Malorie Blackman

Rose has a Cross mother and a Nought father in a society where the pale-skinned Noughts are treated as inferiors and those with dual heritage face a lifelong battle against prejudice. As she discovers the truth about her parentage, she finds herself drawn into a dangerous game of high stakes.

Checkmate

Can the future ever erase the past? Rose has a Cross mother and a nought father in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors and those with dual heritage face a life-long battle against deep-rooted prejudices. Sephy, her mother, has told Rose virtually nothing about her father, but as Rose grows into a young adult, she unexpectedly discovers the truth about her parentage and becomes determined to find out more. But her father's family has a complicated history - one tied up with the fight for equality for the nought population. And as Rose takes her first steps away from Sephy and into this world, she finds herself drawn inexorably into more and more danger. Suddenly it's a game of very high stakes that can only have one winner . . . The powerful third story in the Noughts & Crosses sequence.

Marloes

Joy KBA

I liked it very much, getting to see Callie Rose grow up and how she found out about the LM. I also loved the way Malorie Blackman changed her way of telling the story, alternating between the use of flashbacks & flash forwards. Can’t wait to start the 4th instalment!

Ashley 

I love this series so much and was so looking forward to this book. I found it a little lacking in comparison to the other books in the series but it is definitely still worth a read 👍

Tania Kalsi

OMG. This is definitely my most favourite book in the ‘Noughts and Crosses’ series - and that’s a very big claim since I absolutely ADORED every book in the series so far. Malorie Blackman is probably the most talented writer I’ve ever read - all her books are extremely suspenseful and exciting that you literally are unable to put this book down. I cried a gazillion times in this book: basically whenever the word ‘Callum’ was mentioned. I have built such a strong connection to Callum and Sephy in the two books before this, that I cried so hard when Callum sent Sephy his other letter - it was so emotional and romantic and I felt it. 


(Some spoilers:)
I love how this book skips from the present to the past, so we get a full picture of what happened from where we were left off in the last book. It also makes the novel more suspenseful as we are dying to know how Callie and Sephy have ended up in the cellar and all the background information. Callie Rose is an adorable 7 year old; It makes me so emotional whenever she keeps talking to Callum like he’s right next to her (and how cute she is to be tricked by Tobey). However, Callie should really listen to Sephy more when she became a teenager; she is just a young mum who has experienced so much difficulty in her life and she’s only trying to help Callie! Callie instead listens to the one person I loathe in this book - Jude, who makes Callie hate Callum. Which is so sad. I was so terrified when Callie was lured into committing suicide and putting off a bomb, but I was even more frightened when Nana Jasmine (who was so nice) and Jude actually killed themselves. Either way, I felt so warm inside with the ending, when Callie learnt to love Callum, who I also feel like I love. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Kenzie Carlin

Jess (the og)

Sam Lane

'Another emotional hard-hitter' Sunday Times My name is Callie Rose. My mum is a Cross – one of the so-called ruling elite. My dad was a Nought. My dad was a murderer. My dad was a terrorist. These facts are the only things that are mine and real. So I don’t mind so much that I’m leaving it all behind. There’s nothing here worth holding onto. Sixteen years have passed since Sephy Hadley first met Callum McGregor. For Callie Rose, growing up mixed race in a world where bitter prejudice divides Noughts and Crosses has meant she’s an outsider wherever she turns. Enter Jude McGregor. Jude teaches Callie about her real family history, and the more she learns the more he persuades her where her loyalties really lie. But soon Callie is caught in a trap she can’t get out of – one which will have deadly consequences. Voted as one of the UK's best-loved books, Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series is a seminal piece of YA fiction; a true modern classic. ‘Dramatic, intensely moving’ Carousel

Checkmate

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