Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman certainly knows how to draw you into a story. This is one book that wouldn’t leave my head for days after I had finished. It was that intense. And she has certainly done her job because I was dying to know what happens next, and quickly moved onto the last two books in the trilogy.
It is truly heartbreaking. It isn’t a story you can casually read between games of FoxyBingo, or as you check your blog stats, because you won’t be able to put it down. And in all honesty it deserves your undivided attention. She has created an absorbing world of perilous flaws.
Set in a society where the dark skinned rule over the ‘colourless’ underclass, the story revolves around two teenagers: Sephy is a Cross, Callum is a nought. They have been friends since childhood, despite their differences. And things seem to be looking up for their blossoming relationship when a limited number of noughts are allowed into Cross schools for the first time.
Prejudices are not easily shifted though, and the two soon find their hopes for equality between their two sides are a long way off realisation. With building distrust, and violent nought terrorists fighting against ruling Cross society, can Sephy and Callum’s romance ever come to be, or will it place them in grave danger?
I can’t gush enough about the genius of the narrative. She tells it from both Sephy and Callum’s points of view, alternating between them seamlessly, every other chapter. It only serves to intensify our attachment to them. Admittedly I was more attached to Callum than Sephy, but you will find yourself loving both despite their glaring flaws, hating the world they can’t escape from.
Political, thought provoking and intense, Blackman has weaved a tale that both angers and breaks your heart in two. Thoroughly recommended.
- Post written by a guest writer
