REVIEW: Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Here's one of the reviews I've been writing for the Creative Writing half of my university coursework. Comment if you have any thoughts or ideas on how I could improve it, it would be really helpful!!

Blackman, award winning author of children’s novels ‘Thief!’ and ‘Pig-heart Boy’ explores teenage friendship, desire and segregation in this beautifully sculptured romantic thriller that I wish I’d had the imagination to create. Noughts and Crosses is set in a world divided by race, where the Crosses (the black people) dominate over the Noughts (the white people), and prejudice is a key theme. The story is narrated by Sephy, a young Cross girl from a privileged and powerful family, and Callum, a slightly older Nought boy who’s family live in poverty, in alternate chapters. Sephy and Callum have been friends since childhood, and maintain their friendship in secret as their families drift apart, despite their relationship being severely frowned upon. The novel follows these two teenagers as they grow up in the same town, but in entirely different worlds, and as they both face their own difficulties, their relationship morphs into something much deeper than friendship. A tragic twist in the tale provides an unpredictable ending, but readers should follow the story as it progresses in the other books of the series, for more shocks, surprises and impeccable writing.

Noughts and Crosses is an extremely cleverly written novel, which dabbles with the complex issues of racism and terrorism, and ventures into a reversal of racial history as we know it in the world we live in, displaying the immense bravery of Blackman’s writing. This is a novel that not only inspired me, but changed my outlook on life. It can be read over and over again, and still have a colossal effect on the reader every time.

It’s easy to mistake this novel as one about young teenagers for young teenagers, and although I first read it at a young age, some of the issues dealt with are aimed at a more mature reader. I would highly recommend this work of genius to any confident reader aged 14 upwards.