DOUBLE CROSS by Malorie Blackman

THE FINAL BOOK in the… well, I’m sure everybody’s sick of my raving about this series, so… I’ll just say amazing. Let’s start that again:

THE FINAL BOOK in the amazing Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman!!

In the last book, Checkmate, it ends with Sephy and Callie Rose finally talking to each other again, after Jasmine resorts to locking them both in a cellar together.

Everyone thinks the bomb that killed Jasmine was the work of a Nought terrorist, but Callie knows the truth. She is also afraid that Jude is still alive and planning revenge, though later you learn that Jude did actually die in the hotel room.

Her best friend, and later boyfriend, Tobey, is a nought boy at an exclusive school. Tobey hopes to stay out of trouble, go to university and get a good job. But the area where Tobey lives is carved up by two rivaling gangs: one headed by ruthless Nought Alex McAuley, and the other headed by the Dowds, a ruthless Cross family. Tobey wants to stay out of this, but then his friend Dan offers him the chance to make some money by making a few ‘deliveries,’ for McAuley. Tobey agrees, eventually… so this book is more about the gang wars than about Sephy, and Jude, and stuff. And of course, Tobey has to choose between Callie Rose and Rebecca Dowd. So I didn’t find this book as great, but that’s just because I got so immersed in Sephy’s world that now, Callie and Tobey’s world seems different… if that makes any sense.

Do I need to carry on telling people to read these?? Fine then… Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Have you got the message?? Good.

READ.

Age 12/13 is when I read it… and I think that’s a pretty good age.

Age… umm… well… 12/13, I guess.

Noughts and Crosses WIKI page

Author Malorie Blackman official web site

Get your own copy from AMAZON

My Facebook page

My Twitter page

CHECKMATE by Malorie Blackman

And… it’s the third in the awesome, amazing, epic, brilliant, I- could- go- on- forever Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman… and it’s STILL amazing; if someone asked me which one was the worst out of these three, I actually wouldn’t be able to give you an answer… I’d go over the books, like, 10 times and I wouldn’t be able to find a best/ worst in them… and I’m babbling, now…

So the last book left off where Callie Rose stopped breathing when Sephy held her too tight. And, thankfully, Malorie Blackman didn’t kill off Rose. Actually, the book starts in Callie’s POV. It tells you what Callie thinks, and basically, she thinks Sephy wishes her dead so Callum could live. And that’s a hard thing to believe… oh, my mom wishes I were dead if it meant my dead dad could live. Oh, what a brilliant upbringing Callie Rose had.

In this book, I grew to really dislike Meggie… because she seems far too possessive of Rose, which you learn when you read the part where Meggie threatens to go to court and win custody of Rose when Sephy wants to move out… amongst other things. She becomes, I think, my least favorite character… to the point where I think Jude is better.

Either I’m really weird, or Meggie really is acting horrible.

In the book there are two main plot bits… Sephy vs Callie Rose, and Jude vs Jasmine. You learn that Callie is part of the Liberation Militia, and she becomes quite close to, ‘Uncle Jude’. However, she also grows to hate Sephy. And… well… it’s all connected. Can’t spoil it more than I already have…

Read. Read. Read. How many more times do I need to say it before people get the idea about this series?? Here, I’ll say it a few more times. Read. Read. Read. And if you’ve already read them, read them again!!

I think you get the point now.

Age… 12/13.

 

Author Malorie Blackman official web site

Get your own copy from AMAZON

My Facebook page

My Twitter page

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES by Malorie Blackman

So… this is the first of the Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman. They are fantastic, and I definitely recommend them.

So, they are about a racist world. But here, the darker skinned “Crosses” rule over the pale skinned “Noughts”- basically, the opposite.

Persephone ‘Sephy’ Hadley, daughter of Kamal Hadley the wealthy politician, is a Cross. Her best friend, Callum McGregor, is a Nought. Their friendship is frowned on by society, and so they remain friends in secret, Much to Sephy’s joy, Callum is one of the first Noughts admitted to Sephy’s exclusive school, Heathcroft High. Callum is also in Sephy’s class, but most of her classmates don’t accept that Sephy wants to be friends with a Nought. Meanwhile, Callum’s father Ryan and brother Jude join the Liberation Militia, a terrorist group said to be aimed at promoting equality.

Callum’s elder sister also dies in a car accident, but Callum knows it was suicide. Later, Jude and Ryan are also accused of a lethal bombing of  shopping centre committed by the L.M.- Callum is expelled from school and Ryan faces death. However, Jasmine, remembering how she used to be close to the McGregor family, hires a lawyer to defend Ryan and he escapes death. However he must spend a lifetime in jail and is killed by an electric fence while trying to escape.

Sephy decides she wants a new start and decides to go to the boarding school Chivers. She leaves Callum a letter asking him to run away from her, and if he doesn’t reply she will be going the Chivers boarding school. However, Callum has decided to join the L.M. against his mother’s will, and doesn’t get the note until just before Sephy leaves. He sprints to try and find her, but he is too late; Sephy is gone.

Years later, when Sephy returns, she gets a note from Callum telling her to meet him. She complies after some thought, but Callum is now part of the L.M. and that note wasn’t sent with good intentions…

This book is great. It’s kinda dark, but it’s still amazing. And I loved it… it’s awesome. Read, read, read, read!!

Age… umm… well… 12/13, I guess.

 

Noughts and Crosses WIKI page

Author Malorie Blackman official web site

Get your own copy from AMAZON

My Facebook page

My Twitter page