book review noughts and crosses

The Literary Edit

Review: Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman

It was while I was perusing the shelves of my local Waterstones in search of the second Harry Potter book that I happened across Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman, and immediately recognised it as one of the titles from the BBC’s Big Read. I later found it at a charity shop on Northcote Road and bought it with the hope of ticking it off my list by the end of the year. Having finished The Secret Keeper, I soon began Noughts & Crosses, but due to a rather busy few weeks it took me longer than I had anticipated to finish it. Read on for my Noughts and Crosses book review…

Not dissimilar to Romeo and Juliet, Noughts & Crosses’ plot explores themes of racism, prejudice and politics and is narrated by the two main characters Sephy, a Cross, and Callum, a Nought. Having been friends since childhood, as they both grow older it soon becomes clear that living in a segregated society, in which dark-skinned Sephy is of the ruling class, compared to colourless Callum who belongs to the underclass, will not only effect their friendship but also lead to a heartbreaking climax for them both. But while the pair are both battling the racial and class politics that are part and parcel of the society on which they live, they too are fighting battles within themselves. Callum wants to make something of himself. He believes he is capable of more than what is expected of both him and the Crosses as a whole. He’s angered and insulted by the Cross government’s attempt at integration. He is desperate for equality but struggles to achieve what feels so very far out of reach. He too is angry at himself for loving Sephy – a member of the people who oppress him and the daughter of a man who is instrumental in the mistreatment of his kind. To love Sephy means to to love the source of all his pain, hatred, anger, and yet, despite her privileged position in society, Sephy is filled with shame at being a cross.

Turning racial prejudice on its head with a thought-provoking narrative for both teenagers and adults alike, Noughts and Crosses ending is powerful and poignant, and challenges the preconceived ideas that we have of society.

Buy Noughts and Crosses from Waterstones , Amazon , Amazon AU or download it on Audible .

Noughts and Crosses Book Summary

Two young people are forced to make a stand in this thought-provoking look at racism and prejudice in an alternate society.

Sephy is a Cross — a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought — a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood, but that’s as far as it can go. In their world, Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum — a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger. Can they possibly find a way to be together?

Want to read a more in-depth Noughts & Crosses summary? Here you can find out more about the Noughts and Crosses characters , the Noughts and Crosses plot summary , and a summary of Noughts and Crosses themes .

This is a great Noughts and Crosses review from The Guardian.

About Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman has written over fifty books and is acknowledged as one of today’s most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children’s books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature. She has been described by The Times as ‘a national treasure’.

Malorie was the Children’s Laureate between 2013–15.

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3 comments on “Review: Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman”

I read this such a long time ago and really enjoyed it. I remember it being such a page-turner!

Sarah xo Oomph London

It really is a brilliant book! xo

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Book Review: Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Genre : YA, Dystopian Fiction

Publishing Info: Penguin Books (2017) – originally by Doubleday (2001)

Back Cover Summary:

“You’re a nought and I’m a Cross and there’s nowhere for us to be. Nowhere for us to go where we’d be left in peace. That’s why I started crying. For all the things we’re never going to have”

Sephy Hadley and Callum McGregor have been friends since childhood, and they both know that’s as far as it can go. Theirs is a world full of racism, fear and mounting violence – where Noughts and Crosses are fated to be enemies.

Then, against all the odds, these star-crossed lovers choose each other. But this is a love story that will lead them both into terrible danger…

This review focuses on a re-reading of Malorie Blackman’s brilliant Noughts and Crosses , a book that I haven’t read since school. With a fresh look, I am able to see the fundamental messages of this book stronger and the quality of the narrative and writing style really helps to bring out those messages.

I first read this book in my English lessons at secondary school. Though the reader group the author was aiming for was in my age group, several of the underlying messages and themes weren’t totally grasped by me. That is why I chose to read Noughts and Crosses again, now I am an adult who understands being persecuted, alienated and made to feel like a second-class citizen for something about me that I can’t change. Malorie Blackman, the author of this book, chose to write this book as a head on response to racism and events in her past life, so the issues she tackles doesn’t suffer from being written from the point of view of someone who can’t truly understand the messages in their own book. Therefore, both protagonists, the nought Callum and the Cross Sephy (notice how only the word Cross is capitalized) are written as relatable, even if they aren’t perfect characters in their actions and thoughts. You can really see how the author’s personal experiences have shaped the characterisation and the dynamics between the two races, how no amount of big effort will force change, only antagonize those in power.

The book is split into several sections, jumping the reader forward anywhere from a few weeks to years. The second part of the book, following Sephy and Callum as the latter starts his first days at a predominately Cross school, is one of the strongest parts of the novel. Hatred and intolerance are taught rather than innate, as a child’s mind is accepting but at its most vulnerable to corruption. The treatment of Callum by teachers and pupils alike is a child’s biggest fear, to be pointed out and picked on for something about themselves that they can’t change. This fear can be felt by young adults of any colour, creed, religion or sexuality, which is why any reader can empathise and fear Callum’s situation in their own life. As an adult who has faced some kind of discrimination growing up for something I haven’t been aware of, I can now see the characters in a new light. These early sections also really help to crank up the tension when the politics and terrorist groups enter the fray.

The book constantly switches between Sephy and Callum’s point of view and I really like the way that they do this. There are sentences aplenty about how they feel about the situations they find themselves in and the events in the wider world, as is expected in order to provide the alternative viewpoints needed to illuminate the author’s experiences and how it relates to the message of the book. However, the more interesting element is how the author hides certain pieces of information from the characters until it is too late, like a letter delivered to one of them or crucial news about the other. Then, when the character is given that information or made to make a crucial choice, the readers don’t get to know what happens until they flick to the next section of the book, which could be weeks or years after the last. I would definitely describe this book as a page turner, as you care about the wellbeing of both of the protagonists; this is another positive from the early sections when you see them in a more innocent light.

This book is a pretty important one when discussing the representation of race in literature, especially within the Young Adult sub-genre. However, this book did take me longer than many recently, which I’m not sure is down to the fact that I have felt burned out recently or because I have read this book before. Even though I did pick up on a lot of messages now that I am older, it lacked the excitement that the first read had, possibly because I know exactly what was going to happen. Some books you can read over and over again and still get that sense of magic that you had when you first did it as a child – some of the Harry Potter series for example, and my one criticism of the book would be that I didn’t completely feel that this time around. I will definitely try to read the sequel of this book, Knife Edge , because I want to see where Callum and Sephy’s story goes next.

No matter whether you enjoyed reading this book or it made you feel very uncomfortable, you can’t deny that Noughts and Crosses is a very important book when discussing the history of racism in contemporary society and how it feels to be someone who is constantly persecuted for something that they cannot change about themselves.

Star Rating: 4.5/5

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Book Review – Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Noughts and Crosses is a dystopian YA novel set in a world where the balance of power has switched. Instead of living in a world where white people once claimed dominance over black people, society is being controlled by black people. Referred to as Crosses, black people hold all of the seats of power and have clear superiority over white people, or Noughts. Fraternisation between Noughts and Crosses is not encouraged and everybody is expected to keep to themselves. So, it was always going to be difficult when teenagers Sephy, a Cross, and Callum, a Nought, started to fall in love. But, unfortunately, that’s only the start of their troubles. The pair quickly come to see just how many people would be dead against their relationship.

