Half Bad is set in modern day England
where humans live alongside witches. White witches, who are good, black
witches, who are bad and Nathan, who is both. Living through a childhood of
constant assessments, rules and punishments from the white witch council,
Nathan grows to hate all white witches, apart from his family and Annalise, whom
he loves but is tortured when seeing her. By the time Nathan is 14, he is taken
away and ‘looked after’ by a member of the council, who locks him in a cage at
night and sets him a back breaking routine each day.
This book was definitely one of my favourites
and very original, which made the plot even more exiting and interesting than
it already is as it wasn’t predictable like a lot of Si-fi books. The beginning
was set when Nathan was in his cage and Nathan describes his harsh everyday
routine and how he manages. I thought this was an excellent but very frustrating
way to start the book. It immediately drew me in to the scene, and was
instantly gripping, but as the reader didn’t know any of the background it had
me asking so many questions about pretty much everything that was going on!
After a good few chapters of me franticly reading to find out answers, Sally
Green described Nathan’s childhood. I found it quite depressing as Nathan was
treated like dirt and discriminated everywhere he went. I later realised that
the whole book had a strong message about racism which I thought was put in
discreetly throughout the book and worked well.
After
quite an upsetting and heavy start, the tone got lighter and there was more tense
action as Nathan continued his story. This was good as it was quite refreshing
to read something lighter, but I was still completely glued to the book. I
liked how Sally Green portrayed Nathan’s character because as Nathan was
narrating the book, the reader got a good idea what his personality was like. I
liked how lots of the speech and thought was very blunt indicating that Nathan
didn’t really care what was going on around him as long as he ended up at the
destination he was aiming for. I thought this worked well because if he cared
about himself and what was happening to him, he wouldn’t have managed to cope
so well.
The
ending was a huge cliff-hanger which was infuriating to read! So hopefully the
second book comes out soon. Overall I thought it was a very gripping, exciting
read with an original plot and an excellent twist; a book I would strongly
recommend to anyone.
Anya, Year
8