Half Bad

This summary section includes Chapter 6: “My Mother,” Chapter 7: “Jessica and the First Notification,” Chapter 8: “My Father,” Chapter 9: “My Mother’s Suicide,” and Chapter 10: “The Second Notification.”

Nathan flashes back to his early years before imprisonment in the cage. He has three older half-siblings. The eldest and cruelest is Jessica. She shows him a picture of their mother’s wedding day and hits him with the frame, saying he has no right to look at it. Jessica says that their mother never smiled again after Nathan was born.

Then, Jessica tells Nathan a story about the day when the first census was taken. The Council of Fairborn Witches, who regulate magic in the British Isles, have issued an edict that all witches must declare their status. The categories are Fairborn, Blood, or Fain (non-magical). Blood Witches are considered evil, and most have been hunted out of the country or killed.

Jessica says Nathan is a Half Code because his father was a Blood Witch. However, their grandmother, Gran, insists that Nathan is Fairborn. The census takers record the data about Nathan’s family. His mother is Cora Byrn, Fairborn. Her murdered husband is Dean Byrn, also Fairborn. Their three children are Jessica, Deborah, and Arran. The census takers inquire next about the new baby—Nathan. He sleeps in a drawer instead of a cradle because he is the shame of the family. Unlike his siblings, Nathan’s father is a Blood Witch named Marcus. Jessica tells Nathan, “And Mother is crying now and she can’t even write the name. Because it’s the name of the most evil Blood Witch there has ever been” (28).

As Nathan gets older, he is treated with fear and loathing by every witch who encounters him. He realizes that he has his father’s eyes, although he has never met Marcus. Later, Nathan’s mother kills herself, and Jessica says she couldn’t live with the shame of giving birth to something as vile as Nathan.

By the time Nathan is eight, the Council has issued a new edict to assess the fitness of Half Code witches: “In order to ensure the safety and security of all Fairborn Witches, the Council will continue its policy of Capture and Retribution for all Blood Witches and Blood Whets” (33). Whets are witches who are younger than 17. Gran takes Nathan to London to be assessed by a committee. His minimal answers leave them unable to determine if he is a Blood Witch or not, which seems to please Gran.

This summary section includes Chapter 11: “Jessica’s Giving,” Chapter 12: “A Long Way Off Seventeen,” and Chapter 13: “Thomas Dawes Secondary School.”

When Jessica reaches 17, Gran holds a Giving Ceremony, an event where a magical whet achieves adult witch status and receives three gifts. They must also drink a small quantity of blood from an ancestor. Jessica spitefully tells Nathan that if Blood Witches don’t get their three gifts, they waste away and die. The girl insists that Nathan shouldn’t receive any gifts when he comes of age, but Gran says that he will have a Giving Ceremony too. When Jessica returns from her ceremony, she announces that she must now discover what her magical Gift is. Nathan says, “And all I can do is sit there and hope that she never finds her Gift. And I hope that if she does find it, it’s something ordinary like potion-making, Gran’s Gift. […] I know she will have a strong Gift […]. And use it on me” (42).

Nathan soon learns that Jessica’s gift is shape-shifting. She appears in the form of his brother Arran and asks Nathan if he’s proud of his father. To admit such a thing publicly would be dangerous, but Nathan sees through Jessica’s disguise. Nathan secretly harbors a fantasy that his father does love him and will come for him someday to give him his gifts: “He is waiting for the right time to come for me and take me away with him. On my seventeenth birthday he wants to give me three gifts and give me his blood” (46).

A few more years pass until Deborah has her Giving Ceremony. This time, Nathan is invited. A short while later, the Council issues a new notification:  “It is forbidden to hold a Giving Ceremony for a whet of mixed Fairborn Witch and Blood Witch parentage […] without the permission of the Council of Fairborn Witches” (48). Arran, Deborah, and Gran all try to reassure Nathan that they will get the necessary permission. Nathan is skeptical and dreams of the day that his father will come for him.

Sometime later, the Council announces that it is prohibited for Half Codes to come into contact with Fairborn Witches. Nathan’s entire family thinks this edict is ridiculous, but they agree to limit his contact with the other Fairborns in the vicinity. As a result, Nathan is never invited to any social gathering. This edict may become more problematic when Nathan starts attending the Thomas Dawes Secondary School, where the O’Brien Fairborn children take classes. The school is mainly attended by fains (nonmagical humans), but witches have always assimilated themselves into normal society.