Sephy’s father is a powerful politician and is pushing anti-nought rhetoric. He is pushing the agenda to help Crosses and doing everything possible to make Noughts seem dangerous and violent. Although, the government are under pressure from a rebel group the Liberation Militia. So, they’ve had to offer something to show they are moving to a more equal society. Callum and a small group of Noughts have just been accepted into Sephy’s elite Cross school. The students face great scrutiny from their fellow teenagers and the staff. Although, Sephy is initially ecstatic at the idea of having her best friend in her class. Though Sephy learns that their friendship is a lot more problematic than she ever realised. With tensions rising, there are violent reactions from the LM. Reactions that find Callum, Sephy, and their families in a difficult position. Can the pair find a way to be together when they are being pulled in opposite directions?

Noughts and Crosses is a powerful novel that really does a great job of reversing race roles. It’s an incredibly effective story that highlights the issue of systemic racism without going too far into overly dystopian territory. Everything you read here seems familiar in some way. It takes inspiration from real-world and recent history. With links to the Civil Rights Movement in America and class differences in the UK. There are even hints to the IRA and modern terrorist attacks. It is obviously an exaggerated version of society but it remains understandable and relatable. The issue of Civil Rights and racial superiority are plain to see. It is a great book for young people to read to start conversations about race and equality. It should definitely be a must-read for young readers and, if it isn’t, it should be on every syllabus. It’s an easy read and showcases some important historical and social commentary.

My only real issue with Noughts and Crosses is a minor one. An awful lot is going on here. There are so many subplots to contend with that many of them don’t really go anywhere. It also means that several interesting points just get glossed over or rushed to make way for something less interesting. I know it’s a series and there probably several plot strands that will be picked up later but it just feels as though Malorie Blackman was trying to do too much at once. I kind of wish the opening novel had been a bit slower and given more time over to build the world and develop the characters. There are so many one-dimensional characters who I wish had been given more ambiguity. Like Jude and Kamal who are nothing but fairy tale villains. Adding a bit more development would have opened up a dialogue about different motivations and showed that racism isn’t a simple as being a racist or being anti-racist.

But, really, Malorie Blackman does a fantastic job of making this role reversal narrative work. The love story is a great way to bring young readers is because it is all too familiar. It’s Romeo and Juliet with an emphasis on race. There will be some narrow-minded people who see the novel as racist but there is nothing here that doesn’t have some basis in fact. It might be an uncomfortable read but only because it forces you to confront a racial bias that you might not have realised you were even benefiting from. Sephy is a well-meaning character and she’s someone readers will warm to. Something that makes it easier to realise that most of us are Sephy. Being bling to skin colour is being blind to the problems faced by people with a different skin colour to your own. Watching her slowly realise that is a great way to highlight the problem.

Confessions of a Book Geek

Book review: noughts and crosses (series).

Noughts and Crosses Series by Malorie Blackman , all books and novellas in this series are released and available for purchase.

Read/Reread: April 2014 Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi/Dystopia Source: Purchased

I originally read Noughts and Crosses as a teenager and completely fell for Sephy and Callum and the world Malorie Blackman had created. I also read the second installment in this series, Knife Edge , but somewhere along the way I didn’t get to finish the series and was unaware that novellas had been released for World Book Day. I purchased the four book series, complete with novellas, from Play.com for around £20. The last two books in the series are Checkmate and Double Cross , with the two accompanying novellas being Callum and An Eye for An Eye . I love that each book has a short introduction from Malorie Blackman that explains the inspiration behind each story, and how the original idea for this trilogy eventually became four books. This is a series overview that will contain some spoilers , you have been warned!

Noughts and Crosses Review: I absolutely adored this book when I was a teenager, and the reread as an adult didn’t disappoint. It was one of the first books I read that reduced me to tears and while it didn’t have quite the same effect the second time around (I’m assuming this is because I knew what was going to happen), it still generated all the feels.

All of these books are written from multiple points of view, and cover quite a lot of ground in terms of their time-frame. Malorie Blackman doesn’t spend a long time intricately describing things so much as emotions , and this works really well. As a reader we fill in the blanks and the true essence of the story doesn’t get lost in translation. I think everyone will be able to relate to this story in one way or another, and that’s what makes it so powerful.

While Noughts and Crosses is centred on segregation between two races, throughout history and still today, there are multiple forms of segregation, discrimination, and prejudice that parallels with the themes of this book – the idea of star-crossed lovers from two sides of the divide who face immense struggle in their efforts to be together. Malorie Blackman isn’t afraid to confront controversial issues head on and tackle them in an honest yet beautiful way. This book is guaranteed to make you think, really think, about society, social norms, and the kind of people we have in power. A fantastic read, and the last few pages are guaranteed to make the biggest Ice Queen’s heart break.

“That’s why I started crying. That’s why I couldn’t stop. For all the things we might have had and all the things we were never going to have.”

Knife Edge Review: The second instalment allows for character development in those who played more of a minor role in Noughts and Crosses , and delves into the pasts of many characters so the reader really begins to know these people, and to perhaps better understand some of their actions. The issues covered in this book are very intense (as are the issues covered in all of these books really) and the pace is just right to keep the reader hooked and move the story along while also allowing for enough detail and dialogue.

Jude is a hypocritical character, Meggie needs a massive wake-up-call, and Sephy has lost some of her spark from the first book, which is understandable under the circumstances. Malorie Blackman definitely knows how to write some seriously good books, and she leaves them on fantastic cliff-hangers – I’m just glad I had the next book in the series to hand every time I finished one!

I didn’t enjoy this book just as much as Noughts and Crosses , out of the entire series the first book is my favourite. Noughts and Crosses could easily be a stand-alone novel, and while the entire series is really good – spanning three generations and giving an insight into the implications of the Noughts and Crosses divide on a variety of individuals and their families, I prefer the first novel in the series. Part of this may be because I never did get over the loss of one of the main characters, I missed them in the rest of the series and wished they had have been part of the series for longer – but then this loss is also what makes the story so poignant.

“The media called us ruthless terrorists. We’re not… Being born a Nought shouldn’t automatically slam shut myriad doors before you’ve even drawn your first breath.”

Checkmate Review: This book focuses on the life and point of view of Callie Rose, the daughter of Sephy and Callum, as she grows up and learns the truth about her family’s past. We are still privy to Sephy’s point of view in this novel, we have now followed her from her childhood, through her teenage years as a young mum to being an adult woman and a single parent. Originally, Checkmate was supposed to be the last book of the trilogy, and I’m really glad that it wasn’t, it felt like there was more to tell in this story. At times the characters become frustrating as you wish they would just open up with each other more, so many of the events that happen in these novels could have been avoided. I think aspects of Callie Rose’s story-line were a little far-fetched, but it still worked well, and Jude’s hell-bent-on-revenge attitude makes for a nerve-racking read. Jasmine Hadley develops as a character in book two and three and it is nice to see her relationship with Meggie McGregor being repaired.

“But remember this if nothing else. I love you more than there are words or stars. I love you more than there are thoughts or feelings. I love you more than there are seconds or moments gone or to come. I love you.”

Double Cross Review: This book moves away from Sephy and Callum’s story and focuses on Callie Rose and her love interest Tobey. It also develops the Noughts and Crosses racial divide and incorporates gang culture and drug dealers in the middle of a turf-war. Tobey is a very likable character, despite some of his actions, and this is yet another book that keeps you hooked and reading.

There are lots of new characters introduced in the last instalment in the series, that moves the story on fully into the next generation. Again in this book I was practically screaming at the characters to just talk to each other more, particularly the “will-they-or-won’t-they” scenario between Callie Rose and Tobey. I thought the ending of this book wrapped up the story much better than the end of Checkmate , but I did feel it was just a little rushed and I would have liked a few more chapters to allow the relationships that had developed by the end to be more embedded, perhaps a short section set a few months after the ending would have been good.

