Sally Green

Half Wild

The powerful and riveting second book in the Half Bad trilogy. 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. The Half Bad trilogy has been translated into more than 50 languages. TIME Magazine calls it "highly entertaining and dangerously addictive." Kate Atkinson says it's "brilliant and utterly compelling." London's Daily Telegraph has named author Sally Green "the new J.K. Rowling." Discover the story that readers all over the world are raving about.

sophia

Don't know how far down the path of eating people you have to go before you officially become a psycho.

i honestly thought this was a book for like 12 year olds but after nathan ate his father’s heart and van told him to cut open pilot’s arm and drink her blood i kinda changed my mind lol 

"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.

Reviled for his half-witch status, seventeen-year-old Nathan discovers his own magical Gift while fleeing Hunters who would also destroy his father. The plot contains profanity, sexual references, and violence. Book #2

Half wild

Emelie

This book... Oh My! It was so so SO good! And the ending, Holy moly!! Cant wait to read the last book in the serie..

Elisa Bieg

The sequel to Half Bad, Half Wild is slightly slower at times, but still very good.
The character development is excellent, independently of how visible a character is or how prominent their role — these characters come to life vividly and loudly, and though the story is character driven, so does the world building.
This book is intense, with good plot development and some very emotional times, but without using shock value, emotional manipulation or other cheap tricks (looking at you SJM).

This is a fantastic trilogy, and I’m really looking forward to reading the last installment!

Nicole Dykeman

I didn't remember much of the first novel as I read it more than a year ago, so I read a summary before I picked this up. From what I remember, this book was just as good as the first. 

Nathan is a fascinating protagonist. He struggles a lot to make decisions, wanting to do the right thing all the time, somehow trying to make everyone happy while simultaneously not caring what they think. He can get a bit confusing sometimes though, because he easily flips back and forth between loving someone and hating someone. His feelings are all extreme and they're constantly changing - you're either the worst scum on earth or an absolute angel in Nathan's eyes. 

The sort of love triangle between Nathan, Annalise, and Gabriel was kind of getting on my nerves by the midway point of the novel, and Annalise was really only present for the tail end of the book. I'm a major fan of Gabriel - I will easily argue that he is the best character out of them all, so really, I just want him and Nathan to get together in the last book. 

The main reason I'm giving this 4/5 and not 5/5 is that the descriptions of the battle scenes are kind of lame. Some authors are really great at describing the intense action of battle, but while reading this, I wasn't really able to fully imagine what was happening. The focus is always on Nathan and what he is doing (usually slitting someone's throat, which gets pretty boring after a while. That sounds terrible but you know what I mean). 

I'll definitely be picking up the third book to wrap up this trilogy.

The stunning sequel to Sally Green's breathtaking debut novel - HALF BAD. After finally meeting his elusive father, Marcus, and receiving the three gifts that confirm him as a full adult witch, Nathan is still on the run. He needs to find his friend Gabriel and rescue Annalise, now a prisoner of the powerful Black witch Mercury. Most of all he needs to learn how to control his Gift - a strange, wild new power that threatens to overwhelm him. Meanwhile, Soul O'Brien has seized control of the Council of White Witches and is expanding his war against Black witches into Europe. In response, an unprecedented alliance has formed between Black and White witches determined to resist him. Drawn into the rebellion by the enigmatic Black witch Van Dal, Nathan finds himself fighting alongside both old friends and old enemies. But can all the rebels be trusted, or is Nathan walking into a trap?

Tae Thompson

** spoiler alert **
           i loved it but it was slow in some parts and i am just happy the bitch is gone but at the same sad but predictable things happened

jess

it was slow at parts, and the writing is stilted slightly in some way but i can't quite place why. really strong ending though. hoping for gabriel/nathan to be endgame 3

** spoiler alert **
           Reread - 1.5

This book was just plain awful and so bad written tbh. 

Everything revolves for some reason around Annalise, even at the end, and that's annoying. Even if Annalise was the first person that treated Nathan well outside his family, he has more friends now, he has more people to just not be so obssesed with her. But no. Everything has to be about her.

