I appreciate Half Bad so much for its representation of what it is to be mixed race. As I am mixed race I always find myself looking for works that accurately represent the situation that I find myself in. I should also say that I love it so much because he is mixed the way I am mixed, half black and half white and raised by the white side. Also the race war between the bloods and fairborns was so well done with neither side being what it is supposed to be. The bloods being ruthless indeed but in order to protect themselves. The fairborns raiding and killing under the guise of protecting themselves. Chef's kiss!
Half Bad shows us a boy who everybody is always trying to define. They always ask him what are you? Because they want to fit him in a premade hole and then sleep well at night. But they don't have a hole for him that he fits so it annoys them. He also gets vilified by both sides (I think that one is often overlooked in real life as I didn't realize it was a thing until it happened to me). He is too Blood for some and too Fairborn for others. What is he? The eternal question that is honestly nobody's business.
People always assume he is one thing (blood) while he identifies more with the other side (Fairborn) because that is how he was raised. So in the end he is accepted by neither. He also finds his own way to define himself by finding himself in the mix because he is neither one nor the other, he is both and he is the mix. I just think it's beautiful to see such an accurate representation of being mixed. I think often mixed characters are written by people who identify as one whole of something and so often the mixed characters are either exoticized or relegated to one side with a few half hearted attempts to cross over. Of course this is not backed by any research whatsoever...
Anyway, if you want to check out the mixed people's bill of rights here it is! It's a great read and changed my life.
