Book review: Half Bad by Sally Green

Warning: this review contains mild spoilers!

I was always going to be slightly biased towards this book as 1) I am a huge sucker for giant marketing campaigns and 2) it was written by a fellow North Westerner (still not entirely sure whereabouts in the North West of England Sally Green is from, but I'll take what I can get).

So, Half Bad is a YA book about witches. There are two types of witches – Black and White, and on a witch's seventeenth birthday they have a giving ceremony, which determines which kind of witch they are going to be (I think this is determined by what kind of witch gives them their blood at the ceremony, but I'm not entirely sure...).

Nathan is half and half – his mother was a White witch, but his dad is the most powerful Black witch alive. As he grows up, the Council (who are all White witches and believe Black witches should be wiped out) takes increasing interest in him, as they try to determine what kind of witch he'll be. They imprison Nathan in the hope that they can manipulate him into killing his own father, but he escapes and goes looking for his father instead. It's a race against time for him to 1) receive his three gifts at his giving ceremony on his seventeenth birthday (because if he doesn't, he'll die) and 2) find his father before the Council does.

The book starts with a bang – when we first meet Nathan he's locked up in a cage. Sally Green does a fantastic job of drawing you into Nathan's world, simply by starting the book is what is essentially the midpoint of the plot. The background to Nathan's world is intriguing, and I really enjoyed finding out about the rules of this world, the psychology of both White and Black witches, and about Nathan's own upbringing. However, around halfway through the book, I have to admit I started to get a teeny bit restless. As we follow Nathan on his journey to find his father/another Black witch called Mercury who can help him with his giving ceremony, he makes friends with another Black witch, escapes from Hunters (White witches trained to kill Black witches) numerous times and falls in love with a White witch (naturally). After the halfway point, I started to get a bit bored and found my attention wandering, as Nathan just seemed to be running around and not doing an awful lot apart from moping/thinking about Annalise/agonising over his future (think of the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and you'll get my drift).

Overall, Half Bad is a great debut book and I like the fresh take Sally Green has on witches. The world building was good and I was satisfied with the explanations behind the character's motives and world. The writing is gritty, and the author doesn't skimp on the bloody or violent details like most YA authors tend to do. It's this style of writing that really makes you feel for Nathan and his situation, and makes the whole thing seem more real, as though there really could be witches running around trying to murder each other while us 'fains' (non-magic folk) wander around blissfully unaware. The main theme running throughout the book is the age old question of nature vs nurture, and as a reader, you're constantly wondering which direction Nathan will go – will he stay true to the beliefs he's been brought up with, or will the White witches and their endless persecution turn him into a witch's version of 'Frankenstein's monster'?

For me though, the last third of the book wasn't up to the same standard as the rest of it, and the action felt more rushed than punchy - the last few pages in particular were a whirlwind, and the last line, which was clearly supposed to end the book on a dramatic note, simply made me roll my eyes. There's also the case of the typical 'forbidden love'/insta-love that unfortunately seems to happen so often in YA literature these days; Nathan's love interest, Annalise, comes from the purest White witch family around - although naturally she rebels and decides to follow Nathan instead. To me, I think this aspect of the story could've been written slightly differently to make in more intriguing, as it's completely obvious from the moment Nathan first meets Annalise what's going to happen. Saying that, Half Bad a good start to the series and I'll definitely be checking out the second book when it arrives next year – I just won't be rushing out to buy it like I did with this one.

Final comments: A good solid debut, but a couple of slices short of a full cake I'm afraid.

3/5 cupcakes

Book reviews and other exciting news...

I'm a poet and I didn't know it! Hahaha...ahem....

Moving on...

I think it's time I started blogging a bit more regularly - I always mean to post about some topic or other, but then I end up forgetting/procrastinating/falling asleep instead. So, I am very excited to announce that from now on, I will be posting regular book reviews! I'm aiming to post these up every Friday - with the exception of this week, which I'll be posting up today instead...

Just a couple of things to mention about my reviews - please bear with me while I get the hang of it - I'll probably ramble on for a while until I get into a rhythm and realise what's important and what's not! Also, I'll be rating my reviews out of 5 cupcakes instead of 5 stars - simply because I love cake and I'm desperate to find a legitimate way to incorporate it into this blog ;). Also, while I won't be sticking to a definite category of books (because I do love to read most genres), there probably will be more YA reviews on here than any others, simply because that's what I love to read :). But I am open to any and all suggestions, so please let me know if you think there's an amazing book I should check out!

In other news - this isn't that exciting (sorry, I lied in the title - BUT IT GOT YOUR ATTENTION DIDN'T IT! HAHAHA! Ahem...) but I'm going to be updating this blog over the next couple of weeks - my WIPs have changed completely since I last wrote that page, and I'm currently looking around for different backgrounds etc, just to make my blog look a bit more interesting :).

I'm also toying with the idea of bringing back my author interviews...if I can remember how to get into my Authonomy account that is! But if you can think of anyone you think I should interview/if you're an author and you wanna be featured, please just drop me an email :)!

So that's all for today! Have a great weekend, folks!

March IWSG: But is there any substance...?

Guys, just going to apologise now if this post is a little short/rushed!

