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Bela (2014)

by Sally Green(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

DEX

series

The Half Bad Trilogy

review 1: Half Bad: Engaging Expectation in YA LitPOSTED ON AUGUST 17, 2014half-badSally Green’s debut Half Bad, purchased for one million pounds, released with high expectations of commercial success. The book under-performed in the market; expectations can be killers. However, it wasn’t only publishing’s high hopes that derailed Half Bad’s potential. Green’s authorial choices at the beginning of the novel do not mesh with the majority of the rest of the book.Half Bad begins strong. It’s dynamic and interesting in style, character, setting, and situation. In a mere eighteen pages, we know our protagonist is kept in a cage, we know he is trying to escape, the conflict is clear, the character likable, a fighter, the stakes high. He rebels against his captor in small ways:... more urinates on the vegetable garden, spits on potato plants, stands after forty-nine push-ups instead of fifty, accepts a face slap punishment.Green even peppers the opening pages with statements that peak readers’ interest. “And you’re buzzing, self-healing from her little slap; it’s giving you a little buzz, buzz, buzz” (pg 10, Hardcover). What does this mean? What is self-healing? How does he do it? Is he special? These tiny mysteries interest readers and carries them deeper into the story.Stylistically, the beginning chapters are engaging as well. The author chooses to tell the story in second person. Our protagonist narrates his actions using “you” instead of “I.” A dynamic that concurrently illustrates the narrator’s emotional divorce from himself and a directness to the reader. The other broad idiosyncratic authorial choice is the formatting of some paragraphs.half bad pageThe effect heightens the writing’s rhythm through physicalizing the action on the page. Green is not afraid of breaking out of the narrative confines — not unlike her protagonist.Green hooks her readers in these first few pages. She presents a unique situation — a boy held in a cage — and engaging, sympathetic protagonist, and interesting language choices. She creates questions for the readers by withholding information, thus pushing the reader to continue with the story. Then I continued reading and my interest waned. What started in high action, intrigue, high stakes, mystery, high life value was undercut with a slow-paced, domestic drama of “witches” coming of age. A hundred and twenty-five pages of low tension, seemingly unimportant stakes, no clock, and no interesting conflict. The protagonist is an outsider, he falls in love with a girl he shouldn’t, he gets beaten up by bullies, he learns about his mother and father, he’s starting to “change,” etc. Sound familiar? Of course, because these are clichés if not developed in a new way. Green’s world is simply reminiscent of Harry Potter’s from Voldemort’s perspective.Ultimately, the novel returns to our protagonist in the cage, but it’s too late, the reader has walked. Robert McKee writes, “A story must not retreat to actions of lesser quality or magnitude, but move progressively forward to a final action beyond which the audience cannot imagine another” (McKee, pg 209). Half Bad starts highly active and engaging but “retreats to actions of lesser quality or magnitude.” For the same reason writers are warned against employing flashbacks — breaking the story’s rhythm, dropping its tension, undercutting the conflicts — Green should have reconsidered the structure. Nothing is more disappointing than false hope.
review 2: Half Bad is an intriguing, though rather slow, start to a fantasy trilogy that promises to explore morality and what makes us good or bad.White Witches are good. Black Witches are evil. Black Witches kill. White Witches hunt them down, torture them and kill them. That’s the way the world works, and Nathan is the son of the strongest and most notorious Black Witch in the world. But Nathan is half White, too. And that’s where things get complicated. That’s how Nathan ends up living in a cage.I think the most important thing to note is that the writing style in Half Bad is just not my cup of tea at all. It’s very sparse and simple. Short and blunt sentences. Nothing particularly descriptive or evocative. I wasn’t drawn in. I wasn’t living the story.But that’s very much a me thing. I understand that in a way, the writing style is very fitting for the narrator. This is how Nathan thinks. Nathan is illiterate, and he’s also been through a lot of pain and abuse and violence and trauma. It makes sense that his thoughts are like this. I recognise it’s a good stylistic choice, but that doesn’t mean I personally find it enjoyable to read.I also didn’t feel like much happened for most of the book. I was a little bored, and I didn’t care that much about any of the characters. The beginning was actually really intriguing and strange and it’s spectacularly different from anything I’ve ever read. Nothing much is revealed at first and it takes a while to piece together the fragments of Nathan’s life, his past and present. It’s very slow, and the wonder and curiosity I felt at the beginning soon faded.It’s also frustrating because I love worldbuilding and we don’t get a fantastic amount of that in this book. We get a very limited sense of what the world is like through Nathan’s eyes. It’s our world, in the present day, but it’s a world where witches exist. And I didn’t really feel either of these things enough. There’s a story, and it’s floating around somewhere. It just isn’t very anchored in any physical place. The book talks about London and Wales and Scotland and Geneva but really, I swear we could be anywhere and the book would still be the same. We hardly learnt anything about the witches as a whole community. I wanted more history and background and setting.So many aspects of the book feel somewhat vague and underdeveloped to me. However, I kept reading. I found there was enough promise in the plot to make me keep turning the pages, and I’m glad I did. The last 30% of the book propelled it into something a lot more enjoyable.Gabriel happened. This new character walked into the story with his sunglasses and his books and his conversation and quietly became Nathan’s friend and suddenly everything had so much more life and warmth and interest. Then EVERYTHING WAS HAPPENING. And then, BAM, the book ended. It was a whirlwind of an ending. The pace picked up a lot and Nathan was changing into something more fascinating to read about.I’m very much looking forward to reading the second book, Half Wild, which is how you know that somehow, I ended up liking Half Bad a lot more than I would have expected even halfway through the book. less

