Half Bad

Whenever the potentially next big thing arrives, I always suffer from that ghastly phrase - mixed emotions.

1. I hope to enjoy it.
2. I fear I won't love it.
3. I long for it to be better than the last next big thing that I didn't really think that much of.
4. All those other emotions on holding a book for the first time that promises a lot, that I am too useless at expressing to bother to try.

Half Bad is the latest book to be hailed as the next big thing. It's written by a first time author, Sally Green. The main character in the book is Nathan Byrne. He's a witch. In this interesting and intriguing novel there are two types of witches living in the modern world, white witches and black witches; the white are good and the black are bad. Nathan is a half blood. His mother was a white witch and his father, well his father is Marcus; the baddest black witch known. Nathan's mother killed herself after he was born because of the affair she was having with Marcus, oh and he (Marcus) killed her husband and ate his living heart to steal his gift (or power). Nathan was brought up by his maternal grandmother and his half siblings, the eldest of whom cannot stand Nathan and delights in reminding him of his mixed heritage.

I'm not going to explain the plot any more as that would deprive anyone of the pleasure of reading this cracking novel. There. I've said it. It's good. In fact, it's very good.

Is it then, the next big thing?

Do you know what? It could be. It's a very engaging and yet gritty read. Nathan is put into some quite horrible situations and sometimes it's quite difficult to read, but in a good way. It's thoughtful and it has a distinctive style which makes it a real page turner. It's also not clear cut as to just who the bad guys are and this is by far the most successful of the books that have been out recently which I have read that have examined that premise.  I've seen reviews that have compared it to Twilight (it's far better than that) but I'm not sure it will get the same devotion that Meyer's series has. It's got an interesting world and will, unfairly get compared to things like Potter because it's about witches. These witches are very different and far less eccentric. The magic is less spellbooky and more instinctive, somehow more real though less complex. And that is a good thing.

That's the commercial thing dealt with it deserves to sell and to sell well, however on a personal basis, I enjoyed the book, but... and it's a rather large and very personal but... I didn't like Nathan. He isn't a character whom I felt any affection for and I feel like I should. There are times, when he's treated quite horribly by the white witches and I should be really empathising with him and I didn't. I wasn't cheering the white witches on by any means, I was rather horrified by them, but I wasn't willing Nathan on either; I was rather coolly detached from his plight and I should have been more concerned about him. I understand it's a major part of the story, but his devotion to his absent "misunderstood" father grated on me slightly and though this isn't a love story, the love aspect felt somehow unnecessary, however I am 20 years older than the target audience, I think they will lap it up, and this will undoubtedly be developed further in the sequel making it more relevant.

My quibbles with this book are trifles and very personal thoughts. They certainly shouldn't stop anyone from reading this book which I recommend rather highly indeed.

I wuv you...

There is a rather unfortunate trend at the moment in children's books that seems to think that children of five and under are suitable targets for that vilest of annual celebrations, namely Valentine's Day.
 Now to clear something up rather quickly I have no objection to people genuinely in love wishing to celebrate that (though quite why you need a specific day to do it rather than displaying it all throughout the year is slightly beyond my sphere of comprehension, but then I'm not an evil money making conglomeration) or to people who rather shyly wish to declare that they quite like someone and so desire to send them an anonymous message of admiration, then fine; go for it.
However, as soon as you start to create books specifically for children, who in many cases are too young to wipe their own noses properly, in order to introduce the concept of love for someone outside of the immediate family, then you are deliberately being creepy. The sort of person who is slightly inappropriate in a touching sort of way.
Now there are some rather lovely books about love for children, The obvious example is "Guess How Much I Love You" a rather beautiful story about two hares, which if you haven't read I really think you should. Ignore all the stuff which is in danger of making it tacky and get a copy of the original paperback and see how this is a wonderful picture book.
There are other lovely picture books which are stories where love features, but not many (A personal favourite is Ella by Alex T. Smith, a retelling of Cinderella with a Su Pollard inspired ladybird as the lead character, it's seriously delightful) But many of the new, original tales are just rather disturbing, they use ghastly euphemisms,  try to use sharing as a concept for love. It's wrong. Young children should be allowed to be children. A recent book I read started with the phrase, "Penguin was looking for love". What child of five is going to relate to that? Is a child of five going to copy Penguin and go out looking for love too? If they are they need to go into therapy. As do the publishers of this rubbish.
Seriously Valentine's books for children are wrong. Stop buying them and hopefully they'll stop publishing them.