On the first day of class, Nathan appears in his hand-me-down clothes. His teachers think he is slow-witted because he can’t read or write well, and math stumps him completely. However, he does have a talent for drawing, which is revealed in art class. This gift attracts the attention of a Fairborn whet named Annalise O’Brien. Her two brothers also attend the same school. Annalise converses with Nathan often, and he is smitten with her kindness and beauty. One day, the O’Brien brothers attempt to bully Nathan, but he ends up beating them both. Arran breaks up the fight but seems unnerved by his younger brother. He tells Nathan that he was laughing while he was beating the O’Briens.

This summary section includes Chapter 14: “More Fighting, Some Smoking,” Chapter 15: “The Fifth Notification,” Chapter 16: “My First Kiss,” and Chapter 17: “BF.”

After the first confrontation with the O’Brien boys, Nathan expects Niall and Connor to come after him again, and they do. This time they attack him with a brick and knock him out. Nathan stays home from school for a few days to allow himself to heal. When he goes back, Annalise apologizes for her brothers’ behavior. She and Nathan continue to talk together during art class. They agree to meet at a place called Edge Hill, which is on the way home from school for Annalise. She says the rendezvous must wait until she isn’t being watched so closely.

A few weeks later, Nathan enters the computer lab, but the electronics create an uncomfortable buzzing in his head. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom and finds Connor there. The two boys get into another fight, and both are brought to the principal. After Nathan receives a lecture about proper behavior, he is ordered back to computer class, but he refuses. Nathan destroys the principal’s keyboard and throws the secretary’s chair out the window. He sets off a fire alarm as he leaves the building and smashes the windshield of the headmaster’s car. Nathan hopes that his actions will get him expelled. The tactic works, but he is also forced to complete 50 hours of community service with three other juvenile offenders.

A week later, Gran announces that she will homeschool Nathan. She assigns Arran the task of teaching Nathan from books while she teaches him the lore of nature. They go on a field trip to Wales so that Gran can gather plants for her various potions. Once Nathan becomes familiar with the terrain, he begins taking solo trips to Wales and stays there for days at a time, feeling much better when surrounded by nature.

Shortly after Nathan’s 12th birthday, another notification appears from the Council: “Any Half Code found in a place that has not been approved will have all movements restricted” (78-79). Gran says that she will get approval for Nathan to travel locally. He still intends to make his private trips to Wales but will be more cautious. Deborah says the notification was probably prompted by a murder Marcus committed in Wales. She heard that he killed three people who were the custodians of something called a Detheridge, and Marcus wanted it.

Time passes, and two years later, Nathan goes for his annual assessment. The Council still can’t determine whether he is Fairborn or a Blood Witch. During all this time, Nathan has never forgotten Annalise, and he decides to wait at Edge Hill on the chance that he will see her coming home from school. One day, she appears and climbs the hill to meet him. They make this a part of their routine for weeks, learning more about each other. Since Annalise’s father works for the council, Nathan asks if she can find out how many Half Codes exist. She learns that he is the only one. The two teens grow closer as time passes, and Nathan eventually works up the nerve to kiss Annalise.

The young lovers continue to meet for almost a year before the O’Brien family intervenes. One afternoon, while Nathan is waiting for Annalise, he is ambushed by Niall, Connor, and their eldest brother Kieran, who is training to be a Hunter. The O’Briens overpower Nathan and carve deep cuts into his back, and Nathan eventually passes out from the pain. When he revives, he realizes that Arran found him and brought him back home, where Gran can attend to his injuries. The cuts run from his shoulders to his lower back. On the left is the letter “B” for Blood Witch. On the right is the letter “F” for Fairborn.

This summary section includes Chapter 18: “Post Trauma,” Chapter 19: “the Story of the Death of Saba,” and Chapter 20: “Mary.”

As Nathan’s wounds heal, he finds himself unable to sleep indoors at night. Because Gran comments that he is partly responsible for his own speedy recovery, Nathan begins to cut himself to see how quickly he can mend. After dark, he seems to self-heal faster. When the family finds out that he is spending his nights outside, Gran admits that this is a Blood Witch trait that she needs to explain.

Gran tells the three children the story of a Blood Witch named Saba. She had been chased across the entire country by a pack of Hunters and was cornered in the cellar of a house in the country. Rather than trying to attack Saba head-on, the Hunters seal the cellar trapdoor. They know that Blood Witches are weakened by spending nights indoors, so Saba should be no match for the Hunters by the end of a month. Each night, the Hunters are unnerved by the screams coming from the cellar. Unable to endure the sound, they unseal the trap door to find Saba gone mad. She has clawed at her face and bitten off her own tongue.

