Half Bad: Sally Green || Review




Half Bad (The Half Bad Trilogy, #1)Wanted by no one.
Hunted by everyone.

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?



{ Cover + Summary from Goodreads }

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I spent three days slugging through this book, and I actually managed to finish it. Somebody give me a prize. 


“The trick is not to mind.
Not to mind about it hurting.  
Not to mind about anything.


Here's the thing-- I'm currently in the midst of final season, so like, 90% of January is just depression and tears. School is this constant looming thing in the background, so when I picked up a book that everybody else loves (more than their family members it seems tbh), I expected to have at least a moderately enjoyable retreat from life. 

And I mean, it started out fairly well?? Witches in England and Wales? An antihero mc?? The tempting promise of a dark + eerie plot??? Sign me up. 

But the writing rubbed me wrong from the beginning. It felt choppy to me, and there were passages of mind-numbing, unnecessary description that made my eyes glaze over. I stop caring about what clothes somebody is wearing after the second or third time of meeting them unless it's essential to the plot, and I reeeaaalllly don't need a thick paragraph devoted to just talking about the colors of the trees in the forest. 


The plot also seemed completely lackluster to me. Majority of the time was spent viewing Nathan's background; which was interesting in the sense of how dark it was, but boring when considering 90% of the time was spent with him hiding out at home, or at some stupid council meeting. Had the book been more like the part with Nathan in the cage/the bit at the end with Mercury, I probably would've liked it a lot more. But then again, with the writing style?? Probably not. 

Added to the fact that I couldn't connect with any of the characters (lord don't get me started on Annalise), and the glaring lack of any magic in the book at all, I was just really disenchanted with the whole thing. One of my family pointed out that I was cringing while reading and I can't exactly argue with that statement. Just because I disliked it, though, doesn't mean that you will-- and if you're interested by the blurb, I think you should definitely give it a shot! 

I'm certainly the black sheep when it comes to this one. 

*.5 out of 5 stars*


Nothing like kicking off posting reviews again by posting a negative one. xD

I'm currently at the end of my school semester and going through midterms (one left!!!) so I'm looking forward being able to get back into a schedule + post more. I've been reading a lot this month, and I've got some fun post ideas in mind. :)

I hope you're having a lovely morning/day/evening/night. ^-^ 




Let's chat! Have you read Half Bad? What did you think? Do you often feel like you're a reader with an "unpopular" opinion? TELL ME ALL THE THINGS.  





Comments

  1. YOU HAVE (PERHAPS UNINTENTIONALLY) INTRIGUED ME. I must check out this book!

    I'm not usually the black sheep, but sometimes I am. For example, I find The Raven Boys and Blue Lily, Lily Blue to be extraordinarily lackluster books (although The Raven King blew me away), and it's a miracle I was able to finish the first Harry Potter book. (The rest were all great, though, so idk what exactly happened there.) I also prefer (thus far) the Grisha trilogy to the Six of Crows duology, where I feel that for most people it's the opposite way.

    Ellie | On the Other Side of Reality

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    1. OKAY I FEEL THAT I MUST UPDATE YOU ON A THING THAT HAS HAPPENED. I was scrolling through a Durarara-themed Spotify playlist (bc I'm trash) when I happened upon a song called "Final Masquerade" that was EXTREMELY FABULOUS, AND, WHADDAYA KNOW, BY LINKIN PARK. So then I was like "hmmm, okay, let's look at some of their other stuff" but a lot of it seemed too...screamy? Overly energetic? Idk. But I really did like "Final Masquerade", so do you know of any other Linkin Park songs that have that kind of sound - slightly mournful, slightly haunting, but not super slow?

      - Ellie

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    2. *crawls out of hole* dID SOMEBODY SAY LINKIN PARK.
      ohhh fam, can i help you out or what.

      A LIST OF A'S FAVORITE SLOW/DEEP LINKIN PARK SONGS AKA ALL OF THEM (no screaming, may be some minimal rap):
      - the messenger (kinda slow; really soulful/raw; makes me cry every time)
      - blackbirds (fricking bomb)
      - shadow of the day
      - robot boy
      - iridescent (slower but picks up some; a hell of a lot of tears)
      - castle of glass
      - roads untraveled
      - in between (chester + mike's overlapping voices can i just. bless.)
      - the little things give you away
      - the requiem, the radiance, + burning in the skies (first two songs filter into the third "real" one; 10/10 recommend listening to all of them in a row to get the full haunting effect)
      - the catalyst (not sure if it fits what you're looking for, it's a hard song to describe, but there's no screaming and i love it. it's very atmospheric? idk but it's definitely worth a listen to see if you like it)

      I HOPE THIS HELPS SOME. I tried to include most everything I knew that was on the lighter side; albums like A Thousand Suns, Midnight Memories, + Living Things have a lot of more toned down songs, so if you're interested in maybe delving into a bit more energetic ones, too, I'd definitely recommend those albums as a whole. (A Thousand Suns is my fave + very story-driven w/ amazing quotes overlaid music and just a bunch of amazing stuff.)

      AND I HOPE THAT IF YOU READ HALF BAD, YOU HAVE A BETTER TIME WITH IT THAN I DID. i'm def probably just that odd black sheep with it. >_<

      xx a

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  2. Aww...I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy this one. :( It's always hard not enjoying a popular book everyone else loves. Nevertheless, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and, as always, fabulous review! <3

    ~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage

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    1. it is definitely hard being the black sheep. i always hate not being able to join in on the excitement that others have for a particular story. :P

      thank you for commenting, zoe! ^-^

      xx a

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  3. I read this book a little while ago and found it okay. I did fall in love with Gabriel though.

    - Edie
    thenjbc.blogspot.com

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    1. gabriel was definitely interesting. if i ever were to pick up the next book, it'd probably be just to find out what happens to him. :3

      i'm happy to see you're back blogging, edie!! i missed your stuff. <333

      xx a

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  4. YOU DID IT! *Cheers and hands you a prize*
    Unfortunately, I DNF'd this book as soon as I made it past page 100, I just couldn't stand any of it and frankly, Harry Potter sounded WAY better.
    -Jared

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    1. i SO wish i had DNF'ed this one like you. it was such a waste, and i totally get why you couldn't get through it.
      harry potter is always a better alternative, that's for sure.

      thanks for stopping by, jared!

      xx a

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