Review: Half Bad by Sally Green

This book is another that I bought quite a while ago, never got round to reading and I'm now regretting the time I spent not reading this book. It has everything that I would want in a book about witches and more.

This book starts off in the second person and I was so surprised by that that I had to put it down for a few seconds to process that. I am not saying that having something written in the second person is bad, I actually loved that part of this book was, but it is such a rare thing to see. I think this may be the first book that I have read that is partly in the second person, or that has the second person in it at all in fact. Having the start of the book written in this way was very important though because it signified part of Nathan's life and how he had to hold himself back, so when it switched to first person I could really notice the difference in his character.

When I started this book, I had almost no clue what was going on, but having a whole section of the book dedicated to Nathan's life before was a superb way of telling the story. It meant that I found out things as Nathan did and that I was able to relate to him much more as a character when the book came back to the present. I don't agree with some of the things he and others did while he was younger, but it was good to have some aspects of the characters that I didn't like because it meant that they seemed more real.

The world of witches that Half Bad makes itself a part of intrigues me greatly. In previous books that I have read about witches there has always been the idea of good versus evil, but with this book you are condemned to whether you will be good or bad from birth, which, although I find a little mean on both the Black and White witches, although mainly the Black, sets such clear boundaries that once you are over, you are well and truly over. The distinction is so clear that in a way it reminds me of the unfortunate views some people have about an entire race, age group or gender based on their experience with one person.

So much happened in this book that I was almost overwhelmed. I feel like I went on an incredibly long journey with Nathan and grew to know him as well as I know myself. As a result of its length, this book had many characters, but I feel that they were explored in enough depth as was appropriate. If you know everything about every character then a book can become boring and in a world such as this one, having secrets is important.

Even though I have rated this book as five stars, I would probably say that it is more accurately four and a half. There was nothing in particular that I can pick out as wrong with this book, just that it didn't totally do it for me. Sometimes you have to make a final judgement on a book based on feeling and although this book was absolutely amazing, I don't feel that it can be a full five out of five stars.

I am really looking forward to getting to read the second book in this series as I cannot wait to find out more about Nathan's life and journey through that.

(Goodreads parallel)