Half Bad by Sally Green [Reviews]

3.5 out of 5 Robots!

  

Half Bad by Sally Green
Series: Half Life #1
Genre: YA Paranormal
Release: March 4, 2014
Hardcover: 308 Pages
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
My Copy: Purchased
Reviewer: Shannon
Buy the Book: Amazon

Book Summary:

Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.

You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.

You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.

You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.

You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.

All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

Easy.

(Courtesy of the Publisher)

Shannon's Thoughts:

Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to think about this book.  There are parts that I really liked and parts that left me scratching my head. In truth, I liked the first part of the book better than the second half. My favorite part of the book is how Nathan and his family dealt with Nathan being a half-Black witch.  It was compelling to me seeing how his family deals with his outcast status. But that doesn't last too long, unfortunately.  Once Nathan is taken from his family and put in the cage, the books starts to derail for me.  Things get crazier and crazier and it was all a little too frenetic for my tastes.

I think the problem also lies in that there is very little explanation. Now, I don't always require a lot of world building to get a sense of place.  There are tons of books I've loved with very little world building or explanation.  But it DOES have to make some kind of sense.  Some of the things Nathan does or has done to him makes little sense. Or maybe there is a reason, but we aren't always given one. Like the whole cage scenario.  Why?  It is never really explained. 

It seems people either love or hate this book.  I fall somewhere in the middle.  I can definitely see each perspective. But I'm not sure I am invested enough in Nathan's story to continue reading this series when the sequel comes out.  I applaud Sally Green for trying something different, but this book just didn't hold my interest quite enough.