Each book in this series tells a unique story in its own right, but they are all complementary and together form a very profound read that is incredibly well-written. I suppose the most disturbing thing about this series is that this sort of thing does happen in real life, even if aspects of it are slightly exaggerated for the purposes of the novel (such as the government using capital punishment, which has of course been abolished for quite some time now in the UK).

Callum and An Eye For An Eye Novellas: Both of these short stories were written for World Book Day celebrations. Callum offers a different point of view for a section of Noughts and Crosses that was originally told by Sephy, and An Eye For An Eye goes into detail on an event that took place between Sephy, Jude, and Minerva that wasn’t covered in as much detail in the original series. Neither of these books are critical to the telling of the Noughts and Crosses series, however they are nice additions to the story, particularly for those who are big fans, like myself.

Overall Series Rating:

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About Rachel

25 responses.

These sound great! I’m definitely going to check the series out 🙂

Thanks for commenting! It’s a great series, I don’t know of anyone who didn’t enjoy them and get sucked into the story!

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I’ve only read the first book in this series but I loved it and the second one is coming up on my tbr shelf! excited! Malorie Blackman is a HBIC with lots of guts!!

The first book is definitely my favourite, but the others are decent reads too. Let me know what you think of it when you’re done!

[…] 9. If you like star-crossed lovers stories like Romeo and Juliet/Titanic then try Noughts and Crosses (series): The Noughts and Crosses series is so much more than a star-crossed lovers story, but that is a very obvious and predominant theme – forbidden love, divided societies and the impact of discrimination on relationships. Noughts and Crosses also has multiple heart-warming relationships and takes a very real look at prejudice in society. A fantastic read that I thoroughly enjoyed, you can read my entire series overview here. […]

Amazing reviews! This is one of my favourites series and I adore it so much, love all the books but 1 is my favourite. I recently met Malorie Blackman, twice in fact, and when she was signing my old copies I asked her about the possibility of another book – because the ending of Double Cross didn’t completely work for me either- and she winked and said watch this space! CAN’T WAIT 🙂 I expect they’ll announce plans for another book after her time as Children’s Laureate.

Thanks! I definitely hold a soft spot for this series, I think mostly because when I first read it as a teen it really stayed with me. I was afraid reading it as an adult would ruin that for me, but thankfully it hasn’t, and the first book is my favourite too. Aww, so lucky to meet her!! When was this?? Do you really think there’ll be another one? While the ending of Double Cross didn’t quite work for me, I hope another book doesn’t dilute the story or ruin it. I imagine it would be about Callie and Tobey and perhaps their kids, making it about another generation??? R x

[…] 1. Sephy and Callum from the Noughts and Crosses series: This series explores friendships and relationships in a society that is divided and plagued with prejudice and discrimination, it makes for a thought-provoking and emotional read (you can read my review of the series here). […]

[…] teen, and I recently purchased the whole series to reread it as an adult (you can read my review here). This is a fantastic series, I have yet to find someone who read it and didn’t enjoy […]

[…] Why I loved it: A dystopian novel that is thought-provoking and emotional to read. A romance with a strong story and excellent world-building. An issues book that looks at society and stereotyping critically. Not to be missed. You can read my series overview here. […]

[…] in this series, including the novellas, to reread them as an adult (you can read my series overview here). Rumour has it there will be a new book released in this series sometime soon, and if that is true […]

[…] This book is so much more than a YA novel with a coming-of-age storyline and teenage romance. I reread this novel (and the rest of the series) this year, and I still found it to be a fantastic read. […]

[…] Deserves More Love: Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman – I thought this might have been classed as a Popular Pick, but I’m hugely surprised by the number of people who haven’t heard of this series, or who haven’t picked it up yet. Read it. Bring Kleenex. //My Review// […]

[…] 10. Callum from Noughts and Crosses: Ugh. Callum. I crushed out on Callum when I first read this book at the grand old age of 14, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I reread it last year and still crushed out on him at the slightly older age of 24. Check out my Noughts and Crosses series overview. […]

[…] 1. Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman – Diverse Element – Race. Noughts & Crosses is one of my favourite book series ever. Not only is Blackman’s writing gorgeous to read, but the novel flips race discrimination on its head and offers a realistic dystopian society, where white people face prejudice. My review of Noughts & Crosses. […]

[…] June was my rant called, What is the POINT of pre-ordering?, and my most popular review was for The Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie […]

I just read the first book ( am I the only one who looks at reviews after they read a book ?) and it was so good… It took me so long to be able to write a review because it’s so complex.

No, I do that too! I don’t like looking at reviews before reading a book, but I’ll check them after as it’s almost like a mini-book-club of sorts. I check how I think and feel compared to others, see what I agree and disagree with, and see if anyone has spotted something that makes me think or feel differently. I think it helps make my thoughts coherent and means I can provide a rounded review. There are a lot of times I’ve said something like “A lot of people felt this was…, but I thought…”. Noughts and Crosses is a complex read, but so, so good! This was a reread for me, and I was binge-reading the whole series, so I did this as more of a series overview than getting in-depth. Link me to your review? R xx

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My review 👆

[…] Ten Books To Read If You Like…, and my most popular review in May was my series overview of Noughts and Crosses. […]

[…] reread of book one and I want to review the whole series when I’m done (update: check out my book review of the Noughts and Crosses series). This book/series has always stood out as being unique and different to me, because it tackles […]

[…] Is the Point of Preordering?, and my most popular review in August was a series review for Noughts and Crosses. My most popular post in September was eBooks vs Paper Books – The Facts, and my most popular […]

[…] in April was eBooks vs Paper Books – The Facts. In March, my most popualr review was for the Noughts and Crosses series, and in April it was for Kiss Me […]

YA Review: Noughts and Crosses

Title: Noughts and Crosses Author: Malorie Blackman Edition: Paperback Rating: 5/5

Wow. I’m all for hard-hitting, challenging stories, but this takes the prize for leaving me breathless and traumatised – and it is brilliantly done. In her introduction, the author describes her ‘desire to tackle the subject of racism head on’ by putting her characters through humiliating situations that she had experienced herself as a black teenager. Personal experience and anger at ‘the artificial divides we always seem to put between ourselves and others’ gives this book a raw, realistic feel, and the clever flipping of the black/white power balance allows racist ideas to be challenged, free from readers’ preexisting assumptions.

The narrative is split between two main characters, with alternating Point of View chapters. Thirteen-year-old Sephy is a Cross – a member of the dark-skinned ruling class – and her fifteen-year-old best friend Callum is a Nought – a member of the pale-skinned underclass. Noughts were once kept as slaves by Crosses, and society is still stacked against its pale-skinned members. Schooling is segregated, and very few Noughts achieve a high level of education, or well-paid jobs. The growing relationship between Sephy and Callum provokes resentment from their families, and from the people around them. The plot makes some shocking twists, while staying true to the characters and the setting, and by the end I was angry, upset, and thoroughly invested in the outcome of the story. It took me a while to fully sympathise with both main characters, but when the plot grabbed me, I couldn’t put the book down.

It is very hard to say anything else without giving away spoilers – and trust me, this is a story you don’t want to spoil. It’s a book that makes the reader question their own invisible prejudices, while following the characters through some tough decisions, and eventually shouting at the words on the page. It is an important story, accessibly told, that will stay with me long after the book goes back on the shelf. Very highly recommended.

Have you read Noughts and Crosses ? What did you think? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads !

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Noughts and Crosses

Name: Noughts and Crosses

Author: Malorie Blackman

Genre: Young Adult, Alternate Reality

Noughts and Crosses is the first book in Malorie Blackman’s alternate reality, young adult series where black people, called Crosses, rule over white people who are called Noughts.