Gabriel is lovely but he just impose his feelings on Nathan again and again, and he is also obssesed with him and infatueted with him and is just toxic. I love him but he is just plain toxic.

And can we please ackwoledge the stupid deaths of powerful characters? Mercury should have been able to beat all fo the together. But okay let's say I buy her death, what I don't buy at all is Marcus death, is absurd and just plot convinient. It has 0 sense that Annalise was able to kill him like THAT, even if Hunter's bullets are powerful to kill someone, Marcus is much more powerful and smart to just be able to be killed like that. But sure, it was just so Nathan could eat his heart and have his gifts.

Also don't tell me Marcus had any actual reason to join the alliance except plot convenience. And don't try to sell me that he cared about Nathan, he had many oportunities to take him with him but he just abandoned him again and again. And once Nathan starts to have a father HE IS KILLED. Like literally is like we are just here to see how everyone is taken away from him (and knowing the end on the third book, that's the true plot lmao). And his death was actually really anticlimatic and so soooo stupid

A lot happens but at the same time there is no real deveploment on what happens throw the whole book, is so absurd is almost funny. Almost.

This had so much potential, but it was all thrown out of the window.

And while is normal and logical that some stuff happens bcs is plot convenient, everything in this book is just plot convenient, like there's no character nor situation deveploment. Which is annoying, like i said this had so much potential but is so bad written and deveplooded that is cringy.

This was basically just a shitshow

Alex

I really really wanted this to be good, but it just wasn't. Half Bad was so damn good, and this just ended up being a disappointment. It was a bore and a challenge to read the majority of the book. 
Annalise. She drove me crazy. Nathan talking about her 24/7 drove me crazy. Literally the entire book is "Annalise this, Annalise that, must save Annalise, Annalise is my only love, blah blah blah." I couldn't stand it. And then, he finally gets Annalise! Should she be ever so slightly off his conscious? No. Annalise's name still appears on every. single. page. It never ends. 
If the entirety of this book was like the last 100 pages, I would of been all for it. The fighting, Marcus, Gabriel, and the Alliance are the only decent and tolerable parts of this novel. Everything else is worthless, not to mention the writing. I know the style is supposed to reflect on Nathan's personality, but it's unbearable. You don't need to write like a 19 year old who can't read to represent a 19 year old character who can't read. 
I'll finish this triology, because I'm still interested enough in Nathan's character and how his and Gabriel's relationship develops. But let's just say I'll be grazing through the last book.

roosmarijn

ah i just don’t know what to think of this one!!!
(disclaimer: review still a work in progress)

the symbolism, again, was amazing! 
where half bad focused on the questions: what is good and bad? is there such a thing as black and white? and themes: racism and injustice and prejudice. 
half wild focused on how do we define wild? what are the boundaries? what is human or civilised?

i think the topics that sally green addresses in her books so far, and especially the way she manages to entwine them into her writing, is so interesting!!!

another thing that i loved were the blood and gore in this one!!! it’s quite different from the first book in the series and since the writing is so abstract and non-descriptive, the entire story is so vivid and vibrant and almost build like a feverdream inside your own head and with your own imagination!!! which makes the gory scenes so spectacular

i’ve despised annalise from the very first second of the first book, and the entirety of her and nathan together was a drag to get through... i hated the scenes with her and i hate her character and oh my goodness just, why! 

also: gabriel??? the sweet pea deserves so much better, i feel so sorry for him... i honestly cannot believe he keeps blessing nathan with his love, when it obviously hurts him!! the scenes where he voices his pains about not being treated fairly HE IS LITERALLY SHOVED AWAY and in the end he is the one adjusting and going back to giving nathan all the love he doesn't deserve
- it feels so so so wrong and the only way i can see this ending the right way is nathan finally realising gabriel has always been there for him even when he didn't deserved it but it being too late and gabriel ending up with nesbitt, period

anywho 
i dunno what to say more about this

Becky

Did I love this book as much as Half Bad? Probably not, but I really enjoyed it. I think the problem with this book is that the action is not so insanely fast-paced as the first, so it felt almost sedentary in places. Obviously, it wasn't. Compared to any other book this was fast paced, but compared to the first it was a lot slower. It was great because it allowed for greater character and story development, but I missed some of the absorbing fast-paced storytelling. It picked up in the last part of the book and I was utterly hooked, but really, this is me finding faults over nothing.

