Author: Sally Green
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Goodreads
Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.Review by Nara
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.
Note: This isn't really a review. Sort of, but not really. Just roll with it lol.
Oh. My. God.
This book might have broken me. So. Many. Feels.
I kid you not, as soon as I finished it, I literally hugged this book. By which I mean I physically put my arms around it and hugged it. That's how freaking good it was. (Plus I just really needed a hug and there was no human being around so I had to make do with the book.)
There are a number of phrases I could use to describe this book:
1. beautifully written
2. incredibly emotional (known colloquially as FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS)
3. utterly unique
but really the one I would use to describe it best is (profanity alert):
morbid, macabre, and just really fucking dark.
Because it is. It is one of the darkest YA books I have ever read. There's torture, there's abuse, there's segregation. And it's not sugar coated. It is complete and utter brutality at its absolute YA worst, with little light to balance the dark. (I say YA worst because damn, some adult dark fantasies are terrible...)
Um, well, I guess that's not really the best way to attract someone to a book. So...it's full of magic! And there's a really nice brother! And an awesome friend! And rainbows and unicorns and butterflies!
Okay, I'm lying about the rainbows and unicorns and butterflies. BUT THE BROTHER AND THE FRIEND AND THE MAGIC EXIST. (Although the magic is mostly used for torture and other such evils...wait, where are you going? Stop running away! You need to read this book!)
But you know, despite the darkness, Half Bad is, there's no other way to put it, beautiful. And beauty is something that should be experienced by everyone, don't you think?
(The answer is yes. Please go buy this. You can thank me later.)
(And have you seen the cover to Half Wild? SO. PRETTY.)
(The cover to Half Bad is quite pretty too.)
(To be honest, I'd be pretty happy with it on my shelf even if I didn't think the book was amazing.)
(Like, the front cover is black and the back cover is white. Geddit, Half Bad?)
(So awesome.)
(I should stop now.)
(/Nara out.)
Incredible
Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4.5/5
Writing: 5/5
World Building: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
