I finished this book last week and was not able to decide whether I should review it as a book or as whole trilogy on this blog, when I am done with the remaining others. Finally today, I decided to individually review all three books, as I am going to take my time in picking up next two books. So here I am with Half Bad, first book in this YA fantasy trilogy by Sally Green.
Wanted by no one. Hunted by everyone.
Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan's only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus, and receive the three gifts that will bring him into his own magical powers—before it's too late. But how can Nathan find his father when there is no one safe to trust, not even family, not even the girl he loves?
My Thoughts-
In the world where fain (humans) lives clueless among witches, we have black and white witches.White witches are supposedly good and are the ruling power in Europe whereas black witches are bad and evil and hence are quickly demolished or running for their lives and hiding.The story is set in modern day in Europe so the setup is in a real world with fantastical elements in it. Our main protagonist, Nathan, is a half black and half white, AKA, Half Code. So he is kind of an abomination for this white witches dominating society.
↠ I kind of liked the idea of this secret world of witches living among the human society unbeknownst to them and expected some great magical system or elements here.But in magic department this book was lacking, this was more of a journey of Nathan and his character development so do not expect much plot development in this one.
↠ I also did not understand the bit of second person narration in the first part,whereas most of the book was from first person i.e. Nathan's POV. I preferred the unique second person narration setting, but there was no point for having both kind of narration.Overall Sally Green's writing was easy and quick to read and understand.
↠ Characters were good. I liked Nathan,Gabriel and Arran, though Gabriel was my favourite. Did not understand the point of having Annalise in the book,she was such a one dimensional character that was introduced for the sake of having a love interest and to create some kind of conflict for our MC, nothing more.
↠ I usually like character development over plot , but here I wished there was some movement with the plot.The whole book was all about Nathan, his history, how he got into that cage and how he survived after that.There was not much in terms of story and last 10% of the book felt rushed whereas the pacing of remaining 90% was slow. So yeah was not very hyped about that one.Still I really loved few parts of the book like Nathan relation with Arran, all parts with Gabriel and Nathan's dreams and longing for his parents when he was caged.
So Overall based on my thoughts above rating goes like this (out of 5) -
Plot & Setting - 4.5
Writing Style -4
Pacing & Development - 3.5
Characters - 4
Overall Rating - ☆☆☆☆
↠ I usually like character development over plot , but here I wished there was some movement with the plot.The whole book was all about Nathan, his history, how he got into that cage and how he survived after that.There was not much in terms of story and last 10% of the book felt rushed whereas the pacing of remaining 90% was slow. So yeah was not very hyped about that one.Still I really loved few parts of the book like Nathan relation with Arran, all parts with Gabriel and Nathan's dreams and longing for his parents when he was caged.
So Overall based on my thoughts above rating goes like this (out of 5) -
Plot & Setting - 4.5
Writing Style -4
Pacing & Development - 3.5
Characters - 4
Overall Rating - ☆☆☆☆
The new trick is to stay in the present ... Get lost in the detail of it ... Enjoy it!”
- from 'Half Bad'
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