Books book reviews Half City by Kate Golden is Some Good Demon Hunting Fun “Kate Golden writes in an infectious, bonkers, enthusiastic way…” By Jared Shurin | Published on March 4, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Viv is young, fun and 21. She lives in Astera, better known as “Half City” because of the enormous cosmic chasm that ripped the city in half and spawned forth hell creatures to plague the land. (Fortunately, this keeps the rent in Viv’s neighbourhood affordable.)  Viv’s in proud possession of a nice job, a nicer boyfriend, and a less-nice-but-very-devoted family. Sadly, the job is boring, the boyfriend is more so, and the family is a little too invested in her life. The latter is particularly problematic, because Viv is also a demon hunter. This is, for all the sensible reasons, a vocation best kept secret.  It is thanks to Viv that the world isn’t overwhelmed with baddies. She juggles her mundane commitments by day and skewers monsters at night. It is exhausting and painfully lonely. Imagine her surprise when she learns there’s an actual by-gum university for hunters like her. At Harker Academy, all the hunters of the world come together to learn how to best stab, skewer, and slay their various deadly nemeses. Viv is invited to enroll, by a sexy professor/reformed demon no less. She gives in to her curiosity and discovers that there’s a whole world—a whole society—out there that she didn’t know about.  A school full of demon-hunters should be the safest place on earth, but Viv has another secret. Over and above being a hunter, she’s also descendent of a rare and ancient bloodline, one with a bad reputation and a lot of mystical value to the wrong parties. She’d love to relax and kick back with her new friends, but she can’t afford to loosen up.  Half City is a lot. Viv dresses sexy and slays messily and has a steamy crush on a guy from the wrong side of the interplanar tracks. Harker Academy, and hunter society as a whole, has a dangerous curriculum of very stabby classes and lethal field trips. The school itself is center stage for inter-generational family secrets. (What even is the point of going to school if you’re not going to stumble on a yearbook that unlocks your lost family heritage?!) These are all familiar tropes, done well. But beneath the sexy demons and arson classes, there’s a deeper lesson about the role of, and importance of, schools. Viv is a woman caught between two worlds (a metaphor explicit in the gaping and omnipresent inter-dimensional rift). She has a bubble of safety: her family, her job, her boyfriend. They have expectations for her, and—all adolescent whining aside—there’s nothing “bad” about a comfortable life with a well-to-do family, loyal partner, and career in the arts. But Viv also has her instincts and her desires; she’s drawn to being a hunter. There’s something under her skin that compels her to a different way of life, no matter how self-destructive it may seem. In Half City, we have a woman caught in-between: torn in half. She is trying to balance both worlds, but admits (and the reader patiently awaits) that being a hunter is inevitable. Viv knows that she will lose everything eventually: her family, her friends, her boyfriend. She is dragging out her half-life as long as possible, but is fully aware that only blood and loneliness awaits her.  …and that is why Harker Academy is so very special. It is a demonstration that Viv can be a Hunter and have friends, have a relationship, possibly even survive into middle age. It allows her to pursue her dream of being a Hunter, but to do so with support. She can have her dream and possibly even a life.  Buy the Book Half City Kate Golden Buy Book Half City Kate Golden Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Although demon hunting isn’t (sadly) a traditional degree programme, Half City deftly captures the essence of why schools are so important. They’re a chance to explore outside of the bubble, to realise that your passion isn’t a wild dream, but something that can exist. They’re transitional spaces where you travel, with support, between the comfortable and the future. A school is a safe space: a place to learn, and turn your half-life into a full one. Except, of course, this is still Dark Academia. Harker Academy should be the answer to Viv’s prayers, but it comes with some nasty secrets of its own. For a safe space, students seem to disappear with ominous frequency. Who is behind the disappearances? And what connects them? And behind that mystery are hints towards a rapidly-scaling epic plot.  Half City may begin as student shenanigans, but you can bet your blazer that there are cosmic showdowns ahead. The big monster fights and crisis-to-come are balanced against Viv’s everyday challenges. She’s trying to juggle a job and her studies, a bad (bad) boyfriend and a bad (but so good) crush, concerned friends and meddling family. Viv is somehow working, studying, dating, slaying and mystery-solving, and managing to keep all of that going while still making ends meet. I’m reluctant to call it a “plot hole,” but I think because Viv’s mundane problems are the most relatable, they’re also hardest to believe. Fortunately, Golden adds in some amusing, plot-twisty ways of explaining how the precarious structure of Viv’s life (and diary management) works without collapsing under its own weight. There’s something for everyone in Half City, every species of monster and magic, every possible twist and turn, but there’s also the sense that this wild ride is pointed somewhere, and the conclusion is going to be deliciously explosive. I’m not sure Half City is “ground-breaking,” but even the most familiar elements are likable and well-executed. Kate Golden writes in an infectious, bonkers, enthusiastic way. I have an infinite capacity for gooey monsters, magic schools, cinematic smackdowns, gladiatorial curricula and demonic conspiracies. Half City is far more than the sum of its parts, and wholly fun.[end-mark] Half City is published by Ace. The post <i>Half City</i> by Kate Golden is Some Good Demon Hunting Fun appeared first on Reactor.