The 305 Greatest Books - #196: Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Naughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

This was an interesting read. It is one of the few YA (Young Adult) books on my list and being released in 2001, it is one of the most recent books to be on any of the lists (since I compiled my lists in ~2005). And being on the BBC's The Big Read, which was a search in April of 2003 for the "nation's best-loved novel", it likely made the list because it is a well written story that was prominent at the time. That doesn't mean it wasn't good though, and that it told a remarkable story. The premise of the story is a "what-if" universe where the races between white and Black people where flip-flopped in society. Where white skinned people are the fairly recently unslaved people and black skinned people are the ruling class of society. In this society the Black members are the Crosses, in references to Christianity, and the white members are Naughts, i.e. zeroes or o's, like a tic-tac-toe board. And while it felt like Blackman just flip-flopped the stereotypes of each society at first, the story takes on some interesting and well thought out "what-if" scenarios. Despite being what could be considered a Romeo and Juliet-esk story set within this universe and a YA novel on top of that, there were far more instances of outright suicide than I was anticipating, including teen suicide. There were also instances of terrorization, bombings, and just plain ole murder. It was an intense book. Overall the book is a fast read and it is the first book in a long time for me that had me coming back for more, reading more than my allotted amount each night because I had to find out what happened next. I loved it and I'm curious to see where the story goes from here (because there are several more in the series, although this book wraps up nicely at the end). I'm adding it to my recommended book list.