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.

 

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KNIFE EDGE by Malorie Blackman

So…the second of the amazing Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman.

Usually, I find the second book in a series to be the weakest one, generally… for example, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter series… duh.) and Crossed (Matched trilogy.) are just a few I can name off the top of my head.

But Knife Edge is just as brilliant as Noughts and Crosses, and it had me totally hooked… this series has been causing me to have some very late nights, much to the annoyance of my mum…

Knife Edge carries on the story from Noughts and Crosses. Sephy now has her daughter, Callie Rose Hadley; she is living with Meggie, Callum’s mum; Callum is dead; and Jude, his brother, is out to get revenge on Sephy.

Sephy receives a letter written by Callum before he died, full of harsh words about how Callum never loved Sephy and he can’t believe she was stupid enough to actually fall for him. Meggie refuses to believe the letter, but Sephy becomes depressed.

At the hospital, Sephy meets Jaxon. Later, she learns he is a hot- tempered member of a band, The Midges. He offers Sephy a singing part but the Noughts are prejudiced against her because she is a Cross. During this time, Sephy begins to neglect Callie Rose.

Meanwhile, Jude befriends Cara Imega, a Cross woman, for access to her money. Jude soon falls for her, though he keeps denying his feelings. Eventually, out of anger and confusion at how he could like a Cross, he kills Cara.

For this, he is wanted by the police. When he is caught, he faces a virtually certain death sentence. When she goes to visit him in jail, Jude tells Meggie that he didn’t kill Cara. Sephy doesn’t believe him, but Meggie insists that Jude is her son and he wouldn’t lie to her.

Sephy struggles with seeing Meggie lose the last member of her family… I mean, that’s understandable. Sephy provides Jude with an alibi under the condition that he will leave Callie Rose alone, and he agrees, though he doesn’t mean it…

One night, Sephy is holding Callie Rose too tight and Callie stops breathing… and that’s where the book ends.

It’s amazing, and ends on a major cliffhanger; I can’t imagine having to wait to read the next book, wondering whether Callie lives or dies. Lucky me, I had both books with me… thankfully.

Age would, again, be 12/13… well, that’s when I read the books…

DO NOT read this if you want something lighthearted… it’s pretty dark, still… it’s that heavy, depressing kind of book that you can’t help being obsessed with.

 

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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.

 

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FORGOTTEN by Cat Patrick

This is an amazing book by Cat Patrick. It’s about this 16- year- old girl, London Lane, who can’t remember the past; she can ‘remember’

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

the future- she can see the future, search it for certain events as we could search our memories of the past, but she has no memory at all of the past. She gets by with the help of notes, which she reads each morning to remind herself of the previous day, as the way her memory works? Each morning, at 4:33 a.m., London’s brain will ‘reset,’ and she’ll remember nothing again. It’s different… and pretty amazing…

So London doesn’t remember anything of her boyfriend each morning, or of any arguments she had the day before; it’s always a new thing for her. But when Lauren ‘sees’ something that doesn’t seem to be in the future, she discovers a long lost brother, the truth about what happened, and the possibility that she can remember…

This was amazing. No other words. I read it in an hour. And then spent the rest of the night wishing there was a sequel. But there isn’t… But the movie is coming out!! Soon!! This year, I think!!

The age for this… well, 12ish again, I guess. I recommend reading this… multiple times!!

 

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MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN by JOSHUA FOER

So his is different from what I usually read…  very, very different… firstly because it’s not fiction… and I generally only read fiction. But… well… my dad told me to read this, and I rival Hermione Granger in terms of the amount I read, so… I read it. And I thought it would be really boring, because face it: that’s what all teenagers think when their parents tell them to read something, but, surprisingly, it’s not. It’s pretty interesting.

The book basically discusses memory. Human memory, and how even an average memory like mine can be used better- and this sounds like nonsense, but it works. I still remember a list I memorized 3 weeks ago… my friend tested me, and I still remembered everything, using a memory palace, which the book discusses. If you Google memory palaces, it also tells you what they are and how to make one; basically, it’s a place you know well enough, like your house or for a bigger memory palace, your school or even your town. You place the stuff you want to remember along a certain route, and it sticks. It’s explained better in Moonwalking with Einstein. And this is a technique apparently used by ‘mental athletes’ in the World Memory Championships. The book also tells you about how some people remembered everything, just by subconsciously placing everything in a memory palace- like, every single thing. Which is actually quite a lot. 

