Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half Lies | 2014 | Sally Green | Buy |
| 2 | Half Truths | 2015 | Sally Green | Buy |
| 3 | Bela | 2014 | Sally Green | Buy |
| 4 | Half Bad | 2014 | Sally Green | Buy |
| 5 | Half Wild | 2015 | Sally Green | Buy |
| 6 | Half Lost | 2016 | Sally Green | Buy |
The Half Bad Trilogy is set in a version of modern England where witches live in secret, divided into White Witches and Black Witches. Nathan Byrn is the son of a White Witch mother and Marcus, the most powerful and feared Black Witch in the world. The White Witch Council considers Nathan dangerous by birth and places him under a regime of surveillance, captivity, and abuse. Half Bad (2014) opens with Nathan locked in a cage, then works backward to explain how he got there. The book’s second-person narration gives it an intense, claustrophobic feel that sets it apart from most YA fantasy.
Half Wild (2015) follows Nathan after his escape as he searches for his father and joins a group of rebels fighting the Council. Half Lost (2016) brings the war between the factions to its conclusion. The series also includes two companion novellas, Half Lies and Half Truths, which tell stories from the perspectives of supporting characters. Green has said she was influenced by the real history of persecution and how communities turn on their own members out of fear, and that anxiety runs through the trilogy from start to finish.