I was recently sent books 1 and 2 from the The Half World series by Hiromi Goto. The world that is described within the pages of Half World and Darkest Light is the definition of fantastical…well most of it is fantastical, the rest is close to reality but the reader spends so little time in the realm of reality that there’s not much point in mentioning it.
Half World is the realm that exists between the Living Realm (where we are now) and the Spiritual Realm (where our beings turn into little balls of light and float around in apparent bliss). In the books, every creature that dies must enter Half World where they are subjected to the most traumatic thing that ever happened to them while they lived. The trauma is repeated over and over and over until that creature somehow finally transcends the pain and moves on to the Spirit Realm.
In the Half World series, this balance between the three realms is broken, and the kooks that have been twisted and malformed from reliving horrors in Half World are taking over. Needless to say, this is bad news.
Half World
Melanie Tamaki is a human born of Half World parents. Her mother escaped Half World while pregnant with Melanie, and the two of them live in the Living Realm without Melanie knowing anything of her mother’s strange origins. One day, Melanie returns home to find that her mother has disappeared and the only way for Melanie to see her again, is to follow her into Half World.
Half World is one crazy place. Hiromi Goto paints vivid images of a place that I hope doesn’t exist. It’s that creepy. Within the pages of Half World is a strange weird world filled with people and creatures that are equally odd, scary, and occasionally wonderful.
Melanie, as a heroine, is a little wanting of backbone, but she gets the job done and manages to survive in a place that is oozing with danger. Half World is a great start to an interesting series for young adults.
Final Verdict: B+
Darkest Light
Darkest Light carries on sixteen years after Half World left off. Melanie, the heroine from the first book, Half World, is now making her own way in the world, leaving strange, angry, Gee to carry on the task of hero. But is he a hero?
Gee has been raised with no knowledge of his background or family. He is aware that he looks and feels different from everyone else he knows, but he doesn’t understand why. His grandmother refuses to discuss it, and then one night she falls ill and while Gee is alone in the house, he is visited by the freakiest creatures he could imagine.
He is saved from these creatures by his cat statue that suddenly springs to life. Without knowing what else to do, Gee, his new friend Cracker, and the cat/statue decide to head into Half World to find out more about Gee’s family and his own self.
If Half World was strange and wonderful, Darkest Light was strange and disturbing (see also: gross). Murdered children, murdered women, more murdered children…there’s a lot of tortured people living in Half World.
Darkest Light amped up the descriptions of the side horror show that is Half World, but I found myself wishing that Hiromi Goto had spent a little more time developing the character of Gee. He’s conflicted and confused. I wanted to know more about that confusion. What else was he thinking and feeling? I felt he was a bit too much of a blank slate who lacked emotion.
The middle book of a series often suffers from having no true beginning and no true ending. Darkest Light felt like more of a complete story than many other middle of a trilogy books do. After reading Darkest Light. I felt as though I had been giving some answers, but I was left wanting a few more. Hopefully the last book of the series (still unpublished) will deliver the answers I desire.
Final Verdict: B-
Buy it:
Half World and Darkest Light are now available from your local book seller as well as online from various sources including Chapters Indigo. I found Half World for $11.82 from Indigo online and Darkest Light for $15.96 from Indigo online.
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Disclosure: I received copies of Half World and Darkest Light from Penguin Canada for the purposes of this review. Opinions in this post are my own.
