***Spoiler Alert***
SYNOPSIS
If you're into gripping beginnings, Half Bad does not disappoint. We find Nathan locked up in a cage being treated like an animal by Celia, a white witch. With years of abuse, Nathan manages to escape, but the world outside his cage is an unpleasant one. His mother is a white witch whilst his father, Marcus, is a nefarious black witch and is known for heartless murdering. Nathan is a 'half code', half-white and half-black. The white witch Council make their hatred known for half codes, and with Nathan's father notorious for the brutal murder of white witches, he is top of the hit list. Nathan is constantly on the run from the militant force sent out by the Council, the hunters, meanwhile desperate to receive his three gifts from his father before his seventeenth birthday in order to become a proper witch. He is forced to run from white witch, Annalise, the girl he loves as their love is condemned by her horrible white witch brothers. Marcus arrives just in time to give Nathan his gifts, but disappears again, leaving Nathan alone and still on the run from the hunters.
REVIEW
I never would normally have picked out Half Bad as 'Witchy YA' is not usually my thing at all. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Half Bad is fast paced and exciting. I was totally caught up in Nathan's struggle, being trapped in a world that doesn't accept him. This was definitely helped along by the strong first-person narrative, almost stream of consciousness style in parts.
Having watched all the videos reviewing the Half Bad series, one thing that lots of people are saying is that the romance between Annalise and Nathan is improbable and one that seems to 'stem from nowhere'. I disagree. She doesn't judge Nathan regardless of his situation and offers him a place of comfort and escape in their weekly meet-ups. I think naturally he would fall for her. Plus there's the whole 'forbidden romance' thing. It's classic! Comparatively we don't spend much time on Annalise in the novel, and perhaps her character isn't developed too much, and that's why people find it's quite hard to warm to her character (it doesn't help that her brothers torture Nathan!).
The chapters are very short and the prose is very easy to follow. The narrative is interspersed with lists and bullet points and symbols. I really like that this is feature of Sally Green's writing, as it just creates a little extra point of intrigue when you read the story.
Something I take from this book (and indeed its sequel, Half Wild) is Nathan's ability to be positive in any given awful situation. Through being captured and beaten in the beginning, he trains his mind to get through it. The book starts with a quote from Shakespeare's finest, Hamlet: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". I think that's a fantastic life lesson!
I'm rating this one 4/5. A great read, available on Amazon here.
Watch this space for Part II of this review, for Half Wild, which will be along shortly.
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