I first read the book back in Year 7 at school but as it had been quite a while I decided to re-read it, especially as the BBC have since made it into a TV series though I haven’t watched the adaptation yet and wanted to give it a re-read.

The book begins with a prologue where we are introduced to the main characters. Persephone Hadley, known as Sephy, is a cross and the daughter of Kamal Hadley, a high ranking politician and Callum McGregor is a white Nought. His mother, Meggie McGregor is employed as a nanny and servant by Sephy’s mother for her and her sister Minerva. However, Sephy and Connor are best friends and so the two play together. When Meggie doesn’t provide an alibi for Persephone’s mother to cover for her affair she is fired.

Three years later and we discover Connor and Sephy have maintained their friendship in secret and Sephy has helped Connor to get into her school, Heathcroft which is Cross-only. However when he arrives for the first day a riot breaks out outside as the Crosses do not want the Nought there. Though Sephy does try to break down the barriers it mostly causes more trouble.

At the same time, Connor’s brother Jude and father Ryan have both joined the Liberation Militia, a violent paramilitary association against Cross supremacy. As events unfold, can Sephy and Connor maintain their friendship in the face of such adversity or will Connor be drawn into the violence that his brother and father partake in?….

Overall this book is simply amazing and timely in light of the Black Lives Matter movement. As a white man reading the novel, it is very thought-provoking to read a book which is a role reversal of race in society as Blackman asks us throughout the book to walk a mile in someone’s shoes and presents to us what many black people experience today.

In Blackman’s foreword, she mentions that quite a few experiences which Callum has she experienced herself, for instance the overzealous way the Cross policeman questions Callum when he is on the train in first class with Sephy, an experience Blackman herself encountered when she was challenged for being in the first-class carriage on the train, or in Heathcroft school where Callum has to sit through a history lesson which has wiped out the achievements of Noughts.

Also the racial slurs the crosses uses for noughts, calling them “blankers” to suggest they have no intelligence.

The book also has lessons about class divide and the barriers we put up between ourselves. As a human race, we all have prejudices as part of our brains way of processing and categorising the world yet these same prejudices are what causes the hate in our world and in the world of Noughts and Crosses. The title of the novel itself shows two distinct groups and the book shows how if anyone tries to break down these divides, for instance when Sephy tries to befriend the Noughts in the canteen it ends up escalating the situation.

The book also has a clear moral message on violence and especially using violence as a form of retaliation to get what you want as in many ways the violence within the novel causes things to escalate further and further before the devastating conclusion.

It is a fantastic book and a great young adult series I would recommend everyone reads. My version of the book did also contain An Eye For An Eye, which is a short story and continuation of the book which I will write about in a separate post (spoilers for Noughts and Crosses!) here .

If you have read this book then I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

The book is available on Amazon here .

Other books in the Noughts and Crosses Series:

An Eye For An Eye (Short Story) Knife Edge Checkmate Double Cross Crossfire Endgame

2 thoughts on “Noughts and Crosses”

I have not heard of this book before, but it sounds amazing!

It is a fantastic YA series which I would definitely recommend.

The series only recently concluded but has been written over 20 years so it does a great job of moving with the times.

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Book Review: Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses #1)

Rating: 4 stars

Sephy and Callum have been friends since early childhood. And that’s as far as it can go. Because theirs is a world full of prejudice, racism, distrust and mounting terrorist violence.

Despite all this, a romance builds between the two friends.

But this is a love that could lead them both into terrible danger…

The summary on the back of Noughts & Crosses doesn’t do it any justice. From the beginning, this book had me hooked, wanting to know how this story would go. It was an emotional rollercoaster that while in the moment didn’t produce any tears from me, it made me have an array of emotions when I was finished.

It tells the tragic story of Sephy and Callum, best friends since childhood who over the years of their lives fall in love with each other. But they can’t be together because of racism and terrorist violence which threatens to tear their lives apart.

I received this book through Blind Date With a Book Club , a website where for the next six months, you get a mystery book based on the genres you’ve chosen. This is the first book of the six I received, and I couldn’t be more pleased with it.

What I love about this book is that it emotionally hooked me into the story. As a reader, this story really pulled me in, made me root for Sephy and Callum to be together despite the many obstacles that stood in their way. I wanted so badly for their love story to work out even though I knew the chances were slim because of how dark this story became.

I also appreciate the honesty in which this story portrays heavy topics such as racism. This book gets seriously dark in the way it shows you as the reader how much racism can affect the world around you. How hatred for someone because of the color of their skin can really cause harm to the people that hatred is turned towards. This book does a spectacular job of showing you as the reader how this hatred can really hurt people, especially those you love. I’m not scared to admit that this dystopia world sometimes frightened me because it felt so real and it wasn’t that long ago that the world we live in acted the way the Crosses do towards the Noughts.

But experiencing that fear helped me because as someone with privilege, I know I’ll never understand what the Noughts went through. Though in this dystopia world, the author turns racism on its head, since Noughts in the story are white people experiencing racism from black people. I thought that was an interesting dynamic because it made me think and I feel like it helped me understand racism better. Especially since Malorie Blackman used a lot of experiences to show how terrible racism can truly be. Before reading this book, I felt like I understood racism, but I truly believe this book really showed me how dark it can get, and that people tend to take it way too far.

I felt like this book really spoke to me too. My partner and I aren’t the typical relationship you expect to see so I feel like I can relate to this story because of it. It made me think about our relationship and made me realize how much I truly appreciate my partner. Our relationship isn’t always easy, but I truly feel like we’re meant to be together despite the obstacles we’ve faced. So, in many ways, I feel like I can relate to Sephy and Callum’s relationship because they both went through some hurdles to be together.

My biggest criticism with Noughts & Crosses is that while I was rooting for Sephy and Callum to be together, there were moments where I didn’t understand why they still cared for each other. Throughout the book, their relationship is put through the ringer. Yet, both Sephy and Callum still end up caring about each other despite the many situations their put in during their romance. Situations that would typically result in one or both people involved wanting to separate from each other. The best example that comes to mind happens close to the end of the story and is the result of the way their romance ends. I won’t go too much into it because I don’t want to spoil this book for anyone, but I really don’t understand why these two characters chose that moment to do that. It was the worst timing on their part and I knew as soon as it happened it would cause the end of their relationship. It also just didn’t make sense to me because the situation they both were in wasn’t an ideal moment for them to give into impulses.

Like I said, I can relate to their relationship, so I do overall understand why they wanted to be together. But there were moments in the story where for their own safety, they shouldn’t have been. Or where they both made rash decisions that they shouldn’t have, which impacted not only them but those closest to them.

Another criticism I had while reading was that while I loved that this story was told from two points of view (Sephy and Callum), there were times I didn’t overall like the writing from their perspectives. I know both these characters are young, so I get that what they said or did sounded childish, but there were times for me when it was a bit too much. I especially noticed this a lot when the story was being told from Sephy’s perspective. Maybe part of that in the story is that Blackman wanted to showcase with Sephy her privilege through the way she acted during certain moments in the story. Either way, it was something I wasn’t too fond of despite liking that this story is told from two different perspectives.

But overall, Noughts & Crosses was a really gripping, emotional read for me to complete and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m also happy that this was the first book I was given with Blind Date With a Book Club and can’t wait to see what book I’ll receive from them next.

