BOOK REVIEW: Half Wild by Sally Green

You know, it is really hard for me, now that I blog full time to get away with not reading the books in series before they are complete. I really hate waiting on things! Binge watching television on Netflix or Amazon Prime or On Demand ruined me and my patience for new books has always been tolerant at best. Waiting is not something I do best. So yeah, I tried to avoid it for awhile especially after spending years of my life waiting for the next Harry Potter novel. Have I told you I fail at waiting, yeah? Which explains I am in the middle of numerous series and have indeed read the books when they came out rather than waiting for the last book and reading them in one go of it.

I feel like pulling my hair out for some of the books I am waiting on... this book was one. And now that I have read it, instead of appeasing my impatience, it only further heightened it because omigosh, it was a smashing good read and everything I could've wanted for the second book of the Half Bad Trilogy!

• TITLE: Half Wild
• AUTHOR(S): Sally Green
• SERIES: Half Bad Trilogy
• PUB INFO: Viking Juvenile on March 24, 2015
• ACQUIRED HOW? Publisher sent ARC for honest review
• BOOK RATING: Going Bananas! 

Nathan's narration comes across straightforward and honest. He doesn't dwell on the actions of others unless it pertains to how he is feeling or he is in need of dissecting their motives. Now that he has his power, though, mingling with other people seems impossible. In tune with nature on such a heightened level versus any of the other witches he has come into contact with, makes him feel even more like an outsider until Marcus, his father shows up again and gives Nathan an inside look at his family's inheritance. A world of such singleminded focus that of course, Marcus seems like a threat to humanity and why Nathan has been singled out and said to be most like him. His father barely functions in that form of himself. Half wild himself, much in part because he was kept in isolation from other witches, Nathan now fully understands the ramifications of living a dual life. When war comes to him, he sees the struggle for what it is and finally gets a chance to prove himself to his father, to Annalise and Gabriel. However, with each passing loss, and Nathan is no stranger to losing the ones he loves, he realizes no one has a right to the moral high ground and in this fight, no one comes away a winner.

QUOTE ME: It's amazing how Sally Green tackles segregation, prejudice, racism and obnoxious societal snobbery in a world that could be ours if magic and witchcraft were real. Her universe fits like a transparency over reality and highlights everything wrong in how people track, bully and eliminate others based upon their heritage, from the places they originate, who their parents are and how culture has defined them without ever letting them become who they might've with encouragement and support. Readers of all ages will relate without even realizing the heaviness in their chest is because they've experience the same "growing pains" Nathan has.

As a second book in a series, HALF WILD by Sally Green reads surprisingly thorough and action-filled while rounding out the characters and developing them in a way that doesn't feel forced. Some of the message-giving feels heavy-handed much like in HALF BAD and HALF LIES; but the appeal of the story and characters quickly overrode my irritation with that aspect. In fact, I almost could say I liked HALF WILD more than HALF BAD and that's rare for me. Second books are not usually my favorites.

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