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  • Half Bad

  • The Half Bad Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Sally Green
  • Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
  • Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (621 ratings)
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Half Bad cover art

Half Bad

By: Sally Green
Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
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Summary

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

Critic reviews

"Highly entertaining and dangerously addictive." (TIME)

What listeners say about Half Bad

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

Not your average YA teen witch story!

I haven't actually finished this yet, but am enjoying it so much that I felt the need to review it. This is partly due to the excellent narration by Carl Prekopp. It's an article of faith with me that I'd rather listen to a bad book with a great narrator than a good book with a poor one.

It starts right inside Nathan's mind in a shockingly brutal scene and takes up the story in flashback. The picture of the magical world is naturalistic and convincing. Things are only revealed gradually via the protagonist's experience so there's no long exposition about witch society.

It's traditional in these reviews of compare books to other books, isn't it? So let's go with Harry Potter crossed with Kes.

If you enjoy supernatural young adult fiction set in Britain and also like Carl Prekopp's narration, I highly recommend you check out the Mercian trilogy: Blood, Alchemy and Death.

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31 people found this helpful

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

Not bad, but there’s some pretty graphic violence

Be aware - this a part one, ending at just a pause in the story, and with part two out March 2015. There’s no indication on the Audible site that this is the case - although, somewhat belatedly, I see on Amazon that it’s part 1 of a trilogy.

This is set in present day UK, but a present day UK that has witches. It’s told entirely in Nathan’s voice, so there are no explanations other than what he can glean, or other’s perspectives.

It’s fairly standard YA territory - child/teenager, different from everyone else, badly treated by his society, bullied at school and subjected to some graphically nasty abuse. He’s told his (wicked, bad, black witch) father murdered his (good, decent white witch) mother; his eldest sister subjects him to endless mental bullying; and once he’s away from his (nice but powerless) gran, achingly sweet brother and other (ok) sister, he’s totally alone in a very hostile world. The description on Audible might lead you to think this is suitable for younger YA’s, but I wouldn’t commend it. There are a couple of torture scenes that aren’t nice listening.

As a boy/young teen he’s hit, kicked, badly carved up with a knife and constantly belittled by his older sister; as a mid-teen he’s kept in a cage, beaten and kicked by people far bigger than him without a chance of fighting back. He’s tied down and tortured (graphically and horribly) by “the authorities. It's all a bit relentless!

After about 5 hours of listening I was beginning to wonder why I was still listening, given the never-ending awfulness of Nathan’s lot. If I’d had the book, I’d have skipped to the end. However, things do improve in the second half, and I stuck with it to find out what was going to happen. It was only about an hour from the end that I discovered there was a part 2, so realised I was possibly heading for one of those awful cliffhanger endings… It isn’t - the end is just the end of a chapter. -there's no break in the story to indicate the end.

I’m not sure if this is meant to be allegorical - he’s a half black witch, loathed and treated like a sub-species by the pure white witches. He has dark hair and black eyes, they have light haired and pale eyes - so is this actually about race? White witches are nice (!) black witches aren’t? If allegory it is, it’s a bit clumsy.

Really brilliantly read, for all its horrors, with every character clearly voiced and accented. The young hero is particularly well read as he ages from young boy to 17.

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18 people found this helpful

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

I need to read the sequel - NOW!!

Excellent story told in an excellent way! Narration was excellent too. Would thoroughly recommend - there's a reason it won Best Book at the Waterstones awards..... cuz it's fab!!

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12 people found this helpful

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

This book is truly Half Bad.

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog”

Take a boy and make hims cared
scar his back and make him black
kill his mother give him dread
mix this and that with the wing of bat
make him run make him love
cook some children on a stove
the money calls for more blood
and that, could never be bad
chase the boy, and make a deal
o what a thrill to make a meal
of nothing at all, and then make sequel
that is the exact equal of nothing at all


To take Harry Potter add more dread and horror and blood till it will only be readable by 17+, is a clever marketing idea, and could work well because the writer is dynamic in its delivery and has a lot potential but this book is only the first part of a serialise vehicle that can not stand on its own; of a myriad of plot questions only one is resolved everything else is left hanging mid air. You are expected to pay more good money to get the hole story. Steven King serialised The Green Mile and I gladly paid for each booklet because that was the agreement. I loved getting the next instalment and reading it; he had not finish the book, he was writing it as we paid for every part; but when it was finished he sold the entire book as a book.
If you are happy to pay for a and inconclusive story and are informed that that is what you are getting, fine. but to end the book in a cliffhanger is not fair to readers.
You have been informed.

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9 people found this helpful

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

Double whammy

Wow, do I feel lucky to have stumbled on this. Not only a great story, but a great story superbly narrated! When I was, appropriately enough, half way through this book, I decided I would write a review. Well, not so much a review (as this is one story that deserves to be approached as unspoiled as it is possible to be in this day and age) rather a maxxed out stars plus a few more stars for good luck - recommendation. I love reading tales where the author clearly has a complete understanding of the world the characters inhabit; and a complete understanding of all the characters, no matter how much or little is revealed to the reader. This is the epitome of that; and I enjoyed every moment of living with Nathan and his family, friends and enemies. Carl Prekopp does this story justice and then some. I haven't been this impressed by a narrator since listening to David Thorpe read Karen Maitland's Company of Liars. It's an amazing tour de force. Oh my, I am gushing, aren't I? Okay, okay. There is one thing that gets on my nerves and it's this. (Some might consider this a spoiler; I'd call it a caution...) The book has an abrupt "... and then..." climax, assuming you'll be back for the next. At time of writing, the Kindle edition of the sequel, Half Wild, isn't due until 5 March 2015 - aaargh! Hopefully the audiobook will be released simultaneously and some thoughtful person has already booked Carl Prekopp for a recording session. It's such a good story, though, that I'm going to forgive being left hanging just this once; but if such apparent complacency is the sort of thing that drives you up the wall then you might want to wait until just before the next book is published to start on this. It'll be worth the wait. But I wouldn't have the willpower to hold off after reading / listening to (I frequently found myself reading the text along with the audiobook - I didn't want to be racing through it by reading alone) the first few paragraphs. You'll love it. Seriously. It's that good.

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9 people found this helpful

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

Uniquely written and an audible triumph

Brilliantly crafted trilogy that draws you in to the characters: by the way it's uniquely written in the first person from a spoken diary. Add this to the amazing reader and audible sound effects that appear more in the following two books, which were not over done- makes these the best audible books I have read since joining three years ago. Had to buy additional credits because I couldn't wait as I became emotionally invested into the character. You must read all three books in order.

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6 people found this helpful

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

Not Half Bad

I really got into this story , now impatient for the 3rd book.
A bit like Harry Potter in that a boy is growing up without parents. His father is the dark and his mother the light. Prophecy about what he will do when he grows but treated badly as people expect the dark side of his nature to win out. This eventually polarises the people around him.

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6 people found this helpful

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

great storyline

it's a dark and mysterious adventure. you cling to the characters especially Nathan. you feel his life and world evolved in your mind. - great storyline.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Sad but boring

The beginning of this book was so boring that I started it and then I had to stop 4 or 5 times before I managed to finish it! Only when I had gone about 3 quarters through the book that I found it a bit more bearable! Also I found it very cruel. The things that was done to that young boy was so sad! If there is a sequel I cannot imagine listening to it unless it was free of charge.

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6 people found this helpful

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

Absolutely amazing book

loved it, we started reading it in my English class and just had to finish reading it, or well have someone read it to me xD

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5 people found this helpful