Noughts & Crosses (2001)

This book had a really good plot. Twist on normal life. Although the ending is kind of a bummer. I read this on a friend’s recommendation.

I have to be honest, im not one for leaving lengthy wordy reviews, if any, of the books ive read. dont know why. Just the way i am. But i have to be honest, i struggled to get into this one. it just felt a bit flat and didnt seem to get anywhere soon. still, i stuck with it. wish i hadnt. dont get me wrong, i understand the message behind the story, and i understand it is a youth read, but having now finished it i feel quite strongly that i wouldnt be happy about teens reading this because of the ending. there was nothing positive about it and i felt quite disturbed that something like that would be put in a teen novel. I read alot of crime and suspense novels, and with those you expect the violence and death. I just dont feel it belongs in books like these. i read it because it had a good rating but i for one cannot give it a similar review. ( )

Callum McGregor and Sephy Hadley have been best friends for as long as they remember. But recently their feelings for each other have begun to develop into something...stronger. Unfortunately, Sephy is a member of the dark-skinned upper class of Cross, and Callum is a pale-skinned, low-class Nought. The teens' romantic problems intensify when Callum's family gets caught up in a terrorist liberation organization that Sephy's father (a politician) has sworn to stamp out. Sephy and Callum must learn to love each other in a tumultuous world of hatred. Does this scream out "star-crossed lover" to you? But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

I've heard fantastic things about this book, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. Maybe it's just because I wasn't in the mood to read depressing race-relations books (and they're all a bit depressing, aren't they?), but this book wasn't a slap in the face of my preconceived notions. It was just another book about racism, much like a book written about a white girl and teenaged member of the Black Panthers. The whole skin-color switcharoo seemed like an unnecessary literary device to me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it was a bad book...I was just expecting more amazingness, that's all. It was a tragically-sweet love story about a very important issue - racism, and the ease with which we can be swept away by other people's causes. But I think the book would have been more powerful if she'd focused on the realism of the story instead of trying to build a new world that was simply too similar to our own to justify the effort of creation. ( )

This book was the best book I’ve ever read and everyone absolutely had to read it. It was a great page turner, I couldn’t put it down. I read this book because my friend recommended it to me, so I agreed to read it.

Book 15 [Naughts and Crosses] by [[Malorie Blackman]]

This book was recommended for the Social Justice Theme Read. This is a Young Adult novel and fitting for that age group. Naughts are white people, and crosses are black people. The story is the traditional one of falling in love with someone who is not in your group, and is told from both sides of that experience. What sets this book apart is the depth and subtle insight to these experiences. The characters examine their own prejudices, their own fears of being excluded and discriminated against. Are you willing to die for your values? Are you willing to kill for your values? Are you willing to turn your back on your own family? When you go out of your way to stand with a person who is considered less than you, are you doing so for them, or for yourself? This novel asks these questions to a depth I have not seen in other books.

Personal response - Remember from intro psych classes that your brain literally can only physically form to see what it sees, in a manner of speaking? E.g. the tribe in Africa that grew up seeing only circles and curves, no angles, because they were isolated and did not see any other form of architecture? Their brains then could not perceive angles? Remember the language of a particular Native American tribe that uses sounds not used by other languages and that those sounds then remained unheard, literally, by some from other groups? I've had problems holding foreign (to me) character names in my head, and I have heard others complain of struggling with that. With this story and this setting I was able to hold a different picture in my head most of the time. I could see I was in England, I had no problems seeing black people in power as that is not unfamiliar in some places or movies or books or in my experience. What I had extreme difficulty with was holding a picture of white people in the downtrodden position. The stereotype of white people being in power and being the oppressor is too strongly ingrained in my little pea brain. I just was not able to perceive them as the victim, which of course, I found very interesting as well as frustrating. It is just weird to be betrayed by your own brain. ( )