Read: "Naughts and Crosses" by Malorie Blackman

Read: Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, 2001, 1416900160.

I read this for the Lake Mills High School Cafe Library book club and then missed the meeting anyway. The book was okay. Nothing new and nothing too compelling to read; but, I did finish it.

Callum and Sephy are, respectively, Naughts and Crosses. Meaning Callum is white and Sephy is black. Their society is very strictly divided with the Naughts suffering under a very strict legal and social code of racial segregation. The separation is like an amalgamation of Jim Crow and apartheid. Callum and Sephy had grown up as children when Callum's mother worked for Sephy's family. Callum's and Sephy's mothers were close friends as well until Callum's mother was suddenly fired.

Callum and Spehy continue as friends and regularly meet in private at the seaside by Stephy's home. Callum, under a new government policy, is accepted into Sephy's high school along with 4 or5 other Naughts. Trouble ensues on the first day - think of the U of MS riot, Little Rock, Boston busing - and the pressure gets worse as time goes on. Callum and Stephy start romantic relationship. No way in hell the relationship can continue under the circumstances.

Callum's father and brother are linked to a terrorist-rebel group of Naughts. Callum's father is tried and convicted for a shopping mall bombing and dies in escape attempt. Callum is kicked out of school. Sephy goes to boarding school. Callum joins the rebel group. Three years later Callum is instructed by the rebels to kidnap Sephy for ransom from her wealthy father who is a hard-core Cross in a prominent government office. Callum and Sephy screw while she is captive. Callum is caught by cops. Callum is tried. Callum is killed. Sephy gives birth to their child.

The story was not all that thrilling. It was told in the first person by Stephy and Callum and the frequent changes in perspective were well done and made for a neat way to tell the story. The HS Librarian's complaint was that Callum seemed exactly like a girl character. I was not too found of the guy and her comment made me recognize why. Callum just never rang that true.

I like that Callum died in the end. That kept with Blackman's facts of the society and it's legal apparatus. The story has several mentions about the country getting pressure from other countries to improve it's treatment of the Naughts. Blackman could have taken the happy ending route with Callum and Stephy two fleeing overseas.

Teenagers making out = creeping me out.