This review was originally posted on my blog, Sav Scribbles. 
 (2.75 stars) 
 I don't know, man. I really don't know. I have a lot of incoherent thoughts and I don't know how to explain them. 
 (That's my way of saying this review will be very messy and to beware of spoilers and to know that I'm just as confused as you will be reading these very, very messy thoughts.) 
 So. Let's get started. (I'm going to number my thoughts in the order they come so we can have some illusion of organization here.) 
 1. Um, why don't we like Black witches? There was never a clear reason besides "they kill people so they're bad lol" but White witches do that too? Savannah confuse. 
 2. I felt like this book was all backstory and no real plot. Like, what really happens in this book? This story just shows Nathan (who I didn't know the name of until I was about 100 pages in) growing up, the things he had to go through, etc. I just feel like it was setup for the second book, like the real plot will be introduced in the second book or something. Right now it's just "Nathan runs away from Hunters oh no". 
 3. I did like the concept. I was just waiting for a plot the whole time but it didn't happen. Oh well. 
 4. While this story was easy to read and get through, I didn't like the writing too much and I still feel like there are parts of the story missing. There wasn't much world building; we're expected to know what basically everything Nathan sees looks like, and while this is a contemporary setting, I was still slightly confused. Oh well. 
 5. ...where the heck is all the magic? We see it maybe 10 times total, if that. Everyone's mainly using "fain technology" to fight and do everything. That really disappointed me. 
 6. I do think that the world of witches is explained fairly well (I know what Fains are, that White witches try to live with Fains, that Black witches hate them for that, etc.) 
 7. I don't really get the whole Annalise relationship. She's pretty and seems "different", so Nathan likes her. What? (Gabriel called him out for that and I was LIVING for it.) 
 8. Gabriel. I don't know how to feel about him. Nathan and his relationship feels rushed and we don't truly get to see how they become so close (or how Gabriel falls in love with him in two weeks AND with barely talking to him??) but I feel like I could ship it in time. 
 9. I'm not sure if I've made this clear, but this book was just generally fuzzy and unclear. I couldn't describe the events of HALF BAD (if you could call them events?) to anyone precisely. "So this guy Nathan is treated badly by a mean teacher lady and then he gets tattooed by some good-but-actually-bad people, then he escapes and finds a hot guy who loves him instantly and takes him to a witch lady who is supposed to give him gifts but then his father shows up and gives him gifts instead so... yeah." 
 10. I didn't hate this book, I was just confused by it (and not in a good way). so. 
 I'm going to continue this series because a certain friend is pushing me to, but we'll see if a plot appears or I get to connect with the characters. I would recommend but only so you can say you've read it, you know?