4 thoughts on “ Book Review: Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses #1) ”

May 31, 2019 at 9:35 am

I’ve always wanted to read this book but have never gotten round to it, even though it’s in most libraries near me. So thanks for this review – it has encouraged me to get to it sooner! 🙂

Simi ~ simizat.wordpress.com

June 4, 2019 at 6:41 pm

Well, I hope you do take the chance to read it. When you do, please let me know how it goes. 🙂

Like Liked by 1 person

June 27, 2019 at 6:02 am

Will do! I’m sure I’ll love it 🙂

June 11, 2019 at 7:24 am

Great review, Raney. Glad to hear that aspects of the story were relatable. It sounds like a great read.

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Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses) Paperback – International Edition, June 27, 2017

Reading age 12 years and up
Book 1 of 6 Noughts and Crosses
Print length 512 pages
Language English
Dimensions 5.08 x 1.21 x 7.76 inches
Publisher Puffin
Publication date June 27, 2017
ISBN-10 9780141378640
ISBN-13 978-0141378640
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Naughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses, 1)

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About the author, product details.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0141378646
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Puffin (June 27, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780141378640
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141378640
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 1.21 x 7.76 inches
#4,325 in Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance
#159,322 in Children's Books (Books)

About the author

Malorie blackman.

Malorie Blackman is acknowledged as one of today's most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. The novels in her Noughts & Crosses sequence have won several awards, including the FCBG Red House Children's Book Award.

Noughts and Crosses has been dramatised as a 6-part TV series which was first shown on BBC TV in March 2020, as well as dramatised twice as a theatre play and produced as a radio drama for BBC Radio 4.

Malorie has won many other awards for her books. Both Hacker and Thief! won the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 Award - Malorie is the only author to have won this award twice - while Hacker also won the WH Smith Book Award.

Her YA books include Boys Don't Cry, Noble Conflict, Jon For Short and Chasing The Stars - which she describes as her version of Shakespeare's Othello set in space.

Her work has appeared on screen, with Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, being adapted into a BAFTA-winning TV serial. Malorie also co-wrote the Doctor Who episode - Rosa.

Malorie has also written a number of titles for younger readers including Cloud Busting, which won the Smarties Silver Award, The Monster Crisp Guzzler, Robot Girl, Snow Dog, A Dangerous Game and My Friend's A Gris-Kwok. In 2005, Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children's books. In 2008, she was honoured with an OBE for her services to Children's Literature.

Malorie Blackman was the UK Children's Laureate 2013-2015.

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Noughts and Crosses

Malorie blackman, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Best friends Callum and Sephy are at their secret spot on the beach , where they kiss to see what it’s like. Sephy is almost 14 and is thrilled that 15-year-old Callum will be attending her school this year to integrate it. Callum, though, isn’t sure he and Sephy should act like friends at school—he’s a nought and she’s a Cross , and noughts and Crosses don’t mix. That night, Sephy overhears her father, Mr. Hadley , meeting with a nought man and saying that he’s angry “ blankers ” (a terrible slur for noughts) are attending his daughter’s school.

The first day of school is horrible for Sephy and Callum both. A mob outside protests the nought students, and Sephy gets the mob to disperse by screaming that her classmates are acting like “blankers.” Callum is hurt and offended, so Sephy agrees not to use the slur again.

Over the next few weeks, life gets harder for Sephy and Callum. At home, Callum’s m um and dad fight about how to best fight for racial equality, while his brother Jude and sister Lynette (who’s mentally ill and suffers delusions that she’s a Cross) butt heads. Callum also starts to suspect that Dad and Jude are part of the Liberation Militia , an underground resistance group. Meanwhile, Sephy tries to help the noughts at school by sitting with them at lunch, but the school punishes her for this, and three girls viciously beat her up in retaliation. Sephy’s actions offend Callum and make him feel angry and ashamed, and Callum’s lack of enthusiasm makes Sephy feel bad just for being a Cross. She also becomes uncomfortably aware of how racist her culture is, and she fears that her parents will divorce as their fighting escalates.

Callum gets home one day to find Jude and Lynette exchanging blows. To stop all three children from fighting, Dad tells Jude and Callum why Lynette is ill: three years ago, she and her Cross boyfriend were beaten for being in an interracial relationship. One night, Lynette leaves the dinner table to go on a walk. Hours later, police come to the house and deliver the news that Lynette was hit by a bus and killed. They say it was an accident, but Callum discovers a letter from Lynette under his pillow admitting she committed suicide. He vows to keep this secret. At about the same time, Sephy’s mother attempts to commit suicide but survives.

Sephy is the only Cross to attend Lynette’s funeral, but her presence isn’t well-received; Dad and Jude both tell her to leave. In the weeks after the funeral, Callum realizes that Dad and Jude are becoming more involved with the LM. Mother’s drinking escalates, which frightens Sephy—but her sister Minnie says they shouldn’t do anything.

Six months after Lynette dies, Callum and Sephy decide to meet at the mall—but Jude tells Callum very seriously not to go. Suspecting the worst, Callum races for the mall and drags Sephy out—just before a bomb explodes, killing seven people. Enraged when she realizes that Dad and Jude were involved, Mum slaps Dad so hard she breaks her finger. At the hospital, so she can receive treatment, Mum allows the nurse to scan Callum and Jude’s ID cards, which are linked to their fingerprints. That night, to help herself sleep, Sephy tries wine for the first time.

The next week is tense at the McGregor house, as Mum attempts to kick Dad out. But one night, police come to the house and arrest everyone except Jude, who is out. After a full night of interrogations, Mum and Callum learn that the police have identified Jude as the bomber—but also that the police are charging Dad with the crimes. Mum and Callum hire a nought lawyer, Mr. Stanhope , who insists Dad’s case is a lost cause. But when he visits Dad, Mum and Callum learn that the police told Dad that they had Jude in custody, and that they would release him if Dad confessed to the bombing. Dad is enraged when he learns the police don’t have Jude, but there’s no way to take back his confession.

Sephy watches the case unfold on the news from home, and she knows Dad is innocent. Callum is suspended from school for no reason, but he’s somewhat hopeful about Dad’s prospects when an anonymous benefactor—presumably Sephy—pays for one of the best lawyers in the country, Kelani Adams , to represent Dad. But though Dad pleads not guilty to all the charges, and though Kelani mounts an impressive case, the jury finds Dad guilty of all the charges.

One hot afternoon, Mother makes Sephy put on an expensive dress to go to some undisclosed location. Sephy enters Hewmett Prison extremely confused and doesn’t realize she’s at Dad’s execution until guards bring him out to the scaffold. However, just before Dad is killed, the prison governor stays the execution. When Mum and Callum get to see Dad hours later, Dad says he’s done fighting. Sephy is extremely disturbed by the day’s events—and is then confused when she learns Mother paid the McGregors’ legal fees. She goes to bed and cries herself to sleep.

Sephy wakes in the middle of the night to rocks hitting her window—it’s Callum. He climbs up to her bedroom, enraged by all Crosses’ behavior and half-wanting to take it out on Sephy. Instead, though, he lies down with Sephy, and she falls asleep. Callum considers hurting her but kisses her instead. He sneaks out in the morning. Not long after, Dad dies when he’s electrocuted by the prison fence.

Months later, out of the blue, Jude approaches Callum at a burger joint and invites him to join the LM. Feeling he has no other options, Callum agrees. At the same time, Sephy’s parents have finally agreed that she can go away to boarding school—but Sephy writes Callum a letter asking him to run away with her instead. Callum doesn’t read the letter until it’s too late, so he and Sephy part ways for two and a half years. During this time, Callum works his way up the LM ranks, hurting and killing Crosses and losing his humanity in the process. Sephy quits drinking, finds herself at school, and joins a resistance group. She decides to be a lawyer like Kelani Adams when she grows up.

