue Angela and Jeffrey from hell. So why was Angela given that vision where she was told to tell Phen about the baby? You know, if she hadn't had the vision, she wouldn't have told Phen about the baby, which meant she wouldn't go to hell - do you see how stupid this is?Furthermore, this mission seems INCREDIBLY petty, given that angels are supposed to fight EVIL (the book ends on a "we are fighting against EVIL" note that almost sounds like sequel bait). So what the hell is Clara doing saving two people from hell? COME ON!! I appreciate stories that aren't all "the world is going to end", but you don't establish this world one way and then give such a mediocre purpose.
By the end of the book, I was fully prepared to give this 2 stars, even when the book finally decided to get going (around page 300). But what redeemed the book in my eyes was which boy Clara chose. And the conclusion - it was corny, sure, but I liked it! I also really liked how Angela got tattooed with all of her "sins". That scene really drove home to me how we (society) tell ourselves so often things like "You are a bad person", "You are a slut", or "You are a bad mother" until they become true - until they are tattooed onto us.
It's nice to have closure on this world, but I can't say I'm 100% happy with the outcome. Hand ended her trilogy with a splutter, not the crash-bang I had been hoping for. Not the worst end of a trilogy I've ever seen (at least Clara is with the right guy!), but certainly no where near the best. I don't know that I'd recommend this book; if you are a die-hard fan and must know, then it's a no-brainer to read this, but if you are only "meh" on the series, skip it and look to reviews like mine for who Clara ends up with.
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Very little in the way of swear words and even then mostly the mild ones ("damn", "hell" - and not "hell" as in "not heaven").
Angela is said to be sexually active with her Italian boyfriend, along with a boy at college. There is a plot twist that involves her sexuality as well. Clara and Christian share intimate moments, but it never goes much beyond kissing. Same with Clara and Tucker. Nothing explicit.
Violence is tame. A character dies after falling from a great height, but there is no gore. Angela suffers from mental/emotional abuse because of her family and feeling guilty for not being the best she could be. Clara and Christian learn how to use Glory Swords. There is a final battle with the baddies, but it is not overly violent or gory.
muretski's review against another edition
4.0
this book kept me all night... wondering what will happen to angela, tucker, christian in the end...
I really love how the author make the scene and characters come to life with every detail in the book.
I really love how the author make the scene and characters come to life with every detail in the book.
blurrypetals's review against another edition
3.0
This series was weird and I think I fell asleep near the end but I genuinely have no desire to go back and find out if I missed anything of importance.
All that really matters to me is that and Clara got together in the end. It's really weird because it feels to me like this had a fairly strong start, a really shitty sophomore slump, and then a really weird, badly paced, and poorly thought out finish here.
Honestly, the only reason I ended up reading this was just for a lick of closure and I got enough of that here, so I'm just going to take that and run. I'm tired of this shit. Onward to something else!
All that really matters to me is that
Spoiler
TuckerHonestly, the only reason I ended up reading this was just for a lick of closure and I got enough of that here, so I'm just going to take that and run. I'm tired of this shit. Onward to something else!
viachu888's review against another edition
5.0
Well. Have you ever had a series you really liked, that as it went on, it just turned more and more into crap (cough cough Maximum Ride)? That happens far too much in series nowadays. But, THANK YOU CYNTHIA HAND FOR BREAKING THE CYCLE!
I wasn't sold on this series initially, but each book just got better, and I stayed up really late last night just to finish this book! There was a perfect mix of action and feelings, even in the middle of the book. I had tears in my eyes at the end, but I won't spoil the book for you none-existing people who actually read my reviews. But, just, GAH! THIS BOOK.
A few notes on the book:
I recall at one point Christian or someone saying something along the lines of "wow you Yeah, its kinda a spoiler but basically he pointed out all the amazing things Clara did in the end. This is someone of a pet peeve of mine for books; when the main character is overpowered slightly, and even someone in the book pointed it out.
Another thing,
This is me. I am team Christain. Nuff said.
I wasn't sold on this series initially, but each book just got better, and I stayed up really late last night just to finish this book! There was a perfect mix of action and feelings, even in the middle of the book. I had tears in my eyes at the end, but I won't spoil the book for you none-existing people who actually read my reviews. But, just, GAH! THIS BOOK.
A few notes on the book:
I recall at one point Christian or someone saying something along the lines of "wow you
Spoiler
severely injured the head black wing, crossed back from Hell, followed a black wing in a high speed chase, AND resurrected the dead?Another thing,
This is me. I am team Christain. Nuff said.
secamimom's review against another edition
3.0
I just want to say that the reason for this rating is because I didn't like who she ended up with *shrug* the book was very well written and ties up the series nicely, but I was disappointed :(
maddyblenk's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great ending to a fantastic series!! i would have liked a bit more of an epilogue though!
booktallie's review against another edition
3.0
This whole series was ve y predictable at times... but over all a good love conquers all kind of book.
usnebojemesa's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly I don't know if I should write a review in English or in Croatian so...
Nekako mi je postala tradicija da čitam knjige ove trilogije tijekom ljeta i to ih uvijek završim u jedan dan, jer eto, tako sam i prvu završila. Protekla dva ljeta sam čitala 1. i 2. i to isto prijevode i ove godine sam završila 3., koja je prevedena *drum rolls* Ljubav anđela. Molim vas, režite me.
Najbolje mi je kada uspiju izmrcvariti prijevode mjesta jer zašto ih ostaviti na engleskom, ne? Kada možemo na hrvatski. To uništi cijeli tekst. I dosta izraza u knjizi mi je padalo u oči, doslovce me bolo (? od bosti, jel) u oči. Ali dobro, lijepa je priča pa ajd', mogu preživjeti. Premda je bio veliki plottwist kada je s Christiana ipak prešla na Tuckera, nešto poput Willa, Jema i Tesse u TID-u. Hah. A mogli su svo troje biti zajedno. Zašto ne? Gotovo i jesu.
Nekako mi je postala tradicija da čitam knjige ove trilogije tijekom ljeta i to ih uvijek završim u jedan dan, jer eto, tako sam i prvu završila. Protekla dva ljeta sam čitala 1. i 2. i to isto prijevode i ove godine sam završila 3., koja je prevedena *drum rolls* Ljubav anđela. Molim vas, režite me.
Najbolje mi je kada uspiju izmrcvariti prijevode mjesta jer zašto ih ostaviti na engleskom, ne? Kada možemo na hrvatski. To uništi cijeli tekst. I dosta izraza u knjizi mi je padalo u oči, doslovce me bolo (? od bosti, jel) u oči. Ali dobro, lijepa je priča pa ajd', mogu preživjeti. Premda je bio veliki plottwist kada je s Christiana ipak prešla na Tuckera, nešto poput Willa, Jema i Tesse u TID-u. Hah. A mogli su svo troje biti zajedno. Zašto ne? Gotovo i jesu.