Review: Half Bad

Half Bad by Sally Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Closer to a 4.5.

This is basically a story about witches. There are good witches and bad witches, and Nathan is literally caught in the middle, as he is the product of a white and black witch. The witching community views him as an abomination, he is constantly persecuted and has very little chance for escape unless he's somehow able to track his father down.

It's a weird book, both in structure and style and in the overall plotline, which is arguably trying to make a broader social point and kind of stumbles a bit. Even so, it's weird enough to require a bit of a investment and an effort to stick with it, but the payoffs are pretty great. It's hard not to sympathize with Nathan while also not exactly missing the points of everyone else involved. It's a cool, complicated book that, in many ways, is unlike anything else I've read, especially in the YA space.

How this will hold up over a multi-book series, I don't know. The book leaves things set up explicitly, so I do look forward to jumping in sooner rather than later, but this is a pretty interesting read on its own.



View all my reviews