After finishing school, Sephy unwillingly returns home. She’s shocked to find a letter from Callum, inviting her to meet him on the beach. Sephy goes to the beach—but Callum is there with his LM cell (which temporarily includes Jude) to kidnap Sephy and extract a ransom out of Mr. Hadley. The cell takes Sephy to a remote house, where Jude makes Callum prove his loyalty to the LM by tasking Callum with cutting Sephy’s finger, smearing the blood on a shirt, and filming Sephy reading the demands for her father.

The cell is expecting the General of the LM’s second-in-command to visit them at their remote location, but Callum is immediately suspicious of the man, Andrew Dorn . When Andrew asks to see Sephy, Sephy visibly startles at the sight of him. The next day, Andrew, Jude, and three other members of the cell, Morgan , Leila , and Pete , leave to deliver more demands to Mr. Hadley, leaving Callum to guard Sephy.

Alone in the house together, Sephy and Callum have sex, and Sephy instantly bursts into tears afterwards. Jude and Morgan return before Sephy and Callum are fully dressed and while Sephy is still crying. They conclude that Callum raped Sephy, and they share that someone told the police about them: police arrested Leila, Pete is dead, and Andrew is gone. Jude and Callum fight and while they’re distracted, Sephy runs away into the woods. Callum finds her before Jude or Morgan can, and he points her toward safety. Before she leaves, Sephy shares that Andrew is working with Mr. Hadley—Andrew is the man she saw meeting with Mr. Hadley years ago. Sephy gets home safely, and Callum, Morgan, and Jude split up for their safety.

Five weeks after returning home, Sephy discovers she’s pregnant. Though Minnie initially agrees to keep Sephy’s pregnancy a secret, she ultimately tells Mother and Mr. Hadley. Mr. Hadley insists that Sephy get an abortion, but she refuses. Callum learns about Sephy’s pregnancy on the radio a few months later, and he heads home to see her.

Callum and Sephy meet in the Hadleys’ rose garden, but the police ambush them and arrest Callum. Nobody will believe Sephy or Callum that he didn’t rape her, though Sephy begins speaking publicly about not having been raped. Following Callum’s trial, in which he’s found guilty, Mr. Hadley makes a final attempt to manipulate the couple: he tells them both that if Sephy gets an abortion, he won’t let the authorities hang Callum. They reject his manipulation, and Callum screams that he loves Sephy as he’s hanged. Not long after, Sephy gives birth to a baby girl.

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The Crosses – Dark skinned, wealthy, privileged, politicians, police, judges and Sephy. Sephy is the daughter of a rising-through-the-ranks politician, father. Sephy and Callum have been friends from when they were small and Callum’s mum worked for Sephy’s family.

But that was then. Now that Sephy and Callum are older, they are told again and again that Noughts and Crosses don’t mix. Especially now that her father is more and more in the public eye and the media will grab anything to shame him.

Using secret calling and messaging techniques, Sephy and Callum continue their friendship by meeting in secret in their special place. Both are changing, growing, and wondering about their feelings toward each other. Were they still just friends? The most confusing thoughts are about the rising rifts between the Noughts and the Crosses. The Crosses make it almost unbearable for Callum at his new school. Sephy’s family is beginning to fall apart from her father’s aspirations and her mother’s drinking problems, and her feelings of injustice are growing along with Callum’s.

The Noughts are beginning to rebel in more organised ways, with a growing group of protesters hitting back with whatever it takes to bring equality to their lives. But the justice system is made up of 99.9% Crosses and the Noughts know that they are up against a society that will bite back – and it does in the most vicious ways possible.

First published in 2001, I have always wanted to read this novel. Now that I have, I wish I’d read it years ago. It was incredibly easy to get into, and I was taken by the characters quickly and wholeheartedly. Their rising confusion with their upbringing and caustic environments, all as their feelings for each other grow; captured me and kept me reading for hours – wanting to know more. The tension builds steadily to an event that pushes everything over a precipice, forcing decisions on both sides. Gripping.

The first in a series of five novels about UK society being flipped – to show white skinned people on the bottom, and dark skinned people in power. Brave and brilliant.

Author – Malorie Blackman

Age – 15+

(Prejudice, Racism, Society flipped, Friendship, Family, Loyalty, Love, Hatred, School, Multi Award Winner, Alternate UK)

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The Things That Really Matter

Book Review: Noughts and Crosses

‘The higher you climb, the further you have to fall …’

I don’t come to literature for biting social commentary, not really. Sure, I admire the anti-war stance of Catch-22 , but I love that novel because it’s absolutely hilarious. The Hunger Games probably has something interesting to say about class, but I was much more concerned with the character dynamics and the plot. It’s for this reason that I didn’t really enjoy Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power – a book that sees a literal transfer of power from men to women. With that book, if you strip away the concept, there isn’t enough underneath it to make the whole thing worthwhile. Noughts and Crosses occasionally strays into this territory but Malorie Blackman wisely chooses to concentrate on characters and plotting rather than concept – something that is handy as I’m not really sure if this particular concept (society is segregated post slavery but with the white population being the underclass) actually adds much of anything at all…

Callum and Sephy are very different. Callum is slightly older and is often discriminated against because he is a nought (white). His mother has to take a series of difficult and degrading jobs and he is eventually forced out of the almost all black school that he was initially so excited to earn a place at. Sephy is the daughter of a powerful Cross politician and due to her privileged upbringing she is naïve to the true ways of a harsh and unforgiving world. Noughts and Crosses is the story of Callum and Sephy and how their lives intertwine over a number of years.

While I wasn’t fully taken on the concept, the decision to have Callum and Sephy as dual narrators pays off in spades as the reader essentially receives two very different accounts of the same events. This allows Blackman to drive home the differences between the two characters – both in terms of personality and circumstance. The supporting characters are also affecting if a little unoriginal with Callum’s militant brother Jude perhaps being the most compelling.

The other great strength of Noughts and Crosses is the show-stopping ending. It’s rare to find a conclusion so bold and so captivating in the YA genre, but Blackman’s abrupt curtain fall here fits perfectly within the grim world in which the novel takes place.

I enjoyed Noughts and Crosses , perhaps not enough to read the numerous sequels, but enough to recommend it to others. Fans of the YA genre will certainly not be disappointed.

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Noughts + Crosses: Why You Should Watch This Afrofuturist Alternate History Romance

Don't believe the Peacock trailer. Noughts + Crosses is actually pretty good.

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Long before writer Malorie Blackman conceived of the story of the Doctor and her companions meeting civil rights hero Rosa Parks in Doctor Who ’s “Rosa,” she imagined another alternate version of history and racism. Noughts + Crosses , the BBC and Mammoth Screen-produced series based on Blackman’s bestselling U.K. YA book series of the same name, is making its U.S. debut on Peacock Friday, and it’s likely already on many a hardcore Whovian’s radar. However, for the rest of the American viewing public, this may be the first time you’re hearing of Noughts + Crosses . Or not. Last week, Peacock dropped a not-great U.S. trailer for the show, causing some controversy on social media, and alienating some of the audience most likely to watch this show. Here’s why Black viewers and science fiction dystopia fans should consider giving Noughts + Crosses a chance…

What Is Noughts & Crosses?

First published in the UK in 2001, and in the U.S. in 2005, Noughts & Crosses tells the story of a dystopian alternate reality version of the U.K. (here, called Albion). In the Noughts & Crosses universe, people of African descent are called “Crosses” and people of European descent are called “Noughts.” The Crosses control the government and use the legal and economic system to oppress the Noughts. The main character of the novel series is Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza, in the series), a Cross who is in a relationship with Callum McGregor (Jack Rowan), a Nought. Through this relationship, she begins to realize that the society she lives in is hell for those who don’t look like her. The story continues across five books, as the characters fight to end the institutionalized racism in Albion.

