My Heart is Booked Blog

I feel like this series is often overlooked.  It seems relatively unknown in the grand array of YA fantasy trilogies, so let me give you some important reasons why these books deserves more attention.

• The MC- Nathan is far from your typical teen male protagonist.  He’s a loner by circumstance.  Half white witch and half black witch, he is feared and hunted by both sides. His sexuality is best described as fluid, but he’s hardly a romantic.  Sure he’s got questionable morals and a tragic backstory, but, underneath it all, this kid does not have a heart of gold. He’s a Slytherin through and through.  His singular focus is his next goal and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to achieve that goal.  Before he even turns seventeen, he has endured bullying, abuse, physical and mental torture, being locked in a cage, getting shot, and being hunted like an animal.  His one redeeming quality is his loyalty for those few he cares about and, even then, he does some pretty awful things to them.
• The Themes- As readers, we are presented with this duality of white witches and black witches.  The white witches are the ones in power and are thus assumed “good”, while the black witches are labeled “evil”.  However, throughout the series, we see evidence of good and evil from both black and white witches.  Nathan is neither good because he’s a white witch, nor is he bad because he’s a black witch.  In fact, while possessing great power to do evil, he clings to that inside him which is good suggesting, that the person is responsible for his/her own choice, not the label that has been assigned them.
• The Raw Emotions- I certainly wouldn’t described Nathan as emotional, but the journey that this book travels will wreck you.  It is terrible, hopeful, funny, tragic, wild, and numbing.  I won’t give the ending away, and many could easily be dissatisfied with it, but the story comes full circle in a way and I like to think that Nathan finally achieved his initial goal from the beginning of book 1.
• The Magic- Green does an amazing job of constructing a unique magic system that is wholly believable, yet exciting.  Discovering each witch’s unique gifts was a thrill and the suspense of waiting for Nathan to turn seventeen was intense.
• The Characters- I love Nathan, but there are also some amazing supporting characters in this series.  Even the fleeting tertiary characters brought unique rays of light to their situation.  The depth and development of each player was intriguing.  Like Nathan, I never knew who to trust.  It sowed a seed of uncertainty with every new arrival.  The betrayals were heartbreaking, the losses were catastrophic, and, through it all, I clung to those few treasured souls that Nathan had left.

This series is adventure and tragedy, light and darkness.  You will lose your mind and find it again only to have it shocked into submission.  This is not a traditional tale of good vs evil.  It is not as simple as black and white.  It is gritty and raw and it will rub you the wrong way in the best way.