January Wrap Up

This month I read a total of 8 books.

The first book I read this month was Half Bad. There's a lot of hype surrounding this book that fell flat for me. It definitely wasn't the best book I read nor was it the worst. I gave it 3/5 stars. Full review here.

The next two books I read were It's Not Summer Without You and We'll Always Have Summer, the last two books in The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han. It's Not Summer Without You was great. I gave it 5/5 stars. I felt it was even better than the first book and the characters grew so much. However, I didn't feel the same about We'll Always Have Summer. I was constantly annoyed by the characters, the love triangle was infuriating, and the indecisiveness of Belly was almost as annoying as America in The Selection. I was somewhat satisfied by the ending, but I felt it didn't do the other two books justice. I gave it 3/5 stars. I do recommend the series, just don't get your hopes to high for the conclusion.

The next book I (re)read was The Bad Beginning, the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. I read it as a part of the Neverlanders read-a-long. A Series of Unfortunate Events for me was what Harry Potter was for most people. I'd always loved reading, but this series really inspired me to read more. It felt so nostalgic to reread the first book and I cannot wait to reread the next ones! 5/5 stars.

The next book I read was These Broken Stars, the first book in the Starbound trilogy. I loved this book so much. It was a wonderful sci-fi romance. I really need to get the second book. 5/5 stars. Full review here.

I had to read Pride and Prejudice for school and I have to say, this was one of the best classics I've read. It was a wonderful classic and I'm glad to have finally read it. I probably would have liked it a bit better if I wasn't under pressure to read it for school. 4.5/5 stars.

The next book I read was Identical by Ellen Hopkins. Hopkins is one of my favorite authors and I was so excited to read this book. While it wasn't my favorite, it was very interesting and unique. 4/5 stars. Full review here.

The last book I read this month was Fairest, the prequel to The Lunar Chronicles. I felt this book didn't add much to the story and it was somewhat of a disappointment. I was expecting to learn a lot about Levana and that she was just misunderstood or something of the sort, but instead I was really creeped out by her. 3/5 stars.

Until Next Time,

Hana

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Half Bad | Book Review

Title: Half Bad 

Author: Sally Green

Series: The Half Bad Trilogy #1

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Pages: 394 (Hardcover)

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.82/5

My Rating: 3/5

Nathan is an abomination; he's half Black Witch and half White Witch. His father is the most dangerous and violent black witch, Marcus. His only hope for survival is to find Marcus and receive the three gifts necessary to become a full Witch.

The hype is strong with this one. I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't like it either. It was just "meh".

The writing was very off-putting. It was simple and childlike. It matches Nathan's simplistic and childlike nature, but it stopped me from really getting into the book. At some points of the novel, it switches to second-person which, again, threw me off.

The premise of the novel itself is very interesting. White witches versus black witches, Nathan being a Half Code, whether or not white witches really are good...It's all very intriguing, but it's the execution of the story where this book falls flat.

The world building wasn't the best. I felt a lot of information was left out. For example, why did the White and Black witches hate each other? There is a brief explanation of the origin of witches, however, the actual cause for this hatred is unknown. Are they just inherently racist towards each other? Did the witches do something to each other? Who knows.

The characters also lacked a lot of depth. They were all very flat, even the main character, Nathan. I wanted to feel bad for him, and at times I did, however I did not connect or relate with him at all. Obviously, he's being tortured and beaten so he shouldn't be super relatable, but there should be some sort of relatability. He completely failed to connect with me. The love story fell quite flat as well. It was very insta-love and didn't seem real. Nathan has a sort of obsession with Annalise and it doesn't play out well. It could have been an interesting "forbidden love" story, but Annalise is such a useless character with no personality whatsoever. Most of the characters just seemed there, adding nothing to the story and not progressing the plot at all. I would have liked for the villains to have some sort of personality, rather than just being evil for the heck of it.

I found the plot to be boring as well. Sure, the ideas are interesting, but nothing really happens. Nathan goes here, he goes there, shit happens, more shit happens. So interesting... It was pretty predictable and halfway through the novel I started skipping words and lines just so it would end faster.

On a related topic, the pacing wasn't great either. In the beginning it just dragged on and then towards the end it became rushed, as if the writer realized she had a deadline to meet and couldn't fit everything she wanted in it. The middle was so slow, I expected some sort of dramatic ending, however, it was incredibly anti-climactic...

So, what's good about this book? The only thing I can think of is Nathan's sarcastic sense of humour that made me chuckle at times. Other than that, nothing. It's not a bad book, it's just not good.

While I am still curious about what happens next, I do not plan to pick up the rest of the series.

Until next time,

Hana

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