Back of the book
Nathan Byrn is on the run.
White witches hunt him. Black witches hate him.
His gift from his murderous father, is a wild new power he can't control.
He must find the girl he loves, who may have betrayed him.
In a war between black and white witches with his loyalties split between both, the greatest danger Nathan faces might be himself...
My thoughts
This book was slow to start and doesn't really kick off until Nathan finds Gabriel again, but makes up for that with all the drama that comes later. The phone hissing was changed from descriptions to a physical CHHH on the page, which I quite liked. I enjoy it when authors use the page, shown really well in The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I swear I mention that book all the time for all the things it just got right. Moving on...back to being about the book I actually just read...
Throughout this book I fall in love with Gabriel (and Nathan does a little bit too!). He is such a solid friend to Nathan through it all. A standout moment is when Gabriel is the voice of reason that Nathans' animal self is not cruel or motivated by morals, but just survival. It's a little bit unfair that Gabriel does it out of love for Nathan which is unrequited but Gabriel knows what he's getting himself into. He knows he is a fool in love and will just hang around as long as Nathan will let him. I may have squealed when they kissed and with Gabriel as a possible love interest I didn't care so much about Annalise anymore.
About Annalise: I want to like her. Nathan was completely infatuated with her in Half Bad, and this continues. To Nathan she has proven her sacrifices by just being nice to him when every other white witch hates him. Pretty low bar to be honest. Nathan has such confidence in Annalise, but she doesn't have that with Nathan. She loves Nathan in private, but not publicly and especially not when the war starts ramping up.
This is where the sticky situation of good versus bad comes back in. Because Nathans role in this war is to be a soldier, a fighter, a killer. The situation is stressful and causes him to get angry and violent. So in some witches eyes, he is exactly what they say he is, a bad and mean person, a killer. He is this way because of the situation and we can see that and his reasoning behind his actions. Yet from the outside view, he appears a certain way and this really eats at Nathan. His image matters to him even if he doesn't want it to because he wants to be his own person and not his father. Gabriel really sees him for his own person through all this and Annalise is also worried about the 'image' of Nathan instead of getting to know him better.
Annalise being mad at Nathan for killing her brother is perfectly sensible and as much as I wanted to like Annalise because Nathan deserved something good in his life, the situation really drives them apart. Then the ending makes us not need to want to like Annalise any further. The semi cliff hanger ending has you rushing to read the next book. The end of Half Bad did not instil the sense of urgency that the end of Half Wild does.
In conclusion, I still have nothing bad to say about this series. The moral grey exploration of characters still continues as they start a war and this topic really fascinates me. Marcus is a very interesting character but still keeps his mystique because he's killed off before we can get to know him too well. One love interest is brutally axed, for another to come shining through. Well-worth a read if gritty young adult is a genre that interests you.
TL:DR
Many more engaging plot twists about love, betrayal and death with the same gritty and impactful tone.
YOU ARE READING
Spoilery Book Reviews
Non-FictionBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
