Book Review - Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad

(Half Life Trilogy #1)

Author: Sally Green

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Witches, Magic

Published: March 3 2014

Pages: 384 pages (Paperback Edition) (Penguin)

Read: August 2014

Rating: 3 Stars

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.

**Thank you to Penguin Publishers for a copy of this book to review. This is no way altered my review or thoughts of this book.**

Hmm, Half Bad had me conflicted. I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it, it was kind of a it's alright feeling.

Half Bad is about a witch called Nathan. He is a Half Code meaning he's Half White and Half Black witch. The White witches are good and the Black witches are bad. And well, being a Half Code is the worst thing you could ever be in the world created by Sally Green.

Ok, Nathan has a shitty life, more than shitty actually. He doesn't have a life at all. He has no friends. He gets beat up nearly everyday and he is locked in a cage most of the time for this story. This is where things got slightly confusing for me.

Sally Green uses different styles of writing in this book. She uses the classical first person but she also uses the style where 'You' are Nathan. For example, '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.' (Taken from the blurb)

I didn't like that style at all and because the book started that way, I was left thinking I am going to hate this book but then thankfully it changed to first person. I found the style of writing to be very clipped though. I suppose yes, Nathan doesn't have a happy, dappy life and this style conveys that but still, I'm not too sure about it.

The second thing that bothered me was the the time changing. At the start, ok I'm not going to spoil anything here, but the start is in the sort of future when he's slightly older, I think it is anyway and then it lapse back to him telling his life story and how he got into the situation that he was in at the start of the book. But he never returns to that situation, not with the same person, that is never explained. Maybe I just misunderstood something but I was highly confused on that bit.

Now to the positives, after all I gave this book 3 stars which is a 'Alright' in my scale of rating.

I enjoyed the story. It was interesting enough to keep you going through to the end and I did read it to the end so that must say something. I'm also planning on reading the next installment of the series because yes, I am interested enough in the story to want to know what happens. Besides the cover of the next book is awesome!! I need that on my shelf. This cover is pretty amazing too.

So ya, my positive is the story. I will say this though and it is another negative (this review is full of negative things!!! :/) but there were plenty of times where nothing much happens. These times were boring and overall, nothing much happens in the whole book. What happens could have been done in a shorter book. But ya, I still thought this was ok.

Tell me guys, have you read this book yet? Did you love it? Or did you think it was just alright, like I did?? Leave a comment down below!!