My daughter Melody and I have been reading The Half Bad trilogy. A young adult fantasy that began in 2014 and is set in modern-day Europe, mainly in Britain, where witches and humans (fains) live together. White Witches and Fains live in a strained peace together. However, the Black Witches are outcasts. The 17-year-old protagonist, Nathan, is half -White Witch and half-Black Witch.
*bisexual content.
*it is a tear-jerker of an ending.
More than a story about witches. It’s a heart-achingly visceral look at survival and exploitation, the nature of good and evil, and the risks we take for love.
Melody Falcon
Two warring factions of witches live amongst humans. It may not be that original, but it certainly is exhilarating. The ‘Hunt’ is animated and thrilling to read. Nathan is an abomination, a half-code, not to be confused with half-bloods who are half-witch, half-human. Nathan is the illegitimate son of the world’s most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. The twist being 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 his blood kills him. Knowing the good guys from the bad guys is very tricky in this story, and you feel how Nathan’s whirlwind life could drive a person crazy. With constant thrills and drama, this is a brilliant novel, if not a bit adult in some themes of relationships, family and lovers. Also, don’t expect magic even though we have witches. This is not Harry Potter!
Half Wild: Nathan has his father’s ring, the Hunter bullet removed from his flesh, and his life. With three gifts received, Nathan is hunted from all sides, nowhere is safe, and no one can be trusted. Sounds thrilling but wait, we are for the first few chapters trying to find and save Annalise. “Oh, please save the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white chick who’s landed herself in some kind of magical coma.” yes, I’m being sarcastic. It’s like Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Nathan’s dreams of Annalise, of touching her, exchanging bland conversation, staring at her skin-coloured skin! [“Her skin is soft and skin-coloured.”] She is white. So what if I’m not? Should I be to read this novel? Accidental racist faux pas to one side; Character deaths! There are lots of folks being ended, and some major ones too. So, not just running around in the woods being confused in love. It took Nathan long enough.
Half Lost: The Alliance of Free Witches’ greatest weapon is dead. The mighty Marcus is robbed of his heart, and his body is left in the wilderness. Nathan is, as always it may seem, on the run. Forced to consume his father’s heart, he is out for revenge. But wait, first, he must learn to master the powerful new gifts absorbed from Marcus. The decimated Alliance’s only hope for survival is Nathan. Nathan’s only chance of defeating Wallend and Soul and their army of Hunters is to find the reclusive black witch Ledger so that he might reclaim the other half of a valuable treasure which may make him invincible. What a rollercoaster! This totally makes up for the messing about at the start of Half Wild. Green has cleaned up the hunt and made clear the motivations of each character. I screamed, I cried and bit my nails. Confession; there were things set up in the previous books that I didn’t even realise until Green resolves them here. The back-and-forth, loss and gain, as neither side will back down chapter after chapter, makes this unputdownable. Just when I dared to breathe a sigh of relief at the pace of adventure, I was left sobbing at the end.
Netflix announced a TV adaptation which was released on 28th October 2022 as “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself.”
Oak Tree and Stars by BlueFalcon1983 