As a long time follower of British television and a Carribbean-American wanting more Black representation, Noughts + Crosses first appeared on my radar almost two years ago after the first press release. It is incredibly rare to see adaptations of Black British writers on U.K. TV, and even rarer still to see Black talent both behind and in front of the camera. (Black writers Lydia Adetunji and Nathaniel Price and Black biracial writer Rachel De-lahay worked on the series, though the head writer was originally white writer Toby Whithouse, who ended up leaving before the end of the season because he wasn’t “clicking with the material,” according to Variety .) I quickly found the book series used online and was blown away by the complexity of the narrative. Afterwards, I wished I had been able to read the series as a kid or teenager because I would have found characters who mirrored me and could have helped me as I was struggling with my identity. I watched the U.K. airing of the Noughts + Crosses series online in March, and had an even more visceral reaction to the story after seeing the adaptation bring the characters to life.

Blackman wrote the series at a time when white stories such as the Harry Potter series and other books dominated the YA market, both in the U.K. and in the U.S. With Noughts & Crosses , Millennial and Gen Z Black and POC British kids finally had heroes that looked like themselves. Later books in the series depict the struggle of growing up biracial in a society that refuses to accept your identity. Blackman’s novels outside of the series continued to depict Black kids and teens front and center in U.K. YA fiction. Although recent series The Hunger Games, Divergent , and The Maze Runner made dystopian YA fiction popular, these stories presented societies which were dominated by white European/American cultural aesthetics. Black characters in these stories, such as Rue from The Hunger Games , were often reduced to serving the plot points of white or white-coded characters. And, when the most popular of YA dystopia series got a big-screen adaptation, the few characters who were described as Black or POC in the books were often whitewashed by film casting.

The show’s target audience in the U.K. was the now-adults or teenagers who read the books in school as kids or tweens. However, for whatever reason, the Noughts & Crosses books series never had the same popularity in the U.S., which means Peacock can’t bank on the same nostalgia or existing audience knowledge as the BBC could. Most prospective American audiences, including Black viewers and/or dystopian fiction fans who might like this series, are learning about Noughts + Crosses for the first time through Peacock’s marketing. This is a problem because the recently released Peacock trailer for Noughts + Crosses misrepresents the complexity of this series in some unfortunate ways.

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Breaking Down The Noughts + Crosses Peacock Trailer Reaction

Peacock dropped the the U.S. version of the Noughts + Crosses trailer last week, and it was picked up and promoted on Black media sites like Roc Nation . The promo immediately garnered criticism in a way that the U.K. promo , released earlier this year in the lead up to the series’ U.K. premiere back in March, did not. Although the Peacock trailer uses many of the same clips and stills as the UK trailer does, overall, it presents a much more plot-driven view of Noughts + Crosses , which doesn’t give justice to the series’ complex, Afrofuturist worldbuilding an thematic nuance.

Featuring more upbeat music than the U.K. trailer, and the title card “What if Africa colonized Europe?,” the U.S. trailer invited some to question why everyone was speaking English (instead of a fictional or existing African language). Others challenged the Eurocentric styling of the show . The overly-simplistic “What if Africa colonized Europe?” tagline caused hundreds of potential Black to express their displeasure with the promo , as many people believe African civilizations would not have replicated the cruelty of colonization and chattel slavery . While these critiques are valid and logical, and may be especially heightened concerns for anyone who is unfamiliar with the source material, some criticism actively questioned Blackman’s creative choices in ways that misunderstands her intention, which is to encourage readers and (eventually, with the TV adaptation) viewers to question learned and subconscious racial bias.

Observing the negative reaction on social media over the Peacock trailer, there are parallels to the controversies over Netflix’s Les Mignonnes/Cuties . Both are pieces of visual media representing parts of the global Black Diaspora. Both suffered when U.S. networks created sensationalist promotional material and removed the cultural context necessary to ease questions and concerns from American audiences. Although viewers should definitely hold American studios accountable for distorting the work of Black creatives, at the same time, American audiences also cannot place unfair expectations on Black creatives from the international diaspora to reflect African-American culture in media that is primarily targeted towards representing their community of origin. The Black Diaspora is multi-faceted and global. Some creators choose to adapt their stories to Black American history and culture, others don’t, and that isn’t necessarily an expression of bias or ignorance. We don’t expect U.K. police procedurals on Amazon Prime to reflect American culture; we should view Black-centric genre stories like Noughts + Crosses through the same cross-cultural lens .

Why You Should Give Noughts + Crosses a Chance

From the Peacock trailer, Noughts + Crosses may look like an uninspired and overly simplistic narrative exercise in racial role reversal, but, while this isn’t a perfect series, there is a lot to champion and appreciate about this series. Although the framing of Albion society might make viewers believe all of the Cross characters are villains and all the Noughts heroes, there is much more nuance to the plot. The series’ presentation of power dynamics blends the institutional and the personal. There are Cross characters complicit with the government and others who are trying to carve out their own way in life. While some eventually question their role in society, they never reject their Black culture. On the Nought side, Callum and the other Nought characters are fully fleshed out and defined by more than just their struggle. Their plot points are often used to facilitate discussions about cultural assimilation, micro-aggressions, and police brutality, but there are also events that flesh out character developments on other fronts. Classic YA literature themes, such as friendship, bullying, and family pressure, are just as important here as the plots dealing with radicalization and passive vs. active resistance of oppression.

As the “+” in the show’s title might suggest, Sephy and Callum’s romance is at the heart of the series. Blackman called Noughts + Crosses “my version of Romeo and Juliet,” and most fans talk about how the Sephy/Callum relationship grows and how much they root for them to stay together throughout the series. During the U.K. airing, there were thousands of tweets about how soft and adorable Sephy and Callum are, a characterization that offsets some of the heavier themes in the show. Albion’s world, of course, brings complications that the average high school romance would never have to go through, but their relationship still has romantic escapist elements are so rarely represented on TV, especially in the form of interracial couples.

Why Noughts + Crosses’ Worldbuilding Matters

At a time when Black audiences are demanding more cultural visibility across media—and the popularity of Afrofuturist media (e.g. stories that explore the intersection of African diaspora culture with technology) continues to grow—the Noughts + Crosses series breaks genre conventions by presenting a distinctly Afrofuturist dystopian society on mainstream television. Previous Afrofuturist works are often designed to create a utopian alternate reality where Black culture is presented in a prideful and optimistic fashion. Because of this, some may interpret an Afrofuturist dystopia as an insult to Black culture, but the point of science and dystopian fiction is to build new worlds while holding up a mirror to our own. Albion isn’t dystopian because of African-inspired culture; it is dystopian because of the government’s failure to treat all of its citizens equally.

The world of Albion is at the heart of the mostly positive U.K. reviews for Noughts + Crosses . The series makes a conscious change from the books by using a more deliberate Afrofuturist approach to scenery and design. Albion in the books was described like modern London and surrounding areas. Blackman said in an interview for the BBC about these changes: “The celebration of African culture in myriad forms gives a different sensibility to what has been on TV before.” Noughts & Crosses was filmed in South Africa, and several cast members are from the country. One of the directors Koby Adom is also Black which is exceedingly rare for UK TV productions. Traditional fashions from the Xhosa and other tribal groups are melded to create an Afrofuturist landscape where the audience can feel in awe of the scenery. Braids, afros, dreads, and colorful headwraps complement dresses and suits adapted from various African cultures.

