Another day comes and goes and now it is time to find a little diversion with a short story from Sally Green’s amazing world of Black and White Witches in her short prequel story, Half Lies. Picking up this book I did feel a bit of apprehension, after all I had left less than impressed with the last short story I reviewed. However I was very happy with Half Lies which contained almost everything I loved about Sally Green’s unique take on a hidden magical world as well as look into one of Half Bad’s most interesting and exotic character’s Gabriel.
Half Lies does not follow the story of series protagonist Nathan who made up such a powerful presence in Green’s first story. Instead the author took us away from Europe entirely to spend time with Gabriel, a mysterious character who came to be an important influence on Nathan near the first book’s conclusion. Gabriel himself is a black witch, living with his father and sister in America shortly before the main series began. The book, primarily told in the form of diary entries by Gabriel’s sister Michele, tells how the family moved to the coast to make a new life for themselves after roaming from town to town in a gypsy like lifestyle. Michele for her part is like many young women on the cusp of adulthood, bursting with hormones and longing to break free from her family while also trying to find harmony with her own latent magical gifts alongside her older brother, both of whom are gifted with the ability to transform into other people. What follows is a special insight into the world of Black Witches which had been somewhat lacking in Half Bad, and helped us to fill in some of the blanks to understand where Gabriel would come from and what challenges his character faced before Nathan came into the picture.
I was still writing for SoSoGay when I picked up and reviewed Green’s first novel in this series, the innocuously named Half Bad. At the time I was not expecting all that much from the story which, from it’s premise, seemed a little too similar to Harry Potter for my taste (a young abused half blooded witch coming into his powers in a magical society which places a great deal of importance on the concept of blood purity). However, I was deeply surprised and impressed with the way that Green constructed her world of Black and White Witches who were in fact very different from what I had seen JK Rowling’s famous book saga. Now in Half Lies, which fills the role of a prequel novella, we were given a more in depth look at Green’s world using both new and familiar characters to add a whole new layer to the animosity that was ever present in Half Bad. It is this additional level of story which made this short all the more endearing and a little more balanced than Half Bad, which in retrospect was rather heavily weighted in the world of the Whites.
Characterwise there is a lot to like here, with the light being shone on Gabriel making me warm to him more. Likewise the character of Michele is something of a firecracker, an adolescent girl at a difficult age straddling childhood and adulthood and bearing traits from both sides. That said the additional characters of Skylar and her son Aidan were featured, but were sadly not given as much of a hook to really grab my attention as a reader. This left them feeling more like extras when I wanted to get in their face a little more and understand what they were about in this unusual world. It could be that Green is saving them for a future story, and I would welcome that, but I think it would have been better to spend a little less time on the romance side of the story to help really show them off.
While I really enjoyed reading the book I couldn’t help but stumble a bit when I came across the rather cliche concept of love across the metaphorical battlefield. The concept is once that has been celebrated since Romeo and Juliet and while the facts may occasionally change the general premise is the same, featuring star-crossed lovers who you want to root for but you know will meet a sticky end. This is my one complaint since it felt a little too obvious, even in the face of the original treatment that Green gave her debut and showing herself as a force to be reckoned with. I suppose I was hoping for something more gratifying and spectacular, especially from an author who is more than equal to the task of doing that. While it doesn’t take away from what is a very good novella, it does somewhat feel undernourished and weak when compared to the previous instalment which I personally could not get enough of.
I have said before that I find short stories to occasionally be a bit difficult. While in this context Half Lies is meant to complement the main series which started with Half Bad it didnt feel like a real part of the story so much as an offshoot which relied a little on cliche. However, aside from this stumbling block I found Green’s voice helped make up for this and she once again wraps herself in glory with a very good story which certainly got me itching to get a hold of her next book Half Wild. Lovers of the series so far will love Half Lies for what it is, and while it may not win fans, it will certainly help fill the gap between Half Bad and Half Wild as we prepare to once more enter Nathan’s world.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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