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG)! On the first Wednesday of every month, authors from across the world/interweb post up their fears and insecurities about their writing, and we all provide support/tea/cake/virtual hugs to encourage all your lovely authors to keep writing.

IWSG was set up by Alex J. Cavanaugh (you can check out his blog here) and there's now an official IWSG website, which is full of helpful tips, tricks and encouraging posts – you can check out that awesome site here.

So this month I'm focusing on my actual plot line – I'm currently halfway through writing a proper detailed synopsis for my NaNoWriMo novel (which I'm praying will turn into my first actual real novel) and something struck me as I began to flesh out each scene: do I have enough substance in my story?

I'm pretty sure I know who my characters are, what their motives are, where it's going to be set etc, but as I wrote out each scene, I began to wonder which of my scenes were essential to the story (which I'm hoping will be all of them) and which ones were 'filler'.

I hate the thought that 75% of my book might be made up of those awful, stilted dialogue scenes, or scenes that describe in minute detail of how my MC got up, stared out the window, made breakfast, ate breakfast, put on her socks, had a completely random argument with her parent(s), brushed her hair exactly 100 times, put on her shoes, picked up her bag, stared soulfully at her reflection in the mirror (enter convenient description of MC's physical appearance here) before finally running out of the house and catching the bus to school. Or something along those lines. You get the picture.

Are there some scenes you should leave in so the reader gets a bit of a background of your MC, or should every scene have a specific purpose? I personally prefer the latter option – but I'm just hoping that my opinion on what's essential to the storyline doesn't differ too much to my reader's!

So that's it for now! Hopefully I'll get a chance to blog more often this month – there's a couple of book reviews I'd love to write up for you guys to read :).

Until next time - happy writing!

Just a quick note...

Just wanted to apologise, guys, for my IWSG post not posting yesterday - I thought I'd try to be clever and write it a couple of days in advance and then schedule it to post itself on Wednesday, thinking I could then kick back and relax with a big mug of tea, knowing that for once, I'd managed to write my post on time....

But alas, it was not to be.

I don't know what happened but for some reason technology hates me, so I've had to post my IWSG message today instead.

That'll teach me to try and be clever.

Anywho, on a different note - I had a brainwave about my novel while I was in the car on the way to work this morning (why does this happen the moment I can't physically find/get to a pen?!) - so my plan for tonight is to quickly scribble it down tonight before I forget and try to do some more work on my WIP before the inspiration deserts me completely.

Hope everyone else's Thursday has been good - only one more day til the weekend, folks! We're almost there!

Xx

IWSG: Will it ever happen?!

Happy belated New Year!

And Happy Chinese New Year to everyone too! I wish you all a fantastic year of the Horse :) (which is my Chinese sign too!).

I can't believe it's February already - between adjusting to life back home, moving house and starting a new job, I really don't know where the time has gone!

Anyway, enough rambling! Here's a quick overview of the Insecure Writers' Support Group, for those of you who are new (a warm welcome to you by the way :)!) - every first Wednesday of the month, writers from all over the blogosphere confess what's been troubling them in their writing over the past month. IWSG was set up by Alex J. Cavanaugh (you can check out his blog here!), and you can check out the official IWSG website here!

So here's my theme of the month for February: Am I ever going to have enough get-up-and-go to write my novel?!

This is a worry that constantly comes back to haunt me. Ever since I was about 15, I've known that all I want to be is an author. And ever since then, every single year without fail, I've promised myself that this will be the year that I finally do it - I finally write my novel..but guess what? The years fly by and it still hasn't materialised....

I've always had this sense that time is running out - yes, I know I'm probably a bit too young to be thinking this, but I can't help it - the thought that the years will continue to fly by in a blur, and I'll never get the chance to complete any of my novels...that thought really is unbearable to me.

But at the same time, I keep asking myself, what's stopping me? Logically, there is no real reason for me not to have completed a novel by now - I can try to justify it to myself any way I like (my life is too busy, I don't have the time, I'm a bad writer who shouldn't write a novel anyway...etc etc), but honestly, the only thing that's stopping me is a) my own insecurity that I'm not good enough and b) procrastination. But what I'm worried about is that I never will get over these fears - that I always will make up excuses for myself as to why I haven't done it yet.

If I'm completely honest - and this might sound a bit crazy/self-important, and if it does, I'm sorry, I really don't mean it sound that way - the older I get, the more I sense that something is changing about me. I kinda get the feeling that I actually can do this if I really want to...I just have to go for it. I don't know if this is something to do with the fact that last year, not only did I manage to write 40,000 words for NaNoWriMo (which, if I may say so, I'm very proud of!), I also went to China and taught English for three months (something I've wanted to do for a long time). And maybe it's the fact that I finally feel like I've accomplished something, that I'm starting to wonder if maybe, that elusive novel that's been lurking at the back of my brain for years and years, isn't that elusive after all....

Or maybe I'm just hoping that's the case. Either way, this is one of my biggest worries - that I'll never get to do what I really want to do. Maybe I just need someone to give me a good kick up the bum to get me going again!

Sorry for the rant guys! Hope all your writing endeavours are going well :) - I'm looking forward to visiting a few more blogs this month and having a nosey at what everyone else is up to :)!