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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Review for Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad is a fantasy young adult novel written by Sally Green. It is the first of a trilogy, being followed by Half Wild which will be released in 2015.

This book came highly recommended by a good friend of mine who has incredible taste in books so I was extra excited to read this one. It took me a while to get into it but once I got some back story, I was hooked. I'm upset that I have to wait a whole year for the next book in this trilogy and if you read this book, you'll understand why.

The writing is great. It's told from Nathan's POV and luckily he is a very descriptive boy. It started off slow and confusing. You go into the story with him already in the cage, not knowing why he's there. Once the book starts Part 2, describing his childhood and the animosity towards him, is where I became interested. His family is mostly loving and supportive of him, with only one showing hatred towards him. He has to deal with being whispered about and ostracized because of his father, who sounds like a major bad ass by the way. Extreme violence and dark magic cloud Nathan's life and it was a little hard to read. It's never addressed why Marcus kills the people he does and takes their gifts from them. Hopefully the next novel will have more details about that.

The whole book is mostly about him trying to get his gifts before his 18th birthday so that he can become a witch. Unfortunately, this will involve some sketchy people, coming to a head with Mercury. She doesn't get much screen time but I'm interested to find out more about her.

Most of the characters were awesome. Nathan could get a little over the top for no apparent reason other than the author trying to show that he might be just like his father, mindlessly violent. That got annoying in some parts but other than that I really like Nathan as the lead character. His family kind of blended together for me but they weren't that important. Once Nathan is taken away from them, they fade away into obscurity. Annalise is the love interest and she is such a bore. The only thing interesting that happened with her is when her brother and uncle find her and Nathan together and "teach him a lesson" about how unworthy he is. She's a cardboard cutout character through and through.

Gabriel is my second favorite person in this book. He's a black witch who falls in love with Nathan. He's funny and his dialogue was on point. I'm glad the author spend so much time building up his story and having a strong connection with Nathan. Hopefully that means there will be more of him to come. Saving the best for last, Rose is my favorite character. She's in the story so briefly but she had a lasting impression with me. I wanted more from her but what she gave was quality stuff.

I think I've rambled on long enough. The story was unique and has great writing and characters to back it up. I can see this being the next young adult series to have a strong following. Hopefully the second book lives up to my expectations and enhances Nathan's journey as a Half Blood.

4 STAR RATING






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