Kelly McFarland
Malorie Blackman has released the long awaited new novel in her critically acclaimed and best selling Noughts and Crosses series, Crossfire.
Crossfire is set thirty four years after the first novel Noughts and Crosses, an alternative history in which a massively segregated society exists with the Crosses as the ruling class that controls the Noughts . Crossfire is the fifth novel in the series follows the story of Calum and Sephy’s families.
The opening of ‘Crossfire’ reflects how society has changed significantly though there are still tensions especially with the rise of a white supremacy movement Nought Forever. It starts about 18 years after the previous book, Double Cross, and introduces some new characters, Troy and Libby, students who both want to be head student at their school and have an intense rivalry despite being friends, when they were younger. Through a handy family tree at the start of the book we know that Troy is the son of Sephy and the half brother of Callie-Rose and as the book progresses we find out just who Libby’s dad is.
Crossfire while focused on the new generation of characters, and a political climate that has progressed from where it started it Noughts & Crosses. The story is exciting and gripping, laced with the undercurrents of racism, prejudice and political shenanigans feel as relevant today as they did 18 years ago.
While we learn about the new generation we also find out what has happened to characters we’d grown to love in previous books, Sephy has her own secrets, Tobey and Callie-Rose are trying to figure out their complicated relationship and all this feeds in to Troy and Libby’s story-line.
The only thing we didn’t like was the book ended on a cliff hanger…. while we are excited at the prospect of sixth book we can’t help but feel Malorie should have just written one huge book for us to devour.
Let us know your thoughts on Crossfire at @Fuzzable!
