"Hey, Patch, did it hurt?"
"Did what hurt?"
"When you fell from heaven?"
Ba-dum-ch. Okay, you might only get that joke if you're fluent in corny pick-up lines.
But seriously, step aside witches, vampires, ghosts, and goblins, there's a new supernatural character in town. We're talking about angels—and particularly the fallen kind and the evil half-human, half-angel race of the Nephilim. Together, these supernatural creatures dominate the otherworldly representations in Hush, Hush.
While people often think of angels as, well, angelic, Hush, Hush focuses on their capacity for evil, generally disassociating angels from their religious origins. To this end, there are only passing references to heaven; it's mentioned so casually it may as well be Cincinnati or Des Moines. There's also no talk of what God or the devil are like. The book thus brings angel lore into secular fantasy, stripping them of their connection to salvation and letting them run amuck amongst humans.
Questions About The Supernatural
- Could the angels in this book be replaced with different supernatural creatures (like, say, werewolves)? Why or why not? What would change?
- Does it matter that Nora is part-Nephilim? Why or why not?
- What role does free will play in the supernatural characters? How much are their personalities determined by the type of angel they are and how much are they masters of their own destinies?
Chew on This
The angels in Hush, Hush could easily be replaced with any other type of supernatural character without affecting the novel's meaning.
It is absolutely essential to the story that the supernatural creatures are angels—the whole book changes in key thematic ways otherwise.