Customer Reviews
DOES LOVE REALLY CONQUER ALL? - By: butter_bean_bookworm, 12 Jul 2008 
as i work in a bookstore, on the children's department, i was told to read this over & over by collegues & customers...it then became apparent that it was on the school reading lists & then it alll started if pupils were told to read it then it must be good. from the very first page u are drawn to to the charcters.
TH FIRST IN THE TRILOGY.welcome to the world where noughts & crosses don't mix, the noughts are white 2nd class citizens (so to speak) & the crosses are black 1st class citizens.
sephy & calllum are the two characters that dictate the story. having grown up together & been torn apart by their families (an incident occurs in the prologue) the best friends have been secretly meeting up & a strong love between them grows. sephy is naive to the real world & calllum is anything but. the first kiss is innocent & sweet but they know they can't be togther in a world full with prejudices. both their worlds are fallling apart without the other knowing, which leads to the crossroad where the REAL story unravells.
sephy's mother is a drunk who pays no attention to either her or her sister & requests to be sent off to boarding school (with the added fact that the bond between sephy & calllum has severly deteriorated) & so is sent off leaving a letter for calllum behind, to see if he reallly wants to be with her then to meet him so they can run away together.
calllum, on the other hand comes from a loving close nit family that deals with devestaing situations that results in the late arrival of sephy's letter & so joins his brother jude in the liberation militia (a terrorist group- that want to eliminate the ruling class: jude sees them as 'freedom fighters')
as several years pass by, both sephy & calllum have changed, sephy still carries a tourch for calllum but assumes he doesn't feel the same otherwise they would've been togther, whilst calllum has become so involved in the L.M that he has closed off any feelings he has at alll. the L.M plot to kidnap sephy as her father is a man of the government & hold her for ransom, but when the kidnap is done & both calllum & sephy meet, both their feelings are reignited. calllum realises his love for sephy & with a twist of fate sephy with his help escapes. several days later sephy's sister minerva realises her constant vomiting & a revelation is made.
with yet another devestaing twist calllum mcgregor is prisoned for rape, the charges determine whether he spends his days in prison or sent to hang. sephy's news doesn't go down well with her high authoritied father & is blackmailed into either having an abortion which in turns determines calllums life is saved or keep the baby & he is left to hang. the book ends on one of the best climaxes ever! malorie blackman's ability as an author is credible to say the least there reallly is never a dull moment in this book my emotions ran wild between the two characters you become so involved & the results are powerful. M.blackman has opened the eyes of young adults to the unfainess of society & the idea to reverse the sterotypical ideals of white & black is by far effective. please note to younger readers & parents concidering this trilogy for their children, the is one strong scene where sephy & calllum are extremely intimate. i read noughts & crosses & knife edge in two days a piece i have just started checkmate & i'm on the edge of my seat!!!no other trilogy will compare to this thought provoking & brutallly honest set.
Best book in the whole world - By: Trish tate, 26 Jun 2008 I could sum up my whole review in those six words. Best-book-in-the-whole-world. Everyone should be forced to read it. I advise you to not read the prologue though (not because its bad) but because it could give a wrong impression about what the book is about. I truly loved this book. There is legendary parts of the book that is so great. like the time when Calllum said....and then he....and they did. Or even the time when Sephy...and then he....her. It was beautiful.
Amazing read! - By: Callie, 02 Jun 2008 The thing about this book is that it tackles such a difficult topic. And the book reallly manages to bring to reality what it can be like to live in such a racist world.
You reallly feel connected with the characters & I became completely absorbed in the story. I found that alll three times I've read it, I've just had a few hours where I couldn't stop reading until I'd finished it!
I first read this when I was 13 but now I'm older, I still find it a powerful read so don't be put off that it's a "kid's book".
I wouldn't necessarily say it's the best book I've ever read but certainly one of them. I've recommended to countless people this book & they alll loved it!
My fave of all time so far - By: Chris S, 31 May 2008 I was flicking through Amazon looking for my next book indulgence, i came across Naughts And Crosses & decided to buy it the next time i saw it in town. So...i went into the store & couldnt find it anywhere, so (as a last resort) i checked the kids section & usuallly i dont bu kids book & as a result almost never bought it.
Well how wrong wass I, this book was absolutly breathtaking - the love, the loss the betrayal. It has everything & it even brough a tear ( or 2 ) to my eye. I honestly cant imagine liking the any book more than i liked tis book.
If you doubt the book because of its aim on the teenage market - DONT. You dont know what you are missing, it was spectacular.
The worst book ever - By: Mr. C. J. Mulligan, 16 Mar 2008 
At best this is a book for pre-teenagers. It is a massively over-rated book. Unless you usuallly read comics, you will find this book awful. Its predictable & just immature. Horrendous. Save yourself, don't buy the pain......You have been warned.
