This is my discussion post for chapters 14-18 of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. WARNING: There are spoilers for the first eighteen chapters, and only those chapters (because that’s all I’ve read!) in this post.
It’s Clara’s seventeenth birthday and she’s lonely. All her friends are gone, her brother recently got his driver’s license and a truck and is gone all the time, and her mom is still away on business. Clara’s watching the news when she sees a report about the drought in Wyoming. It’s going to get worse as summer progresses and the fire risk will be high.
Tucker shows up at her door with a box from Wendy: hiking boots and a note. She’s loaning the boots to Clara so that Tucker can take her hiking. They start spending a lot of time together after that: swimming, fishing, hiking, boating, and eating. When Tucker takes her to Yellowstone, Clara accidentally speaks Korean to a tourist in front of him. Clara is able to explain it away, but Tucker must know something is going on with Clara.
Clara’s mom finally returns from her business trip with a jacket for Clara’s birthday. Clara has another vision, and in it she’s wearing the jacket. Her mom says that it’s going to happen this fire season. It’s getting closer.
Clara has been practicing flying carrying something — a duffel bag of soup cans and water bottles — but isn’t having much luck. The bag knocks her off balance. Jeffrey’s been watching her from inside and says he can’t do it either. They decide to try it together, each of them holding part of the bag. It works!
When Clara and Tucker go hiking on his birthday, they run into a bear with two cubs. While Tucker is struggling with bear repellent, Clara tells the bear to go away in Angelic and her skin starts to glow. She and Tucker are shaken up and don’t talk about it until later. She tells him that she just sang to the bear. He doesn’t believe it, but she cuts herself with the knife she’s using and he has to go get some ointment, stopping their conversation. By the time he returns, her cut has healed. She says it had just been a scratch anyway. His parents come home, interrupting them.
Later that night they’re out in the barn with his horse. They finally kiss and Clara goes into the glory. She can feel everything he feels for her and her skin lights up again. Tucker freaks out and runs back to his house. Clara runs into the woods and flies away. When she gets back home, her hair is no longer orange.
Tucker won’t take her calls so Clara goes to his job to wait for him. She tells him she loves him, and then she tells him about being an angel-blood, and explains what an angel-blood is. He believes her, because she shows him her wings, and they kiss again.
One day when they’re out driving around, the scenery starts to look familiar. Clara has Tucker stop the truck and she gets out. It’s the area from her vision. She has the vision again and faints. When she comes to, she tells Tucker about the visions and her purpose.
When Clara tells Angela that she’s with Tucker, Angela gets mad and says that Clara is losing her focus, that she’s screwing everything up.
A few days later, Christian calls. He’s back home and wants to take her out on a date. Clara says she can’t go that night but doesn’t tell him that she’s dating Tucker because she hasn’t told her mom yet. All this time she’s been saying she’s going out with friends. Now she has to tell the truth. Her mom gets upset and says that Clara can’t get distracted. It’s fire season and it could happen at any time. She grounds Clara.
That night, Clara sneaks out and flies to Tucker’s house to tell him. He thinks they need to break up. He doesn’t want to stand in the way of her destiny. They can try again after the fire. Clara doesn’t tell him that she’s starting to think that part of her purpose is to be with Christian. She’s not sure she’s going to be able to be with Tucker after she’s fulfilled her purpose.
I’m not on Team Tucker yet, but I’m definitely liking him more now that he’s actually talking to Clara instead of just teasing her all the time. Unfortunately they’re broken up now, just as I was starting to like him! I don’t think they’re going to get back together during this book. There’s not really enough time, unless it’s at the very end.
I hadn’t realized Jeffrey knew how to fly. I guess I expected that he would wait to try because Clara had. She found out about being an angel-blood at 14, just like Jeffrey, but didn’t start flying lessons until after she already had her purpose. I wonder if this means Jeffrey has his purpose. Judging by his reaction when Clara said his purpose might be to help her with hers, I think he does. I wonder what it is. I hope we find out!
Clara notices that Jeffrey’s wings are darker gray than hers. I’m suspicious of everyone now! Maybe he’s a Black Wing! I really hope not. I wonder if Black Wings have to do something to be Black Wings or if they can be born that way.
It seemed weird to me that Angela got so upset that Clara was dating Tucker. It just adds to my suspicions about her.
A lot of girls would be thrilled to receive Tucker Avery as a present, I know, what with the stormy blue eyes and the golden tawny skin and hair, the dimple carved into his left cheek. I have a mortifying flash of Tucker standing in front of me wearing a big red bow and nothing else.
“Nope,” he says. He puts the truck in park and turns to look at me with somber eyes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you could fly to the moon.”
“You’re not…normal, Clara. You try to pretend you are. But you’re not. You talked to a grizzly bear, and it obeyed you. Birds follow you like a Disney cartoon, or haven’t you noticed? And for a while after you came back from Idaho Falls, Wendy thought you were on the run from someone or something. You’re good at everything you try. You ride a horse like you were born in the saddle, you ski perfect parallel turns your first time on the hill, you apparently speak fluent French and Korean and who knows what else. Yesterday I noticed that your eyebrows kind of glitter in the sun. And there’s something about the way you move, something that’s beyond graceful, something that’s beyond human, even. It’s like you’re…something else.”
“It’s her birthday, too. I’m the worst friend ever. I should have sent her something. Did you exchange gifts?”“Not yet.” He turns toward me. “But she gave me the perfect gift.” The way he’s looking at me sends butterflies into my stomach.
“What?”
“You.”
So what did you think?
Don’t forget to finish up the book today and come back tomorrow for another discussion post!