"Love doesn't exist. Friendship doesn't exist - not between a nought and a Cross. There's no such thing." (Callum McGregor)
The concept of this book is awesome! Yep, that's the first thing that I need to talk about... This concept seriously appealed to my History student mind in the most amazing way. Noughts and Crosses is a novel that imagines a world of reverse racism. It's a world where the Crosses, who are black, are superior and reign supreme and the noughts, who are white, are inferior and discriminated against. This is the backdrop that provides many complications towards the two main characters and friends, Persephony Hadley, who's a Cross and Callum McGregor, who's a nought. There's a group of noughts known as the Liberation Militia (L.M) which uses violence and terrorism, the different groups treat each other with disrespect and uses discriminatory names for each other and the propaganda that was used to further the superiority of the Crosses made me sick inside.
Persephony (Sephy) and Callum are friends from a young age and this book deals with their relationship. The issues in their friendship occur due to the fact that there is tension and animosity between the two groups, with not many good reason. Due to their environment and circumstances, they can't help but feel resentment towards each other when horrid incidents involving noughts and Crosses start to indirectly affect their lives. I found Callum and Sephy's resentment, pain and their need for each others friendship real and easy to understand. Unfortunately, I felt contradictory emotions when their friendship turned into a sort of melodramatic romance. I always saw Callum and Sephy as best friends and nothing more. I expected Blackman to create a romance to further show the issues of the society that she created, but, I wasn't fully invested in their feelings and emotions afterwards.
This means that I felt nothing much when the novel ended. I've never cried through any television show or book and when if that happens, that book would be something seriously special. After reading this novel, I knew that the ending wouldn't make me cry, but I expected to feel more than with I did. I started and ended Noughts and Crosses with the same type of emotion. I honestly feel it was due to the fact that the ending felt too melodramatic.
Every action has a consequence and this book certainly proves it. Each character has a set of challenges that they need to face, some more than other (i.e. Meggie McGregor) and a warning for all is that there are no happy endings. This book is realistic, until the end, where it becomes melodramatic... However, it doesn't shy away from the issues of racism and prejudice which still exists today's world.
Noughts and Crosses doesn't have much to do with Tic Tac Toe, but has a concept that I will always remember and treat as a warning.