Pages:
443
Publisher:
Corgi (Random
House)
Release
Date: 30th
August 2012
Edition:
UK paperback,
review copy
Other
Titles in this Series: Knife Edge, Checkmate, Double
Cross
Callum
is a nought – an inferior white citizen in a society controlled by the black
Crosses.
Sephy
is a Cross – and the daughter of one of the most powerful, ruthless men in the
country.
In
their hostile, violent world, noughts and Crosses simply don't mix. But when
Sephy and Callum’s childhood friendship grows into passionate love, they’re
determined to find a way to be together.
And
then the bomb explodes...
There are very few people left
in the world of YA that haven’t heard of Noughts
and Crosses and I think I’m probably one of the last to read it.
With a single mention of
Malorie Blackman’s most-popular series comes a slew of praise that is almost
akin to reverence. Needless to say, my expectations were sky-high, but
unfortunately, they weren’t quite met. I think that the reputation of this book
had a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected I
would. I also knew what were probably the two biggest plot twists in the novel,
although one of them still made me cry surprisingly.
I did get more in to the novel
about two thirds of the way through, and I think I know why. Sephy. She annoyed
the hell out of me. She was so self-involved, whiny and so, so young. Her problems
and worries seemed so insignificant in comparison to Callum’s, who I fell in
love with by the way. Thankfully, Sephy grew up a lot throughout Noughts and Crosses and I ended up
sympathising with her and really feeling for her when she struggled.
While I was still struggling
with Noughts and Crosses there was something
that kept me turning the pages: the shock factor. Malorie Blackman made me
think of things that I’d never even considered before, mostly the scene with
the plaster where they only had brown ones, no lighter ones to match the
noughts’ skin. I realised that the reverse of that is true here and I couldn’t
quite believe it. It was a shocking and extreme reality that would have been
experienced in the past and I couldn’t quite believe it.
Racism isn’t the only issue
tackled in Noughts and Crosses
though. There was terrorism, prejudice, bullying, alcoholism and the ever
present struggles of growing up. Every problem in Sephy and Callum’s society is
tackled or at the very least, talked about. And most of them stemmed from the
racism and the corrupt government. It’s a terrifying world that makes happy
endings very difficult to come by. The short story included in this edition, Callum, made this point very nicely. It was
really interesting to read an alternative version of what is probably the most
pivotal scene in the novel.
I ended up enjoying Noughts and Crosses and I’ll be
interesting in reading the rest of the series, though I’m not overly eager to
get round to them. Hopefully I’ll become more involved in later books.
Thank you to Random House for
providing me with a copy for review.
Sophie