The Mountains of Instead

Championing fiction as an escape from pandemics, politics and bad TV.

Half Bad, Half Wild... and Half Lies (Sally Green sneak peaks)





Sally Green's Half Bad was the breakthrough book of the YA scene last year.  Beautifully written, haunting and unique it was an extraordinary debut.  So extraordinary, in fact that it holds the Guinness World Record for pre-publication translations and has now been sold in fifty languages around the world.


Half Bad tells the story of Nathan, a boy brought up in a world of black and white and one in which is is the only shade of grey. Oh, and they are all witches - but not quite as you've seen them before.  After meeting Marcus, his mysterious and somewhat frightening father, and receiving the three gifts that confirm him as a full adult witch, Nathan is still running from just about everyone. Half Wild, the second book in Green's trilogy, sees Nathan searches for his friend, Gabriel, and Annalise, the girl he loves, he desperately tries to control his Gift – before it controls him.

Intriguing stuff, indeed.  You can find our review of Half Bad here and if that isn't enough to tide you over you can now read the first chapter of Half Wild here.  Sadly, Half Wild won't be published until March 2015 but to tide you over further, Penguin have announced the publication of short story Half Lies:

"Set in the months before Half Bad, Half Lies takes the form of a diary written by Michele, the sister of Gabriel, Nathan’s Black witch friend.  Having fled Europe for Florida, Michele falls in love with a local White witch boy. There, she finds that the divide between the Black and White witch communities is just as dangerous as it was in the life she's left behind". 

Half Lies will be published across all digital formats on 13th November 2014.  Mark it in your diaries people, Green's writing is not to be missed!
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