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Reviews (see all)

Room205

This book got off to a strange start - being written in second person - which took a bit of getting used to. Thankfully, much of the narrative was first person, but it is an interesting literary convention.Aside from that, it was an okay read, I liked it well enough, but definitely didn't love it. The world building seemed pretty minimalistic. For the most part, I found it to be darkly disturbing. The "White Witches" were supposed to be the good guy, but because Nathan has been designated as "half bad" they could basically do whatever the heck they wanted to him which included torture, bullying and basically forcing him towards the dark side. The only "white" ones that showed him much compassion were his brother, grandmother and one of his sisters, and Annaliese, the daughter of one of the most fanatical black-haters there is. I could not help but feel that one way to turn someone bad is to basically punish them until they snap. Of course, without that there wouldn't have been much of a story.My favourite character was probably Gabriel, and I loved the friendship between he and Nathan. I, like many other readers, am hoping that friendship is developed further because, quite frankly, Annaliese feels pretty weak as a character and I cannot help but feel that she is a Judas goat (probably unwillingly). I guess I shall have to track down #2 now. I would also like to see the magic and the premise developed further - are the fain widely aware of the existence of witches? (Fain is so much prettier a word than muggles or mundanes). Is it modern day? At first I wondered - it had a mediaeval feel - but then tellies were mentioned. What will Nathan's talent be? And at which point did he actually consume the blood? I don't remember that coming with the 3 gifts, but I may have missed it - I was pretty tired at that point.There were definite shades of Harry Potter and Mortal Instruments in this book, with the whole Slytherin/Half-blood/muggles(fain) references and the dad-being-the-evil-bad-guy, best friend being not-so secretly in love with him etc, but it was a good story on its own, if rather too violent and emotionally dark for the more sensitive reader.

ananya

3.5 estrellas de 5Me hubiese gustado ponerle las 4 estrellas que estaba pensando darle, pero ese final que de "cliff hanger" no tuvo nada... (fue más un final a lo "¡A mi libro le faltan páginas!") me cambió el panorama.Hay capítulos cortos que están bien llevados, pero ese capítulo final, si bien podrían haberlo obviado... al dejarlo parece que Sally Green ya quería terminar el libro y dijo "Lalalala... fin" xDSin embargo, el libro tuvo sus cosas buenas y bastantes; pero de ellas hablaré en su reseña ^^ Lo leí bastante rápido y realmente me interesa seguir con la historia ya que tuvo sus cosas originales y llamativas.

middy

Насилието ми беше в повече.

N61595

bullshit... !

xway101

3,5

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