Noughts and Crosses, a world divided in two.

There are the dark skinned Crosses, who are the most powerful rulers in this story and the light skinned Noughts, who are the second class citizens and slaves of the Crosses. It is a world where it is all switched around; dark skinned people turn out to be the privileged ones, with loads of money and perfect lives, while white people are treated wrongly and unfairly.

Sephy is a Cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country, Kamal Hadley. Callum is a Nought, son of Maggie McGregor, Sephy’s nanny. The two of them grow up together and are best friends, but soon their friendship turns into something deeper. They cannot bear to be apart, until one day a terrorist group called the Liberation Militia (mostly made up of noughts who are fighting for their rights) explodes a bomb in a shopping mall. The bomb not only destroys the place, but destroys the lives Sephy and Callum could have had together. A series of events leads them into thinking that they are not meant to be together because the world is at war with each other, and leads them into doing things they will soon regret.

Noughts and Crosses is a very powerful book; it is disturbing, heartbreaking and frightening, but at the same time it’s about love and friendship.  It’s about racism and discrimination, it teaches us about how foolish we are and have been, wrecking lives by judging one another because of skin colour.

I highly recommend it to everyone. It is an enjoyable read – one that you will always remember – and hopefully change your life.