Nathan’s love for Gabriel, always strong, only grows over the course of the book. The only bright point is Gabriel, whose love for Nathan eschews moral absolutes in favor of compassion for Nathan’s past and hope for his future. More dear comrades are lost, more moral choices greyed down until good and bad seem like shadows of each other. The prose is as crisp and urgent as ever, and Green doesn’t waver in progressing the plot as she always does: with dire need and mayhem. Annalise’s betrayal, whether calculated or not, gnaws at him and makes him even more reckless than before. He’s killed so many people, he’s watched his father die and been forced to eat his heart, and he’s lost the girl he thought he loved to either circumstances or subterfuge. In the face of these impossible odds, Nathan is breaking down. Standing between them are the Hunters, ruthless and increasingly overpowered fighters who want to wipe out anyone who does not submit to Soul’s rule. Nathan knows he’ll never be free of it until Soul and Wallend, the evil mastermind of the war and his Mengele-like right-hand man, are dead or captured.

Things are still dire, and tragedy abounds, dogging Nathan and his companions wherever he goes.

It’s also no different in its take on the war between White witches and the Black, Half, and otherwise rebellious Alliance. I’m pleased to report that book three is no different. It’s impossible to resist these books, and impossible not to devour them once you have them. If you’ve read the first two books in this series, you already know that there’s no way you can’t read the third.

Sally green half bad series