Rating: 1.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Nathan lives in an alternate version of our world where there are witches living among the humans, who they call "fains." There are white witches who are considered good, and black witches who are considered evil. (Are you getting a Caster Chronicles vibe too?) What type of witch you are depends on your parents and whether they are black or white witches. Most witches are pureblood white or black, but Nathan is different. His mother, a white witch, got together with the most powerful black witch alive, and thus Nathan was born, half white witch and half black witch, known to the council of witches as a "half code." Nathan lives through the discrimination of many white witches hating him, calling him dirty, including one of his own sisters who is of pure blood. Nobody trusts him - he doesn't understand why the council even keeps him alive until he learns that the most likely reason is that they want him to kill his father. 
 A little while ago I told myself that I would try books on a whim without judging them on their reviews or Goodreads rating. Normally I only buy a book for myself if it has a very good rating, good reviews, or someone personally recommended it to me. When I ventured to the discount section of Chapters, I picked this book out because I've heard the name around Goodreads for a while and wanted to give it a chance. While I don't really think I found a hidden gem or anything, I will definitely be doing it again because why not? I didn't enjoy this book that much but I'll still give other random books chances. 
 I didn't particularly hate anything about this book. But at the same time, I didn't like anything either. The characters felt pretty plain to me, and I didn't feel a connection to any of them, not even the protagonist, Nathan. He was discriminated against, bullied, had to undergo awful physical treatment, but I still didn't feel bad for Nathan or sympathized with him. I didn't struggle to get through this book, but I did go through the whole book feeling pretty "meh" about the whole thing. I was going to rate this 1 star but it doesn't really deserve one star since it wasn't that terrible. I do wish the writing was more gripping, though. 
 I didn't have any sort of issue with the plot. In fact, if I didn't read the book and you gave me the plot of the book itself, I would've thought it was interesting and would seek it out. The thing that took away from this was the weird writing style which gave Nathan a strange voice. The writing made everything feel duller and more boring, and Nathan never describes anything as particularly interesting. He also tends to censor himself unnecessarily. I got tired of reading "I swear at him, I swear, I swear, I swear." It was so repetitive and felt so unnecessary. If you're going to put in swearing, just put in the swear word! 
 Overall, I wasn't satisfied with this book and didn't feel anything for it at all. It wasn't terrible but it also wasn't good. There are better books with witches in them, and better books with good vs. evil plotlines that are written better. Also, I found it a bit lame that the witches didn't have actual magic, they just had one "gift" that they were good at. I wouldn't really recommend this book because the narration makes the whole thing dull.