Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

In case you missed the first two posts in this series, I’ll quickly explain it again: earlier this year, I did a reading challenge for my YouTube channel all about rereading books I studied in high school, and I thought I’d review those books on my blog too.(There’s just something satisfying about having all my book reviews in one place.) This is the final post in this mini-series!

These were all the books I chose for my mini reading challenge:

Holes by Louis Sachar
Room Thirteen by Robert Swindells
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

If you want to watch my full reading vlog where I discuss the books as I read them, you can watch it below! It’s long, so get yourself comfortable… or scroll down to read my review of the final book, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

Video timestamp: 55:45

I kind of remember reading Noughts and Crosses in school. I remember the teacher reading it to us, and before I reread it I vaguely remembered the basic premise – but that was about it. I’m not too sure why I don’t remember reading the book very much, but I have a feeling it was, like Room 13, another book we read with a not-too-great teacher.

Noughts and Crosses tells the story of a society in an alternate universe that is segregated by colour, but not in the way segregation was (or still is, it can be argued) in our world. Instead, segregation happens in favour of black people, and white people are the ones who are looked down upon, forced to live as if they’re second-class citizens.

I’m going to start with the ending. I said in my previous post in this series that Of Mice and Men had a shock ending, but oh my god, this book is on another level. It happens so quickly and so suddenly that I had to put the book down and just think about it before I could pick up the camera to film my reaction to it. I genuinely felt exhausted after finishing it, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was shocking, devastating, and I couldn’t believe it!

Blackman writes such in-depth characters and stories that you often forget they’re a work of fiction. I felt so strongly for these characters that every time something happened to them, I felt as if I was reading about my own friends. So when something awful happens, it just packs a punch that hits you right in the gut and makes you FEEL THINGS.

The world is written with such clarity too that I could picture every tiny detail about where they live, the school they attend, the difference in homes and living conditions of the different classes, and I hung on to every word, not wanting the book to end.

It’s safe to say that this was my favourite book of this whole reading challenge by miles. The others were mostly just nostalgic, and this was the only YA novel among them, so maybe it wasn’t a fair fight – but I just loved this book a lot. I now want to go and read every single thing Malorie Blackman has ever written, and I can’t wait to watch the TV adaptation airing on BBC!

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