“You will have a powerful Gift, but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad.”In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world’s most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he’s on the run–but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.1
All his life Nathan grew up being told that black witches are bad and that his father was the worst of them all. For years he was monitored to see which side he would have more of an affinity for. Would he remain pure like the white witches around him and raising him? or would he turn dark like his father and be something that needed to be wiped out immediately. Warring over the white and black qualities within him, it was the white witches that caged Nathan and tortured him for years. Despite what they have said about black witches, it was black witches that have helped him and it was his father, the darkest black witch there is that gave him his three gifts. These gifts helped unlock his witches gift, a gift very much like his fathers. While Nathan’s father, Marcus, has many gifts, they have all been stolen by eating the hearts of his victims and taking their gifts for his own. His original gift was that of shifting into the form of an animal, which Nathan shares. His transformation was a shock to him, and even more shocking was the fact that he could not control this new beast inside him. Nathan must try to understand his new gift while being cautious of those around him and deciding on who he can trust. A war is starting and sides must be taken, but who do you side with when both sides have shown their dark sides?
Nathan and his friend Gabriel have the best relationship of all the characters in the book. I absolutely love Green’s ability to create these unique characters that you can love with barely any information. There are also those that you hate, and in Half Wild, there are those characters that I feel like we should like them, but I hate them. I have to side with Gabriel when it comes to his feelings for Annalise. Nathan has been damaged throughout his life and it is understandable that he would have feelings for Annalise. She is pure, she is beautiful and she is all around perfect on the surface. Nathan’s feelings for Annalise have always been known but they seem forced in this book and each time we hear about them we can’t help but cringe and wonder aloud, What about Gabriel? It is not common for a main character and a strong aggressive male at that, to have feelings for another male character, but I am loving it (naturally). I love Gabriel’s character and I wish that him and Nathan could move passed this whole Annalise phase and that she could get out of the picture already.
Nathan is an interesting character for me as I find most of the books I read and enjoy revolve around female leads. I feel like if I were to read more male lead fiction I wouldn’t be able to relate to them as much and this is where his random tendency to lean towards Annalise and the disconnect comes in. Nathan is rude, crude, violent and aggressive, and all these things teamed together with his unique relationship with Gabriel appeal to the girls and us gays. I can’t say how most straight guys would react to this series, but I can only assume that the majority of the readers of this series are either female or gay. If I’m wrong please let me know! Straight boys, I’d love to hear your thoughts…. crickets.
A war is coming and while there are some pretty intense battles won and lost, I feel like it has only just begun. Half Wild takes a bit of a nose dive in the series losing my interest just a little bit, but still managing to keep me around. This is likely due to any scenes with Annalise. We get to do a lot of travelling and the details around the witch world are growing and creating more of a story for us to enjoy. There are new witches and new abilities, but the characters remain the focal point of the story for me. There are some characters that come and go and as much as I love many of them, I have to wonder what was the point of including some of them. There are these side bits of information and things that we know must happen for the story to progress but I enjoy the time that Nathan is around other characters, rather than when he needs to be alone.
A convenient sale online where I purchased Half Wild in hardcover for only $6 and the fact that Half Lost was readily available in the library have helped greatly in moving on with the series and keeping me engaged. I have already started Half Lost and I can’t wait to finish things to see what happens and to be able to share with you all. Stay tuned.
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