The beginning of Half Wild begins days after the end of Half Bad. Nathan is still struggling to find Gabriel, work out a way to save Annalise and stay one step ahead of the hunters at the same time. When he joins up with a group of Black Witches who want to change things, he finds his loyalties tested and will be taken to the limits of his own powers and feelings.
I loved this book. It had a good plot, fantastic imagery and strong, powerful characters. It went into a lot of detail, so for those who are squeamish, I would recommend skimming the thorough gore. It was interesting to see Nathan develop more, especially in his relationships between Gabriel, Marcus and Annalise. The style of writing was particularly interesting and completely different from anything else I've ever read, but as peculiar as it was, I loved it as it showed a realistic stream of thoughts which proceeded from Nathan's mind. With a trilogy about witches and magic it would have been very easy to centre the book on that, but Sally Green made it extremely realistic, gritty and relatable.
Nathan is one of the most interesting protagonists I've ever read and it was fascinating to watch him embrace his Black Witch side as well as his Gift. Watching his progress throughout the series so far has been fantastic, watching him grow up in the first book from a young boy, to a young man in the sequel, by far my favourite protagonist ever. Marcus was also brilliantly written. He was very compelling and intriguing, which must have been difficult to write, as it takes a skilled writer to make a murderer such a likable character.
But my personal favourite character had to be Gabriel. As soon as I met him in the first book I fell in love with him. Gorgeous, intelligent, strong and devoted to Nathan, I was immediately drawn to him. I enjoyed immensely getting to know Gabriel in this book, and seeing him as a strong black witch, equal to Nathan, rather than the inferior fain who we met in Half Bad.
However I can't say the same for Annalise. In the first book, I disliked her, but she was tolerable. In this book she simply bored me, to the point of me beginning to despise her. A large portion of the book was devoted to finding her and setting her free from Mercury's grasp, however I never saw her as very interesting. She had nothing special about her, she wasn't smart, funny, witty or useful in a fight, and I simply could not see why Nathan was so obsessed with her. I found it essentially wrong that such a complex character would be so fixated with a one-dimensional stereotypical good-girl.
My favourite part of the book had to be the dynamic between Nathan and Gabriel. A much more realistic and gripping love story than between Nathan and Annalise, and although that relationship seemed to be the prominent one in the first book, the relationship between Nathan and Gabriel is the one that kept me hooked onto all the chapters in the sequel. I was surprised, but in a good way, to see Nathan and Gabriel's relationship also progress romantically, as I have never read a book where the main character isn't completely heterosexual, and am hoping for the relationship to continue in the final book in the trilogy. I am completely exhilarated for the romance between these two, as after Half Bad I assumed their relationship would be a stereotypical unrequited love, as Nathan continued to pine over Annalise, and although the pining continued, there was also some fantastic moments between him and Gabriel which, in my opinion, made the book. (If those two don't end up together at the end of the trilogy I will flip my shit.)
However I was slightly irritated with the sheer amount of time Nathan and the rest of the characters spent looking for Annalise, It compounded to almost half the book, and the first 100 pages, without Gabriel weren't as gripping as I expected, to the point of me finding it difficult to get into the book. However once Gabriel was found (alive and well) the book quickly picked up the pace and became the action packed, beautiful story that I expected after reading half bad.
Character interactions aside, the world they live in is both horrific and wonderful. The world is beautifully constructed and will often have you changing sides, from one to another. The dystopian elements of the story, the council and the dehumanizing of one section of society over another, is extremely well done, as well as the close representation of racial discrimination, making the book a magnificent read.
Overall I would give this book 4 ½ stars out of 5.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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