There has been much hype surrounding this book on the Booktube community and when my book club announced we would be reading this last month I was ecstatic.
Half Bad introduces us to a world of white witches, the good kind and black witches the bad kind, however Nathan, is a half code, half white half black. The witch council has no idea what to do with him because he poses a risk of being the only one of his kind, as black witches are fairly hated among the white witch community. The main reason they fear and very much hate him is because once a witch reaches the age of seventeen they are given three gifts by a person from their bloodline, that eventually form into powers or become useful knowledge. However because Nathan is a half code they don't want him to receive his gifts because of what he'll become due to possessing both white and black witch traits. Nathan has been tortured all his life by the white witches and even deceived by them that he sets out on a dangerous journey to find his father, Marcus, one of the most well known evil black witches so that he can receive his three wishes before time runs out.
Half Bad was definitely not what I was expecting, I felt it had a mix of Divergent and Harry Potter themes such as the ever controlling government/council instructing what Nathan must do with no exceptions, and also because witches live among us in the real world without any of us knowing about their existence, apart from the fain (non-witch) organisations that are against witches living in our community.
At times I found the pace was slow especially at the beginning because it took me quite a while to fully understand the world and it's many terms. I also found that the middle section of could have been condensed to either make room for more character interaction or more world building but other than that its different to anything I've read before.
Throughout I found some of Nathan's actions to be rather annoying considering as he was repetitively told many a times not to do something and of course he went out and did it, so I guess that reverse phsycology for you. Another character I found to be quite weak was Annalise, Nathan's romantic interest, she was constantly pushed around by the men in her family that I just so desperately wanted her to gain some confidence and speak up for herself instead of being told what to do. But before I proceed to reveal any more spoilers I will say that I was pleased with her character development by the end of the book.
Nathan's half siblings Deborah and Arran were very supportive towards him when their other sister, Jessica, would constantly attack him by mentally abusing him because of what he is, a half code. Jessica very much ruled the family house because of how hostile and cruel she was to all of them so no one could really stop her, this led to Arran and Nathan forming a tight bond because of the two year age difference. Arran was definitely the rock that weighed down Nathan's anger and very much calmed him down before he decides to make any form of revenge where Jessica is involved. I wish we had more scenes with Deborah as we didn't get to hear much from her, almost as she's the forgotten sibling though maybe thats because she's the middle child so that might make some sense as to why she isn't as featured as much as the other two siblings.
I certainly wasn't expecting some the twists revealed throughout, so I would recommend reading this if you want the thrill of surprises. I will most definitely continue this series as there are still so many unanswered questions left hanging up in the air, though it will be a long wait for some as the next instalment Half Wild comes out in the spring next year.
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You can get Half Bad online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy which I purchased for £4 from Asda.
Throughout I found some of Nathan's actions to be rather annoying considering as he was repetitively told many a times not to do something and of course he went out and did it, so I guess that reverse phsycology for you. Another character I found to be quite weak was Annalise, Nathan's romantic interest, she was constantly pushed around by the men in her family that I just so desperately wanted her to gain some confidence and speak up for herself instead of being told what to do. But before I proceed to reveal any more spoilers I will say that I was pleased with her character development by the end of the book.
Nathan's half siblings Deborah and Arran were very supportive towards him when their other sister, Jessica, would constantly attack him by mentally abusing him because of what he is, a half code. Jessica very much ruled the family house because of how hostile and cruel she was to all of them so no one could really stop her, this led to Arran and Nathan forming a tight bond because of the two year age difference. Arran was definitely the rock that weighed down Nathan's anger and very much calmed him down before he decides to make any form of revenge where Jessica is involved. I wish we had more scenes with Deborah as we didn't get to hear much from her, almost as she's the forgotten sibling though maybe thats because she's the middle child so that might make some sense as to why she isn't as featured as much as the other two siblings.
I certainly wasn't expecting some the twists revealed throughout, so I would recommend reading this if you want the thrill of surprises. I will most definitely continue this series as there are still so many unanswered questions left hanging up in the air, though it will be a long wait for some as the next instalment Half Wild comes out in the spring next year.
________________________________________________________________________________
You can get Half Bad online or at your nearest available bookstore.
I brought my copy which I purchased for £4 from Asda.
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