Half Bad Audiobook By Sally Green cover art

Half Bad

The Half Bad Trilogy, Book 1

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Half Bad

By: Sally Green
Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.52

Buy for $14.52

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In a world divided between good and evil, what happens when you're both?

Nathan Byrn is the illegitimate son of the world's most dangerous witch.

Kept in a cage by the Council of Fairborn witches, who believe he is destined to follow the same destructive path as his father, Nathan must find a way to unlock his full powers before his seventeenth birthday, or face madness and death.

His one hope lies with the sinister Blood witch Mercury. But Mercury's help always comes at a price - one Nathan may not be able to pay...

Now a major new Netflix series entitled The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself.

©2014 Sally Green; 2013 Sally Green (P)2014 Penguin Audio
Paranormal
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Highly entertaining and dangerously addictive." (TIME)

What listeners say about Half Bad

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!

The plot and storytelling style is very original, and coming from a difficult background myself, it feels realistic. No good or bad ppl, just everyone handling their life as the most important. No sugarcoated characters.
It became my favorite novel series, however note it’s a difficult listen sometimes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The Narrator

it was a fresh take on witches, but I wasn't keen on the jumps in time with little explanation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A Vicious World

I have to give kudos to Sally Green: Half Bad is extremely original in plot, characterization, and style. Told in a freeform stream of consciousness, the writing fits perfectly to a story of complete and utter hopelessness. But at the same time, the book is so unrepentantly mean, so completely lacking in any person with any redeeming qualities, that this becomes a form of torture porn. Bad guys are evil and the good guys are evil - we have non stop scenes of every nearly every form of abuse imaginable (save sexual, oddly). That pervasive purgatory of dread and meanness did make for a difficult read (or listen in this case, due to an Audible experience). Any time I stopped, it was very difficult to pick this back up again.

Story: Nathan is half white witch and half black witch. Trapped between the bitter war of the two, he is viewed with disdain, disgust, and suspicion. Will he turn out like his 'evil' black witch father or turn to his mother's 'good' white witch powers? As the day his powers will manifest nears, the council of white witches tighten the noose on Nathan, taking the torture and physical abuse to new levels in their certainty that he will turn to the black. By the time Nathan falls for a pretty young white witch, the council's final solution on keeping him controlled is to put him in a cage all night with beatings all day. Nathan knows he must escape and find his father - and learn who he really is, white or black.

Author Green resists making Nathan completely good or a martyr - he is mostly an anti-hero in which we sympathize with the horrors of his life. The book is about taking his bad situation and making it much, much worse with each page turn. Nathan's resentment, anger, bitterness, and resilience are the heart of the story; he can't read, is greatly restricted, and only through innate healing powers manages to survive to see the new day. As he nears his 16th birthday, and will commit fully to white or black witch, the white council of witches enact succeedingly more draconian measures to ensure they don't end up with another black witch on par with Nathan's father. It's about one evil deed on that kid after another.

Those expecting the white witches to be evil and the black to be actually the good guys will need to read another book. Pretty much everyone is selfish, vicious, and willing to kill or hurt to their own aims. For me, it was a bit too heavy and I needed a story with more redeeming characters. As well, nearly every situation in the book is set up so that Nathan is beaten, tortured, or betrayed. Even the love triangle near the end telegraphed far too clearly how Nathan's situation is going to take even worse turns as he learns to trust and love (both weapons). By the end, I was glad the book was finished and just wasn't interested in continuing. It was too depressing and dark for my tastes.

I listened to the Audible version of this book and the narrator did an excellent job - it's a story that could have been greatly ruined by a lesser talent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful