A long time ago I read the first three books in the Noughts and Crosses series by Blackman, and really, really enjoyed them. But for some reason I never got to number 4, Double Cross. I think if I did then this book would mean a lot more to me because I’m pretty sure it is almost a deleted scene from that book.
But as a standalone it does work, pretty much. You get the idea behind the alternative British society pretty quickly and know who the Noughts and the Crosses are, societally speaking.
Character-wise this is a brief look at one incident, so you aren’t going to get to know any character really well from it. But at the same time you get more than enough to get at the basics of who they are and how maybe they’re lives have been.
I have to say I’d recommend reading all the books in the series, I’ll have to see if I can get hold of book four, and then read book five, Crossfire when it is published in the summer.
It’s a short book, it was published as one of the UK’s World Book Day reads, so if you want to give it a go it won’t take you long to finish it. As I say, it isn’t really a great book if you haven’t read anything in the series, but it does give you an indication of Blackman’s style and it is enough to keep your interest.
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