Sally Green
3 titles banned
About Sally Green
Sally Green grew up in Manchester and lives in Cheshire, England. Before becoming a published author, she worked for many years as an accountant and later as a gardener. She began writing seriously in her late forties and early fifties—an unusual trajectory in a publishing industry that often favors younger debuts.
Her first novel, Half Bad, was published in 2014 by Viking in the UK and Penguin in the United States to immediate critical attention. The book won the Booktrust Teenage Prize and was shortlisted for several other awards. It was sold in over thirty-five countries and translated into multiple languages. Two sequels followed: Half Wild (2015) and Half Lost (2016), completing the trilogy.
The Half Bad Trilogy
The trilogy is set in a contemporary Britain populated by witches, divided sharply between White Witches—who hold political power and enforce a social order—and Black Witches, who are persecuted, hunted, and killed. The protagonist, Nathan Byrne, is the son of a White Witch mother and Marcus, the most feared Black Witch alive. His dual heritage makes him an outcast in both communities.
The series is notable for its moral ambiguity: the "good" side is deeply complicit in systemic violence, and the "bad" side is often more humane. Green uses her witch world as an allegory for racism, discrimination, and the arbitrary cruelty of social hierarchies. The violence is not softened, and the ending of the trilogy is genuinely tragic—qualities that have made it both beloved and challenged.
Bans and Challenges
The Half Bad trilogy has been challenged in school settings for its violence, dark themes, and morally complex narrative. Critics have objected in particular to depictions of torture, cruelty, and a bleak worldview that offers no easy resolution. Supporters of the books argue that these qualities are precisely what make the trilogy valuable for teenage readers grappling with questions of identity, injustice, and survival.
