Boundless by Cynthia Hand

BoundlessUnearthly #3

A review by Elizabeth Manthos

The past few years for Clara has held more surprises that one can really handle in their lifetime but, in Boundless, she finally realises that she was never meant to live a normal life.

After the tragic events in Hallowed, Clara has finally discovered the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods and that danger follows her wherever she goes.

To keep her love Tucker Avery safe, she leaves town for Stanford and California, along with Angela and Christan, the irresistible boy that took her to Jackson Hole to begin with.

As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers help in places she never thought to look and with the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara must finally fulfil her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal.

I shall preface my thoughts on the final instalment of the Unearthly trilogy by stating I was disappointed with this novel. As a reader, I’ve spend many hours with Clara, hoping she finally makes the right decisions and finally figures out what she is meant to do, and she does, in 75 percent of the book. What really dissatisfied me was that there was a climax and then all of a sudden the novel was wrapped up.

I found that my interest was not captured during my reading of Boundless and found many times starting others so I didn’t have to deal with the annoyance I felt at how the story was progressing and how some of the characters were developing.

The most astounding part of the novel was the character development of Sam, the black wing that had been watching over Clara. We finally see Sam’s true colors and, with his help, we finally find out the parentage of certain other angel-bloods. There were twists from these events that even I didn’t see coming but the rest of the novel was predictable.

The epilogue disappointed me the most. All of a sudden everything was wrapped up nicely with a bow and glitter so everyone lived happily ever after forever and ever. The consequences of people’s actions weren’t dealt with and only one character seemed to suffer by the end of the novel.

I recommend the trilogy as a whole but Boundless as a final installment could let any possible reader down.