Saturday 21 May 2016

Half Bad- Sally Green BOOK TALK

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I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would. I was in a fantasy mood and this book fitted the bill perfectly. I'm not usually a massive fan of witches but this book exceeded my expectations.
This story follows Nathan Byrn, a Half Code witch- son of a White Witch and Black Witch. His mother is dead and his father is one of the most well-known Black Witches, famous for being a notorious murderer.
Nathan is constantly looked on as suspicious and has to escape from council clutches in order to have a Giving ceremony and turn into a fully fledged witch.
He has to do this or die.
If any of this sounds interesting to you, I would suggest reading. This is the first book in a trilogy so you'll have a nice amount of material to read.

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
This book was so good and I thought it was a nice change to read about Witches as I don't read about them much. Green has created such an interesting world of Witches and the politics of their world is so intricate and absorbing.
I liked how her thoughts and opinions on racial discrimination were blended through this book. The equality and discrimination issues in their world reflect our own and I thought that this was an insightful aspect to include within a fantasy novel.

One issue I did have with this book was that at times- a lot of times- I found it quite predictable. I could easily determine what would happen. But, in all honesty, I don't mind when it's predictable because it makes me feel smart because I've figured what's going to happen. In some cases, obviously, predictability is not a good thing in a book but I didn't mind it so much in Half Bad.
The book started off with Nathan's past and how he got to be in the cage.
I think that it was beneficial to learn so much about Nathan's past because his past very much influenced who he is and how he acts to things. My favourite character from his past has to be Arran. Arran was an amazingly supportive and loyal character and I really hope he comes into the story more in the future.
Nathan has a really strong belief that he will never kill his father and he makes excuses in his head for evey bad thing that his father has done. In a way, I admire his ability to keep hope on his father but I didn't think it was very good for him to get his hopes up. I don't think that his father really cares for him and I think that Nathan has to realise that too.
When he got into this cage, we met Celia. At first, I didn't like her but, by now, my opinion has changed. I understand that she treated Nathan very harshly but I feel like some of those methods were necessary for him to grow and become a strong individual. So, at the moment, I really like her, even if she tortured Nathan quite a bit....
My favourite character out of everyone has to be Gabriel. He is so stunning! I love him; he's sweet, loyal, funny and everything I could want in a character. (I know I'm going a bit over the top but I'm a  tiny bit obsessed with him at the moment.)
Gabriel and Nathan is my ship and I want them to be together so much! I understand that this such an unrealistic pairing but I will go down with this ship!!! They have to be together- my heart cannot bear it if they're not. (Sick of the over dramatics yet?)
I, personally, am not sure whether to trust Annalise. Maybe it's just the Gabriel-lover in me, but I can't bring myself to trust her. Yeah, she may have been all well and good when Nathan was 14 but it's been 3 years! She could have changed so much and I think that Nathan is obliviously blinded by the person he used to know. He hasn't even considered the fact that she may have changed.
I was so upset that Rose died! I know she was a bit odd but I found her really entertaining. She made funny jokes and her giggle... it was all so wacky and weird but I loved it.
I can't wait to start the next book! I'm interested to see what Nathan's Gift is- does him having Marcus do the Giving Ceremony affect what his Gift will be?
And, most of all, I'm looking forward to Nathan and Gabriel moments!!! Well, if Gabriel has survived... I'm assuming he has...

Thank you for reading my messed up jumble of thoughts on this book- I hope it made sense.
I'll see you soon,
Chloe

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