Melanie Tamaki is an outsider.

Unpopular and impoverished, she is the only child of a loving but neglectful mother. She barely copes with surviving school and life. But everything changes on the day she returns home to find her mother is missing, lured back to Half World by a vile creature calling himself Mr. Glueskin. Soon Melanie embarks on an epic and darkly fantastical journey to Half World to save her mother. What she does not yet realize is that the state of the universe is at stake....

Award winning author, Hiromi Goto's novel is an adventurous, genre-bending fantasy of shape-shifting characters, tortured half lives, and redemption.

» Read the first chapter of Half World by downloading the Penguin Preview here

» Visit Penguin Previews

"In Half World, readers are taken on a thrilling, poignant adventure where Eastern and Western mythologies are woven together. Commonwealth award–winning author Hiromi Goto has created a dark, otherworldly page–turner that will most certainly appeal to young adult readers regardless of whether they are speculative fiction enthusiasts. Goto’s elegant prose is graced by about a dozen black and white illustrations by the award–winning Jillian Tamaki. Her brush and ink illustrations superbly capture Melanie’s journey and the turmoil of the Half World. Goto has created an absolutely riveting tale that moves with cinematic pacing and vividness. Half World is nothing short of a masterpiece."
–Canadian Children’s Book News

"Half World is Boschean delight à la Goto: a magical, madcap, and deliciously creepy tale of tribulations, terror and triumph; a girl-power adventure in screaming jelly-toned colours."
—Nalo Hopkinson, author of The New Moon's Arms

"Myths and monsters, love and terror—Hiromi Goto is a master storyteller!"
—Ellen Klages, author of The Green Glass Sea

"Half World is a haunting combination of a coming-of-age novel and a spiritual quest, a mad funhouse of horrors and a tale of redemption and love. Wonderfully odd, and quite unforgettable."
—Neil Gaiman

"Half World is an absolute treasure of a book, one of those hidden gems that deserves as wide an audience as possible."
—Charles de Lint, author of The Blue Girl