Past Afrofuturism, the airing of Noughts + Crosses on the BBC spotlighted Black British music, fashions, and experience were front and center on a network that is, more often than not, overwhelmingly white and where Black actors who are visible are often reduced to token roles that strip them of their cultural identities. (Rapper and activist Stormzy, whose music is featured in Doctor Who ’s “Arachnids in the U.K.,” even appears as a guest star in one of the later episodes.) This visibility no doubt contributed to the success of the program in the UK.

In July, the BBC announced after UK Black Lives Matter protests a pledge to spend £100 million ($132 million) on racially diverse programming. Noughts + Crosses which completed filming in 2019 is frequently cited in the press as an example for future U.K., which is one of the reasons Black British fans of the series (as well as international fans) are celebrating the show’s release in America : success here would bolster the chances of BBC greenlighting the adaptation of the second book in Blackman’s series, Knife Edge . In an effort to support the show, some U.K. fans e v en posted explainers to address the Peacock trailer controversy .

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Fans are understandably nervous that the U.S. trailer will keep American audiences, who already have a lot to watch on many different platforms, from giving the show a fair shot. As U.S. networks and streaming services are increasingly using U.K. shows to fill programming gaps in every genre, the success of Noughts + Crosses has the potential to influence future license deals for producing racially diverse and cutting edge television. And, as Blackman put it in an interview for the BBC . “What I would like to see are more comedies, thrillers, mysteries, love stories and whodunits that feature black characters in starring roles. There is room for everyone.”

Most Americans, potentially aside from Doctor Who fans and a few Anglophiles such as myself, have no knowledge of Noughts & Crosses , or of Malorie Blackman. If Americans gave Noughts & Crosses a chance, they’re not only in for a dramatic, romantic ride, but are hopefully helping to pave the way for more Black creatives to tell fictional stories inspired by the Black diaspora on both U.K. and U.S. screens.

Amanda-Rae Prescott

Amanda-Rae Prescott is a long time Outlander fan, period drama enthusiast and cosplayer. Her previous season Outlander commentary can be found at Blacklanderz and Nerdeek Life. When she's not…

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Noughts & Crosses (Noughts & Crosses, #1) by Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman. Two young people are forced to make a stand in this thought-provoking look at racism and prejudice in an alternate society. Sephy is a Cross -- a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought -- a "colourless" member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early ...
Review: Noughts and Crosses
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman is certainly one of many books from the hundred-strong list that I wouldn't have read were it not for my challenge, and, like many others that were voted as one of the nations best loved books, it opened my eyes to a wider sphere of literature. It was while I was perusing the shelves of my local ...
Book Review: Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
This review focuses on a re-reading of Malorie Blackman's brilliant Noughts and Crosses , a book that I haven't read since school. With a fresh look, I am able to see the fundamental messages of this book stronger and the quality of the narrative and writing style really helps to bring out those messages. I first read this book in my ...
Book Review
Noughts and Crosses is a dystopian YA novel set in a world where the balance of power has switched. Instead of living in a world where white people once claimed dominance over black people, society is being controlled by black people. Referred to as Crosses, black people hold all of the seats of power and have clear superiority over white ...
Book Review: Noughts and Crosses (Series)
5/5. Knife Edge Synopsis: Sephy is a Cross - part of the ruling elite in a world where the pale-skinned Noughts are inferior. Jude is a Nought - and consumed with bitter hatred for Sephy, whom he blames for the tragedies his family has suffered. Now Jude's life rests on a Knife Edge…and Sephy has the power to change everything.
Noughts and Crosses
The world is split into two groups, the white noughts and the black crosses. The crosses are 'superior' to the noughts and this is shown continuously throughout the book, using capital for Crosses but not for noughts. 01 Sep 2021. Noughts and Crosses certainly has a gripping storyline, and explores ideas of race and class in a fresh and ...
YA Review: Noughts and Crosses
Title: Noughts and Crosses. Author: Malorie Blackman. Edition: Paperback. Rating: 5/5. Wow. I'm all for hard-hitting, challenging stories, but this takes the prize for leaving me breathless and traumatised - and it is brilliantly done. In her introduction, the author describes her 'desire to tackle the subject of racism head on' by ...
Noughts and Crosses by Malerie Blackman
Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses book is as fresh and powerful today as it has ever before - and, given the current societal tendency towards increased binary division, even more so. In this ground-breaking novel, she unconventionally divided the population in two: the white Noughts are second-class citizens, and the black Crosses are ...
Noughts and Crosses
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. It's set in a society where it's a reverse South Africa and the blacks are quite dominant and the white people are slaves, and then you've got these star-crossed lovers, a black girl and a white boy…
Noughts and Crosses Study Guide
Noughts & Crosses is the first in an eight-book series that continues Sephy's story of raising her daughter and then shifts to follow her daughter and other characters in future generations. It also includes three novellas that offer more backstory into characters from the first novel. In the way that the novel explores how people—specifically young people—become radicalized, Noughts ...
"Noughts & Crosses" Book Review
"Noughts & Crosses," penned by the celebrated British author Malorie Blackman, is more than just a novel; it's a reflection, a mirror held up to our ... NATALIA'S BOOKHOUSE "Noughts & Crosses" Book Review. February 12, 2023 "Neverwhere" Comprehensive Book Review ...
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman Book Review
Noughts and Crosses is the first book in Malorie Blackman's alternate reality, young adult series where black people, called Crosses, rule over white people who are called Noughts.. I first read the book back in Year 7 at school but as it had been quite a while I decided to re-read it, especially as the BBC have since made it into a TV series though I haven't watched the adaptation yet and ...
Book Review: Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses #1)
Book Review: Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses #1) Rating: 4 stars. Sephy and Callum have been friends since early childhood. And that's as far as it can go. ... The summary on the back of Noughts & Crosses doesn't do it any justice. From the beginning, this book had me hooked, wanting to know how this story would go. It was an ...
Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses)
Amazon.com: Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses): 9780141378640: Blackman, Malorie: Books ... The Amazon Book Review Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 .
Noughts & Crosses (novel series)
Noughts & Crosses is a series of young adult novels by British author Malorie Blackman, with six novels and three novellas.The series is speculative fiction describing an alternative history.The series takes place in an alternative 21st-century Britain. At the time of the series, slavery had been abolished for some time, but segregation, similar to the Jim Crow Laws, continues to operate to ...
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman Plot Summary
Noughts and Crosses Summary. Best friends Callum and Sephy are at their secret spot on the beach, where they kiss to see what it's like. Sephy is almost 14 and is thrilled that 15-year-old Callum will be attending her school this year to integrate it. Callum, though, isn't sure he and Sephy should act like friends at school—he's a ...
Noughts and Crosses
The Noughts are beginning to rebel in more organised ways, with a growing group of protesters hitting back with whatever it takes to bring equality to their lives. But the justice system is made up of 99.9% Crosses and the Noughts know that they are up against a society that will bite back - and it does in the most vicious ways possible.
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Noughts & Crosses is a story about love. The relationship between Callum and Sephy is doomed from the start because the racist society in which they live forces them apart. However, by the end of ...
Book Review: Noughts and Crosses
The other great strength of Noughts and Crosses is the show-stopping ending. It's rare to find a conclusion so bold and so captivating in the YA genre, but Blackman's abrupt curtain fall here fits perfectly within the grim world in which the novel takes place. I enjoyed Noughts and Crosses, perhaps not enough to read the numerous sequels ...
Noughts + Crosses: Why You Should Watch This Afrofuturist Alternate
The Crosses control the government and use the legal and economic system to oppress the Noughts. The main character of the novel series is Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza, in the series), a Cross who ...

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Noughts & Crosses (Noughts and Crosses) Paperback – International Edition, June 27, 2017

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