Half Bad by Sally Green

Hello There!

Page Numbers: 416 pages
Written By: Sally Green
Release Date: March 4th 2014
Publishing House: Penguin
Rating: 6.5/10

Blurb:
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.

Review:

Okay so lets start on the positives, even if there wasn't a lot of them. I did love the plot. The idea of a child, Nathan, being born by a "good" witch (White Witch) but also being the son of a "bad witch (Black Witch) was interesting. I loved that we were there from the beginning of this halfling's life from day one, the trials and tribulations he had to face, the prejudice which was thrust open him and I couldn't help but empathise with him.

Now for the negatives.

What is with book readers nowadays???? I always rely on hype and recommendations for what books to buy but recently, all the overly hyped books I have brought have turned out to be utter atrocities - including this book. Now, I am not the only one who didn't enjoy this book either. My friend and someone who has very similar tastes in books also did not enjoy it much, stating that the writing confused her and she didn't like the main character must which is a shame because the cover and the blurb looked and sounded epic. 

The first thing that put me off is the material for this book. Sounds stupid, I know, but on the black side of the book cover has my fingerprints all over it which was annoying. No, I did not eat before I read this book but in fact, the oils from my finger just made it easy for my fingerprints to stain the book - great (!) now it looks dirty and horrible and I have tried everything and anything to get rid of the stains but alas, nothing has worked thus far.

Another thing that just confused and pissed me off was the way the writer wrote her POVs. One minute she was writing from the main character's point of view and then the next from a birds eye view or it just talking to itself. Like...what??? Why??? It just confused me a heck of a lot instead of intrigue me like the writer was trying to make me feel. The writer also kept on listing stuff instead of describing it and using her 5 W's. I am not going to lie, I sometimes skip the description of scenarios just because I feel sometimes they aren't needed or just in the excitement of it all I skip it to quench my desire to know what will happen next. In this instant however, description was so necessary and important. We needed to know why, where, how to really understand the complicated character that is Nathan, the main protoganist but the author just failed to satisfy the detail desiring side to me. 

Oh that's not the only things that pissed me off. The romance...what romance?! There was not any. Yes, he was linked to a White Witch who he "supposedly" loved *eye roll* but it wasn't one of those relationships that'd make you want to ship them. Not only was Nathan a boring character, so was his love interest. Holy shit, reading about their teenage love was like watching an episode of Home and Away - boring and pointless.

But what bugged me the most, so much so that I had to put the book down, was how everyone was comparing it to Twilight (ew but admittedly a big book), Harry Potter and Hunger Games.

What the hell were they thinking comparing this book to Harry Potter or Hunger Games? This book has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with those books. What? So because it has witches in it they automatically will link it to the book of all books Harry Potter? No. Just....no.

Overall I will give this book a 6.5/10. The plot was there but personally think the writer and the publishing house messed this book up with overhyping about it and bad writing.

Have you guys read Half Bad yet? Do you plan on to?

Annie x