Half Bad

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan's only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus, and receive the three gifts that will bring him into his own magical powers—before it's too late. But how can Nathan find his father when there is no one safe to trust, not even family, not even the girl he loves?

 

 

My thoughts:

Half Bad is a wonderful integration of witches into modern day society and makes for an intriguing and compelling story that makes you question today's world(or at least it did for me).

The far superior White Witches or Shites(I love this!) as they become to be known through one character, have control of much of the UK and are in the process of hunting down and seemingly culling Black Witches.

Black witches are attuned to the night, have vastly more powerful gifts but have a tendency to kill each other, and more often that not, their family.

One Black Witch in particular is Marcus, who has killed a lot of witches, white and black alike for his own survival. It just so happens, that through illegitimate courtship with a white witch, he has a son.

That's bad news for Nathan.

Being a 'half-code' as the Whites put it, he can choose either side, though he is constantly monitored, disciplined, isolated and point-blank treated as a criminal although he is just a child.

After years of captivity, caged, cuffed, assessed and punished for minor indiscretions, the Whites offer him a deal.

White code status in return for his assistance in killing his own father.

Naturally, he refuses, though he has no real reason to, his Father is as illusive to him as he is to anyone and hasn't attempted to make contact.

After this refusal, Nathan was literally branded as a criminal. He is marked as a Black Witch, he is marked magically, all the way done to his bones. Tattoos that cannot be removed no matter how deep you skin the flesh...

Circumstances come to light in which Nathan makes his grand escape, and sets off on his mission to find Mercury, a witch who can give him his three gifts before his birthday, as he fears without, he will die.

 

This one book has a hell of a lot to digest. It's a brilliant read, a bit slow in places as the world of witches is built up and explained chapter by chapter, following how Nathan ended up in his cage but we are spared no expense when it comes to the plot kicking off. 

We see Nathan's insecurities, lack of respect for authority, his dreams and hopes for his Father and his capacity to believe there is good in White Witches despite that fact that for 90% of his life, he has been shunned, shamed and tortured by them.

The acts that take place in the book by both adult and teen White Witches are brutal, calculated and cringe-worthy. Not what you'd expect from the self-proclaimed heroes of the Witch world, though we quickly understand that nothing is as it seems.

The hunters are ruthless and don't let up on Nathan, sparing him no mercy from their hacked up supremacist retorts and punches.

And when we finally encounter Marcus. He seems like a puppy by comparison. Did I mention he eats the hearts of Witches' by the way?

Come here boy!

 

Despite his obvious flaws, Marcus is definitely going to be a baddie that you just love to love. Besides, accounts of his attacks are publicised by who? You guessed it, the White Witches. For all we know, they could have killed them and blamed Marcus to save their own skin. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. Half Bad definitely has a thing for making you doubt even the solidarity of proven facts.

 

I have extremely high hopes for Half Wild as we delve further into this mysterious world of treachery, darkness and ultimately Nathan's gift, which judging by the cover, may take after his father's.

Here's hoping!