The Hunters take Saba into custody. Once back outdoors, she regains her strength and kills one before being killed herself. Gran says that Saba was Marcus’s mother and Nathan’s grandmother. Nathan fears that he will turn evil, but Arran reassures him that he also has his mother’s DNA and that biology doesn’t decide goodness. While trying to deal with the changes occurring in his body, Nathan goes to Wales for a month to immerse himself in nature.

The boy returns home shortly before his 15th birthday, which will require another assessment by the Council. He fears he won’t be able to hide his Blood Witch heritage this time, so Nathan resolves to flee and search for his father. He will remain home for another week because Arran will turn 17, and his Giving is about to occur. During this interval, Nathan receives a mysterious invitation to a birthday party for a 90-year-old witch named Mary Walker.

Gran says that Mary is a mad old witch who used to work for the Council. The back of her invitation contains convoluted directions to her home, which Nathan is told to memorize. He makes the journey and arrives at a cottage in the woods, whose natural atmosphere calms him. Mary is odd and crusty, and Nathan turns out to be her only party guest. As they settle down to cake and tea outdoors, Mary explains that she invited Nathan to talk about his father and the Council. She warns that the Council is very dangerous and Nathan must leave his home soon to avoid capture.

He protests that he must find his father to receive blood for his own Giving in two years’ time. Mary says that a powerful Blood Witch named Mercury has collected samples from both Fairborn and Blood families. She will have what Nathan needs. Although Mary doesn’t know Mercury’s whereabouts, she will put Nathan in touch with a witch named Bob, who can take him to her. Mary and Nathan then discuss all the stories related to the evil Marcus, but Mary says they aren’t true. Marcus and Nathan’s mother, Cora, were in love when they conceived Nathan. After the Council found out, they forced Cora to commit suicide.

This summary section includes Chapter 21: “Two Weapons” and Chapter 22: “The Sixth Notification.”

Nathan spends the night at Mary’s cottage, and they continue their discussion of his family the following day. Mary says, “Remember, Nathan, the Council is dangerous. They will not allow anyone to show the slightest weakness toward Blood Witches” (130). Mary talks about her time working as a secretary for the Council. She discovers that Retribution involves torturing captured Blood Witches for a month before they are killed.

Mary can’t stand this idea and goes to the cell of an imprisoned Blood Witch. She stages a sham attack, during which she slips him a knife. He instantly plunges it through his heart, preferring death to a month of torture. Mary pretends to be mad with rage, and the Council lets her go. This is why she now stays off the grid. She also reveals that the imprisoned Blood Witch was Marcus’s grandfather, Massimo.

As he prepares to leave, Nathan is once again forced to memorize convoluted instructions for returning home. Mary cautions that Hunters follow him everywhere. This is why she’s enchanted the route so that they won’t know about Nathan’s visit. She says that Hunters are ruthless, but the Council is far worse.

Nathan asks about the murders Marcus committed for something called the Detheridge. Mary explains that this is the name of the dagger she slipped to Massimo and that it was originally his knife. Marcus has had a vision that this is the only weapon that can kill him. Worse still, the prophecy also shows the knife being wielded by Nathan. Marcus has told Mary all of this so that she can explain it to his son. He needs to keep his distance from Nathan. The Council doesn’t want the boy dead because they want to use him to kill his father when the time is right.

Nathan leaves Mary’s cottage and returns home the evening before Arran’s ceremony. He spends some quiet time with his brother, knowing that he won’t be able to attend the Giving himself since Jessica will be there.

After Arran falls asleep that night, Nathan slips away to find Bob, but he is immediately captured by Hunters and taken to the Council for his annual assessment. When he arrives, he finds that Gran has also been detained. The Council says she has failed to report Nathan’s frequent trips to Wales. They decide that Nathan needs to be transferred to a better guardian. A strong, middle-aged witch steps forward to take charge of Nathan: “Despite her size she moves with grace, and though she stands straight, almost to attention, she has a poise that is strange, as if she’s a cross between a dancer and a soldier” (144).

Nathan is informed that the council has issued a sixth notification requiring Half Codes to remain under the supervision of council-approved Fairborn Witches. Nathan makes one final desperate attempt to escape, but his new guardian subdues him with a sonic blast. He is hauled off to a van, where he is chained to the floor, and the witch drives off with Nathan in tow. This is how he ended up in a cage.