Half Wild

Half Bad is not only the title but also the quality. The story is told in first person narrative from the perspective of protagonist Nathan, who is so whiny and annoying that I found myself hoping that he'd catch a bullet and be put out of my misery. His girlfriend is more a plot devise than a character with a personality, and his best friend is in love with him for no good reason aside from providing a homoerotic storyline. The plot itself plods along until the very last chapter, with major characters casually dying left and right with barely a care, while Nathan continues to fret and dwell about trivial things.

The book is very YA-ish, focused on Nathan doing angsty teenage things like figuring out who he is and what he wants and show more dealing with friendship and relationships, but is also bloody and brutal when it comes to the violence. Not a good mix, as the whole thing felt half-baked and melodramatic (contrast to Rose in Vampire Academy who's treatment is a lot more successful as she deals with similar challenges).

Until the very last page I wasn't planning on continuing with the series, but the ending left me curious to see how things play out from here. show less

After finally having his ceremony to celebrate his transition from a child to an adult witch, and recieving his three gifts from no other than his father; Nathan is still on the run. Mercury still has the sleeping Annalise and he hasn't seen or heard a word from Gabriel. He's starting to dread that his friend might be dead, as well as trying to come to terms with his new, powerful gift. There's hunters around and without allies or knowledge on how to control his gift, he knows it won't be long until they find him.

But then Nesbitt shows up – a strange but seemingly allied witch who claims Gabriel is alive and well; and even suggests bringing Nathan along to reunite with him. His words are true; Gabriel is very much alive thanks to show more Nesbitt's partner Van. It doesn't take Nathan long to figure out that they want something from Gabriel and him. Especially Nathan. But it also doesn't take him long to figure out that if he wants to reach Annalise in time and save her, he's not going to be able to do it on his own. It'll mean going to war. Choosing a side in a war where both sides loathe his very existence. But if it's to save the one person who against all odds looked at him and saw him – nothing but him – then maybe it's worth it.

The Half-Bad trilogy takes place in an alternative world which is much like our own; except some happen to be witches. Once upon a time all witches carried both Black and White within them but during the centuries, there's now two distinct groups of witches. In the UK, White witches are the dominant ones while Black whites are becoming more scarce as Whites hunt them down. But there's some who are both. Like Nathan, our main character. His mother was a White witch who had a secret relationship with the feared Black witch Marcus; a relationship that resulted in his birth. From the day he was born, he was considered a tainted witch; the Black side of him corrupting the White in him. He's an anomaly. He's not supposed to exist.

The first book focuses on his childhood and the years leading up to his seventeenth birthday, but as this is the sequel, he's no longer the small child; he's the young man who spent years locked up in a cage when he wasn't training to kill his own father. But as much as he no longer has a problem with vocally expressing his anger over the injustices he's constantly handed – there's still that naive, loving side of him. It's a complex and delightful mix; the man the abuse has made him and the child he never truly got to be.

What I love most about this series, however, is the way it's written. Green's prose is both fascinating and gorgerous; it's hard to let the go book. Even when I felt like something was lacking, either plot or character-wise; it was all delivered in sentences that kept me coming back for just one more page. I've never had a problem with first person narrative but this series just proves how powerful and personal it can be. Nathan's feelings and thoughts felt very real; like I was sinking into his mind.

But the fact that it felt like something was lacking is hard to get around despite the great prose and interesting structure. I honestly have a feeling it's because the book is more or less about racism. Yet the main character is definitely white – and it honestly causes the plot to fall together and feel so bland and overdone by default. I'm baffled we're still writing stories about racism or other kinds of discrimination without actual representation from the disctriminated group the plot is an allegory for. It robs the messages of most of its power. We can do much better. We need to do much better. show less

4.5 stars
First and foremost do not, do not , let the writing style deter you. Sally Green takes a few creative liberties with grammar and punctuation throughout the book. While it does take some getting used to, it allows you to connect to Nathan in a way you probably wouldn't have otherwise. By having pages filled with odd text and strange formatting, the reader gets a peek inside Nathan's head. Nathan is alone, wounded, and in a fragile mental state. The first chapters display that perfectly. By having erratic bolded words and lines of text scattered on an otherwise empty page, we understand how badly Nathan's mental state has suffered from the traumas of the last book.

Other than that, Green's writing is almost perfect. The show more development of the characters was fantastic and you really got to understand Nathan much better. Green managed to get me attached to characters I would have never thought I would root for. Just in general the book's writing was a high point.