This book was fantastic, even with that minor quibble where I was just looking for something to complain about. I liked Nathan just as much in this book as I do in others. And Gabriel, can I announce my undying love for Gabriel yet? I adore him, by far my favourite character ever. And Nesbitt, he is awesome. I actually think I liked this better character-wise than the first one. Sure, there are still the characters which annoy me, but we get a full cast of character in this book since Nathan isn't spending copious amounts of time in the cage. It was nice to not have a bunch of flashbacks setting the scene as well, now you just get thrown in the deep end and hope for the best.

Basically, I really enjoyed this book. It had its faults, but it has gotten me so excited for the last book to be released. Thank God it's March otherwise that would be a long wait.

Tiffany Robinson

Anastaciya

Hallelujah, it's over. I don't know what's wrong with this book, can't say it's bad, but I simply couldn't be bothered with the story :/ going to read the last one, curiosity is a terrible thing.

Barbara Rosas

Nathan's evolution is astonishing, that end...

Laura Springall

There aren't words to describe how much I loved Half Wild! I will admit that it wasn't quite as good as Half Bad, but this one was so intense and suspenseful, and Green really has some amazing characters/character development. I'm still in shock from the last couple chapters and having a hard time functioning because WOW! Just wow!!


2015 Reading Challenge: A book with magic

Heather Killeen

I have mixed feelings about this book. Yes, I ultimately gave it four stars instead of three, mainly because I still feel like Green does interesting things with her characters, I love the place descriptions and most of the time the writing style really reveals a lot about the main character's mind which I like. BUT, there were times in this one where it was much too obvious what was going to happen next and the dialog was too simplistic- usually in repeating things we already knew or things that didn't need to be said at all. So yea, there were parts I loved -namely all the fights, the dream sequence with Gabriel and the ending- and parts I really didn't -pretty much everything with Annalise. It really never felt sincere on her end (maybe I just love Gabriel too much;) ) and that made Nathan seem even more naive than he already is.

Also, the whole black, white, half code and all that just started to hit the race metaphor a little too hard in an overly obvious, let's pat ourselves on the back kind of way. We get it. Witches, just like people, should be judged based on their actions, not their designated code or race. Having a large majority of society that honestly doesn't believe that just doesn't jive with me. On top of that, the witches that are the "real bad guys" are evil in ways that aren't complicated or interesting in any definable way. They are just a faceless evil that really no one in their right mind should agree with. Yet somehow, witches are still joining in droves??? (Still don't understand why this is...). :(

Still, I can kind of ignore that their society makes no sense to me, and just focus on the core group of characters, who are all pretty interesting. I think Green writes best when there is lots of blood and lots dark, twisty thoughts haha which are fine with me! I have high hopes for the next one! ;)

Hannah Adamson

this was even better than the first one! So much stuff happened and that ending! Can't wait for the next one

Giulia 

Fino alla fine ero convinta che gli avrei dato 3.5 stelle, ma l'ultima parte mi ha fattoricredere completamente!
Ho detto che Annalise è un personaggio inutile? Bene, lo ribadisco. Devo ancora trovare una strega bianca che sia utile per dirla tutta. Nathan e Gabriel sono fantastici, mi sono piaciuti tantissimo! 
Fortuna che ormai manca poco per avere il terzo ;) sono proprio curiosa di vedere cosa succederà :D

Farah Khaled 

Heck I'm crying...wth!!! :') This books was soooooo good! *review coming soon when I calm down*

Half Wild

Reviews

Highlights