One of the points there which I found pretty interesting is the thing about chess; I found it interesting because I play chess as well, sometimes… anyway, so it talks about how chess players who have played more games are better, which I’m sure every chess player knows, but it also tells you how playing more makes you better. It explains that because people have played more chess games, they have games in their memory to relate this one to; they recall thousands of moves, and because they have so much stuff to relate games to, they can memorize entire chess boards, and they can also analyze a move much faster, because they will think back to a game where someone made a certain move and it turned out like this.

It’s different from every single other book I have talked about on this site; probably one of the only non fantasy books I’m gonna talk about here; but it’s still pretty good.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This is the third book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

This is the book where Dementors are introduced-foul creatures that will suck your soul out of your mouth; and the threat of Sirius Black is looming over everyone’s heads. It’s quite a dark book, though I think it’s the best one… I really enjoyed it… but it’s probably one of the scariest in the series, as the Dementors are really quite creepy.

There are still some comic elements in the book, though. Things like when Harry accidentally blows up his Aunt Marge; then encounters the Knight Bus; Sir Cadogan, the mad painting; the Marauder’s Map; Hogsmeade; and a lot of other things. It’s quite contrasting; First, Harry blows up his Aunt, then encounters the ‘Grim’; and things like that, basically. This has to be one of thebest in the series!!

My favorite part of the book has to be the bit with the Time Turner, as I loved the idea of it; to be able to go back in time is a really nice thought. I also liked that part because there, you find out what’s been going on with Hermione the whole time, too.

Amazing book; please read!!!

 

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

It’s the second in the AMAZING Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

So, the first reintroduction to magic is when Harry gets a visit from Dobby the House-Elf, because Harry hasn’t received any letters from his friends all summer. Harry learns it’s because of Dobby this has happened, because Dobby is adamantly refusing to comply with what Harry tells him because he says, ‘harry potter must not return to Hogwarts!’

Then, at school, he faces the flying car problems, as well as the Basilisk, a deadly serpent that can kill just by looking you in the eye. Harry learns he is a parselmouth, and also unknowingly destroys a Horcrux. Basically, this book, like the first, is jam-packed with different plotlines within the book; there’s loads going on.

However, I didn’t find this book as good as the first one; it’s still just as gripping, but there’s something a little off for me, and that makes it my least favorite book in the series. Not to say it’s bad; it’s still pretty amazing!! I just found I didn’t like it as much as the others in the Harry Potter books.

I think, though, they missed out less in this book’s film, which made me enjoy it more, and the parseltongue in the in the movie is just how I imagined it.

My favorite part of this book was probably the part when Harry battles the Basilisk, just because it’s the part where you are introduced to Tom Riddle for the first time.

This is DEFINETELY worth a read, if you haven’t read it already. If you have, it’s worth a reread, too!! 😉 Can’t put an age to it, you can read it at any age… that’s what I love about these.

 

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone)

So, this is the first in the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling!!

It’s basically about Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, and how he finds out about Voldemort killing his parents, and you just get introduced to all the characters like Hagrid, Dumbledore, the other teachers, and obviously Ron and Hermione. You get to know the characters really well in the books, and there are now all these extra books, and the making of Harry Potter at WB Studios, and the theme park, that you end up getting the impression that the characters are real people, and the movies just add to that.

The book- no, the series- is amazing. Brilliant. Fab. It’s gripping, and it’s never boring, and it’s impossible to put an age to it- you can read the books when you’re 7 or an adult and it just doesn’t matter. I loved the books. Completely. I must have read them around… 18 times now, and every time I found some new bit, and I never get bored of reading the same series again, even though I know the storyline amazingly well now- so far that I’ve memorized paragraphs. But that’s just me being obsessive.

If you haven’t read them, you definitely should!! Like I said, it’s just impossible to put an age to these.

I think the best part of the book is the part with Voldemort in the end- I think the challenges from each teacher is a great idea, and I think J. K. Rowling is amazing for coming up with all of this!!

There is(obviously) a movie out for this, but I think it misses out some parts I was really looking forward to seeing on screen after I read the book, so I think the book is better.

 

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