“Oh,” I said to myself, “it sounds like a 13 year old wrote this because Sephy is thirteen! It’s meant to highlight how young and immature they are!” And I think I was partially right, because as the characters age, the writing does improve– slightly.

The worst crime you could commit against your characters.Īnd second– the writing is atrocious. A forced romance, used only to make the plot work. The romance was sloppy, the characters annoying at best, and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. That’s what I would call their relationship. Hell, the story would have been ONE HUNDRED times better if they grew apart and ended up hating each other and then were thrust back together when the plot required it. I grew apart from my friends, and by all means, they really should have grown apart too. But but but they were childhood friends! Yeah and big deal. They didn’t get along, they had nothing in common, they didn’t understand each other at all. If I wasn’t told repeatedly that they’re best friends and that they love each other, I never would have known. But when I read it, all I felt was bored.įirst off, the relationship between Callum and Sephy. You’re supposed to read this book and be furious about that happens to Callum so that you can take a step back and realize that the prejudice in this book exists in your world too, albeit in a different form. It’s making people– white people– the tragic past and present of black people, and the discrimination they face on a daily basis. Anyone who claims this book is “original” clearly doesn’t live in the same universe I do.

Naughts and crosses malorie blackman