Double Cross: Book 4 (Noughts And Crosses)

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It tales on tough topics like knife crime, drug addiction etc. which I think is important but the execution was terrible. Mild spoiler here but the drug addiction plotline was so poorly done and barely touched on, I didn’t feel any emotion at all it felt so shallow. I also don’t believe a teenage boy could’ve outsmarted several gangs but okay cool I guess he did. Not my fave of the series, maybe bc there was no sephy POV. Callie rose isn't my favorite, but I might have liked it a bit more if we got more from her in this book. It was mostly Tobey. Well, this is a hard one to review. Partly because I feel that this book is good and partly because I feel that being part of the ‘Noughts and Crosses’ series ruins it. I mean ruins because it didn’t have to be, this book could have stood up by itself and been counted. It didn’t need to be tagged on to a series, it’s so relevant to the youth of today and it hits hard. Putting it in an alternative reality is like taking something that’s meant to cause damage and wrapping it in bubble wrap. It needed to feel like it happens in our society for the simple reason that IT DOES. The premise is good, I mean once I’d got into the story I adored what was happening. It wasn’t a slow burner and once Tobey was drawn into the gangs I was hooked! The writing is perfect, it paints the scenes so well without adding words that don’t need to be there. I genuinely liked the story. One of Malorie’s best ideas! (That I’ve read anyway!) The plot wasn't bad, there are so many different sociological aspects that could be examined in the context of this series, but it was quite disjointed compared to the clear lineal structure between the first three novels.

The ‘Noughts & Crosses’ series provides us with an explicit flip and twist on both the history and current political and cultural demographic of British society – where racial politics is turned on its head and power structures are completely reversed.Just like the other books in this series it’s easy to read and I flew through it. Something about this story line just keeps me reading. This book follows a character who is completely irrelevant in the rest of the books and his story was very uninteresting and didn't leave me with anything. Callie Rose knows all about the danger of saying 'yes'. She knows about terrible mistakes, and violence and revenge, and the fierce divide between Noughts and Crosses. Although the last 2 books to this series probably aren't my favourites, I feel that the conclusion to them was everything I wanted and definitely made me realise I was more connected to the characters than I thought.

The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be' STORMZY To the narrator's alarm, Dan suggests he arms himself with a knife and the ensuing dialogue highlights escalation in weapon-carrying. The extract ends with an open-ended situation ideal for classroom speculation.The characters had no distinct personalities at all, Sephy and Meggie in particular just turned indistinguishable, Callie is just Sephy 2.0 and Tobey is just another Callum. It’s so disappointing and completely severs any connection I could’ve had with them. The way they talked to each other was bizarre still, for example Callies grandmother referring to Callies uncle as ‘my son’ instead of ‘your uncle’ and everyone constantly calling either other by their full name? Just felt so off to me.

Tobey wants a better life - for him and for Callie Rose. He wants nothing to do with the violent gangs that rule the world he lives in. But when he's offered the chance to earn some extra money, how much could it hurt to just this once say 'yes'? If this had been a stand alone novel I'd have given it four stars. I'm taking away a star because it's an unnecessary part of the series. Full review in the next few days. Most of it is written through the eyes of Tobey and although we do get to hear Callie Rose at the very beginning and then at the end, it is brief. Sadly, we never hear from Sephy, which was a great disappointment. She was the original character and it would have been nice to find out how her life was turning out and if she was happy. I liked Tobey's character, but I didn't care about him as much as I had Sephy and Callum. There is also no alternating voices with each chapter, which I thought was a shame as the format had worked so well in the previous books. On the whole I'm glad I read it, and it wasn't a bad experience, more of a passive one as I relived previous times.This review assumes that you have read all the previous books in the series, and thus will contain spoilers with regard to those stories.