After I’d finished reading, I was incredibly impressed, and I felt bittersweet about the series ending, because I wasn’t ready to let this world go. I’d barely come across it before, and only ever when I’d really been looking for it. I was so, so pleased that there was a potential for an actual same-sex relationship in a young adult series that featured the main character. One of the things I was most surprised by was the introduction of Gabriel as a love interest for Nathan. I thought that the series made incredible progress, and it took turns that I genuinely wasn’t expecting.

I was one of my favourite books of last year. It felt different from other young adult novels, and after finishing Half Bad, I was very excited to read its sequel, Half Wild. This, combined with the fact that it was White witches that were “bad” and Black witches that were “good” (while they aren’t racial codifiers in the novel, it would be a little silly not to suggest that we don’t see white/black as such, generally) it gave me a really good feeling about the series. I loved that Witch was a gender neutral term, it was such a small but clever decision to make. Green took risks with her writing, and the world felt harsh and unfair, and Nathan was such a compelling character.

I was wary about starting this series because of all the hype it was getting, but when I was finally convinced to read it, I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never felt more conflicted about a book than I have about Half Lost.

Sally green half bad series