HALF BAD by Sally Green

by TPS reader shahj18

Half Bad by Sally Green is a fantastic book.  The book follows Nathan Byrn, the child of a taboo affair between a white witch, Cora Byrn, and her lover, the notorious and murderous black witch Marcus Edge.  In Green’s world the White Witches are structured, have a government and rules, and see themselves as superior.  On the other hand, the White Witches portray the Black Witches as criminals who are wild and evil.  Nathan is the first witch that’s half black and half white, and he is persecuted his whole life because of it, even by some members of his family.  He begins to fall for a White Witch named Annalise O’Brien who accepts him, however, the rest of her family is much less accepting.  Nathan is eventually taken away from his family by the government and is in a race against the clock to escape and find his father because he’ll die if he doesn’t have the “Giving Ceremony” by his seventeenth birthday.

While the idea of witches in England might seem a bit familiar, I can promise Half Bad is a wonderful book with fresh new idea that’s nothing like anything I’ve read before.  The world Sally Green creates is a dark and dangerous, and Nathan’s story is exciting although at some points tragic.  Half Bad is a book that  definitely deserves more attention, and I’d recommended it to anyone looking for a new fantasy book, as long as they’re OK with one that can be very dark and very sad.