Book Review: Half Lies by Sally Green

Half Lies
Half Bad Trilogy #0.5
Author: Sally Green
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal | Witches
Released: November 13th 2014
Review Source: Viking Juvenile

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 gives life to an almost invisible and nearly forgettable character in Half Bad, Gabriel. Who is Gabriel, you may ask? Gabriel the guide of few words to Nathan in Half Bad as he tries to navigate treacherous territory on his way to Mercury; hiding out in a hovel in the woods.  So why is Gabriel all mysterious? Like many before him, his family fled for the States under the misguided impression that they were headed for a better world. Confronted with the horrific reality of a gang-like territory war between Black and White witches in Florida, Gabriel is drawn in only to lose everything.

Told in the voice of his sister, Michele’, Half Lies reads expertly reads like the diary of a teenage girl. Complete with “Dear Brother” entries to Gabriel who she suspects is reading behind her back (of course he is!). It’s short and to the point, providing the exact insight one needs to make Gabriel’s mystery understandable.

•• Check out OUaT's review of Half Bad (book 1) in Green's Half Bad Trilogy. ••