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Radical Read-along: Hallowed Day 2 Discussion

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This is my discussion post for chapters 5-8 of Hallowed by Cynthia Hand. WARNING: There are spoilers for the first eight chapters of Hallowed and for all of Unearthly in this post.


Clara’s mom opens up about Samjeeza. She used to be friends with him. He was the original Watcher, and their leader a long time ago. Watchers gave up heaven to be with human women. Samjeeza lost his entire family in the flood (think Noah, arks, and animals two by two), and after that the Watchers and the rest of the Black Wings joined in war against heaven.
Clara and Tucker talk post-high school plans. Clara has been talking with her guidance counselor, who wants her to go to college. Clara hasn’t even thought about it. Tucker already knows he’s going to stay on the family ranch and work, at least for a year while his dad’s knee heals. He thinks he’ll eventually go to college and study agriculture or forestry, but he wants to return to Wyoming.

Angela has finally figured out the location for her purpose: Stanford. She wants Clara to go with her.

Clara has another of her dreams. She sees that it takes place in the spring and tries to notice who else is present besides Jeffrey. Angela, her English teacher, some other people from school, Wendy and her parents, and Christian are all there. Tucker is not.

Clara thinks Tucker was supposed to die in the fire and she interfered with that. She’s doing everything she can to be with him as much as possible and to minimize the risk of him dying.

There’s a $20,000 reward for the information leading to the arrest of the person who started one of the forest fires, but it’s not the one Samjeeza started.

Clara senses sorrow again, but this time she realizes she’s not going to die. She can’t die yet or she won’t be alive in the spring for the funeral from her visions. She’s afraid that a Black Wing is going to kill Tucker. Her mom suggests that the sorrow she feels might be her own. Black Wings feel sorrow because they are going against their design, and maybe that’s the reason Clara feels it too — because she went against her purpose.

Clara’s mom takes Clara, Angela, and Jeffrey camping on a snowy weekend. After hours of hiking they reach a non-snowy meadow filled with tents — and other angels. It’s a congregation, a gathering of angel-bloods. Clara’s English teacher Mr. Phibbs is there! Angela recognizes other from Jackson, too. Christian and his uncle are there as well.

Clara learns a lot from the other angel-bloods. Black Wings can’t fly. None of the angel-bloods have ever been to hell because they can’t pass between dimensions on their own. They need a Black Wing to take them there, and none who has been taken has ever returned. Clara doesn’t tell them that she and her mom have been there. The congregation’s goal is to track down angel-bloods and tell them what they are.

When Clara tells Christian everything she knows about her dream, about Tucker’s funeral, he says that he thought his vision was one thing but it turned out to be something different.


Samjeeza is a really weird name.

I liked learning a little about Clara’s mom’s past that was unrelated to being an angel-blood. She went to college four times!

Who do you think started the fire? I wonder if it was Jeffrey. I can’t remember the timeline though, so I don’t even know if that’s possible. I know I keep trying to pin everything on him. I’m just really, really curious about what he’s been up to.

Midas is alive!

The congregation is like a huge Angel Club. I can’t believe there are so many angel-bloods around Jackson.


…I sneaked out to his house a couple times in the middle of the night to watch over him while he slept, just in case, I don’t know, his comic book collection decided to spontaneously combust.

This was dumb and admittedly creepy in an Edward Cullen kind of way…

Hah, Tucker did have something to worry about in yesterday’s chapters!


Read chapters 9-12 today and post your discussions tomorrow!


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