I didn't think I was going to end up shipping Nathan and Gabriel but it ended up happening anyway. At the end of the first book I thought I was going to like Annalise better but Gabriel ended up winning me over. I was a little disappointed because I thought that there could have been more about Nathan and Gabriel towards the end of the book. There's a lot of things that were left unsaid about the two of them in the last few chapters, and I'm really interested to see where Green takes them.

This is a fantastic book. If you had mixed feelings about Half Bad like I did, go ahead and read Half Wild, I doubt you'll regret it! show less

This was a great follow up to the first in the trilogy. Honestly, this YA series is one of the darker I have read and I didn't really go into it expecting things to get *this* dark but they did. However, the series remains incredibly intriguing, Nathan deserves like, one decently nice thing to happen to him even if I should like to repeatedly flick him in the ear for not realizing that there is one really, fantastic, adoringly nice thing standing literally right in front of him if he'd just, like, let himself have it.

This is a review of the whole Half Bad trilogy, by Sally Green. I enjoyed it. It's a YA fantasy story with interesting worldbuilding and characterization.

It takes place in a contemporary setting, where there are magical people who live in parallel with the mundane world and hiding from it, kind of like in Harry Potter. These magical people are called witches (there are both male and female witches, but the powerful ones tend to be females, although not all of them). Witches are divided into white and black witches, plus several kinds of half-breeds. Black witches tend to be chaotic and wild, which is not necessarily the same as evil although in some cases it may look like it, and have other unsettling characteristics. White and black show more witches have traditionally inhabited separate areas, and usually but not always ignore each other. However, at the time of the story, the white witches are governed by fascist-like leaders who cruelly persecute black witches and any other witch who dares oppose them. There are some very powerful black witches, but it's not in their nature to cooperate with each other.

Perhaps the most powerful among the black witches is Marcus, a wild man with the charming habit of devouring his victims' hearts to steal their gifts. Needless to say, the leaders of the white-witches and the hunters (their elite police force) would very much like to capture him and torture him to death.

The trilogy tells the story of a teenager called Nathan, who is the son of this Marcus with a white witch woman. Although he has never had contact with his father, his condition of half-black and Marcus' son results in his being viewed with suspicion and treated in an appalling manner. In the meantime his coming of age ceremony is getting near, and at that time Nathan, like any other young witch, will have to drink blood from an older relative and receive three symbolic gifts in a ceremony that will unlock his magical gift, or he will soon die. His white-witch grandmother, one of the few people who don't hate and fear him, is willing to be the one to give him three gifts, but it's not clear at all that the authorities will allow it.

And that's all I can say without spoilers. The tone of the trilogy is quite dark and bloody, but with plenty of action and wondrous things and powers. The author doesn't shirk from having Nathan show unsettling traits. All in all, a very readable and entertaining read. show less

First things first: This book was so much better than the first one. There was a ton more action (though quite a bit of it was planning scenes).

The writing style, especially around the dialogue scenes, was a bit rough (lots of "I say to her"s, "she said"s, etc...) and was in desperate need of polishing. That being said, it wasn't terrible. Some writing passages got a bit annoying as well, mainly the bits about Nathan and Marcus always feeling/needing to be separate from other people and constant descriptions of the "animal" aspects of these two characters.

The characters themselves are rather entertaining. Nesbitt is snarky and I really enjoy his scenes. Gabriel is also enjoyable and I feel slightly bad for him falling for Nathan when he show more (Nathan) is the way he is. Van is enjoyable as well, though we don't get to see much of her. Nathan gets kind of annoying and narrow-sighted when it comes to things he wants and feels, same for Marcus. Annalise is kind of annoying and I don't really care much for her.

The last little section of this book was the best by far because I feel like things really sped up (in a good way) and the characters were finally throwing down instead of just talking about it. That "event" in the last first-person point of of view chapter really threw me for a loop and solidified my feelings towards a certain character.

The last couple pages (the ones that return to the second person point of view- "you") really gave me chills and pumped me up for the final book in this trilogy. Thumbs up for Sally Green. show less

I was kind of bored by this book, which is odd because there was so much going on: saving loved ones, father and son bonding, guerrilla war... I think it's because Sally Green's writing didn't touch me on any level. Apparently I need a bit more emotional dwelling from the characters to get invested in them. What I did enjoy was the darkness of this book and the fact that it didn't shy away from the actual violence of war. Since I'm already two thirds in, I will most likely finish the series despite my disappointment with this book.