Review: Half Wild

 Half Wild
Author: Sally Green
Publication Date: March 25th 2015
Publisher: Penguin UK
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

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?

You know how much I loved Half Bad last year, right? It was just everything I'd been waiting for when it comes to the witches/magic genre since Harry Potter. With an original magical system, and prejudice that mirror's real life, and characters you're going to love and champion on and characters you're going to hate and want to stab, it set-up the Half Bad world and gave us a glimpse into how life is for the Half Codes and Black Witches. To describe Half Bad in one word, brutal. It was absolutely brutal, which of course, means Half Wild is no different and is absolutely brutal, too. Half Wild is darker, and if you thought Half Bad was bad with some of the actions against Nathan, the whole line between White and Black witches get's desperate, and intense and you get the impact of fight or be killed. We also get more than a glimpse into just how deep that prejudice runs and how quickly the world can go to hell with someone dangerous in charge.

Because of that, Half Wild is no stranger to getting down to the nitty and gritty, the dirty and bloody. It tests Nathan to the brink of himself, and how he's controlling his Power now he's had his giving, a power he's struggling to control and doesn't understand. There's a lot of growth to Nathan since Half Bad and throughout Half Wild, there's a lot of determination and a lot of mixed feelings about discovering himself, and in a world where Black and White isn't Black and White, he's learning to accept the dark side of him, that it's okay to accept that.

For those of you who were weren't that fond of the second person narrative, there's hardly any this time around, though it did make me get into Half Bad a little slower, I actually love second person, I know usually it gives you a sense of detachment so you can't connect to said character, but for me, it gave me a sense of attachment to him, it's when he lets his guard down.

I loved Gabriel in Half Bad, obviously, but we get to see a totally different side to him, and with reading Half Lies, you get more background on him and his ill-fated sister, you can understand him better.

There's romance, but it's not the centre of the story, though it is a drive for Nathan, it focuses on the different types of relationships. And on that note, I am going to fangirl over the little thing of my ship. It sailed, IT SAILED. For like a minute, but whatever, it still counts. It will happen. It has to happen, OKAY? They're perfect for each other and they both deserve someone who is not going to judge them based on whether they're White Witches or Black Witches or Half Code's, someone who love and accepts them for everything they are and everything they're not. AND THAT IS THEM.

Half Wild gives us more of everything, the characters, the world, the danger,  it moves slowly, but sets up the final book perfectly, with an ending that isn't quite a cliff-hanger, but  will leave you sulking until 2016. <---- Totally me right now.  

Rating: 5/5