Knife Edge: Book 2

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about a child who is transported into the future after being accused of a crime she did not commit; and Pig-Heart Boy (1997), the diary of 13-year-old Cameron, who needs a heart transplant. At the start of 'Knife Edge', however, she is in a charity hospital where she had given birth to a baby girl and finds that, far from hating the child, she is now bonding to her with a fierce and protective love. Further, when Sephy and the band visit the Cross bar and Sephy is allowed to go through the front door but the Nought members of the band have to go through the back it also makes a comment on racial segregation in society. She knows about terrible mistakes, and violence and family feuds, and the fierce divide between Noughts and Crosses. The fundamental premise underlying this series is a vitally important one – what Malorie Blackman seems to have set out to do, is to robustly challenge (what may be many) readers’ current perceptions, presumptions, assumptions and views on race and (British) society.

I really liked her narrative because without it, I don’t think we would be able to truly understand the destructive nature of Sephy’s behaviour.Second Book Syndrome) in my last review (Check out my review on Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi to find out the meaning). They sing together and Jaxon offers her a singing part in their band with the aim of getting more Cross gigs but they face a lot of prejudice. Children’s fiction has long been the repository of great satirical writing, but Blackman’s [series] takes it into levels unseen since Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Fear and hate, not a good mix, but it shows how Jude's life balances like a knife edge - one wrong move in either direction and the effects would be bad!

Jude's announcement at the end was quite clever of him putting Sephy in it as well as Andrew Dorn while clearing his name. Sephy felt completely different in this story and I guess that aligns with all she'd been through in book one. Whilst, I can appreciate that the beauty industry has come a long way, this book based on the structural racism within our current society, shows just how much race plays a part in our everyday life. In this world, black people are ‘Crosses’ (always with a capital ‘C’) and whites are ‘noughts’ (with a lower-case ‘n’). The first quarter of the book, Persephone's point of view is in second person, addressing her daughter, which I found really interesting.After running away, Lydia is knocked unconscious in an accident, but wakes to discover that she has been propelled into the future. Whilst ‘Double Cross’ is well-written and ostensibly does add value to the series, it does feel ultimately a little superfluous and does not provide the same impact as the preceding three novels. As I mentioned earlier, Noughts and Crosses is its own complete story and therefore this book takes the story to completely new heights. was sparked off by something that happened to me when I was a child, being accused of something that I didn’t do.

Something that struck me while writing this review is that this book (and the first) are devoid of any intelligent characters. Particularly, ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ will explain what I mean by race being integrated into society.Her scripts for television include several episodes of Byker Grove, Whizziwig and Pig-Heart Boy, and she has also written original dramas for CITV and BBC Education. But when he's offered the chance to earn some extra money, how much could it hurt to just this once say 'yes'? She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. I’m annoyed that there were more than two points of view though, I just feel it’s unnecessary and adds nothing at all to the story.

Although, we know how volatile and angry Jude was from book one, here we got to see it up close and personal. It really showed how the characters thought in their own personal ways and because of how it felt different, it made them even more believable.

There are a few places like that where there is unnecessary info dumping though fortunately not in big chunks, just sentences thrown in which seem totally unnecessary.