Six brilliant series - says Little M

Little M's thoughts on books she hasn't reviewed but read in 2012 that were part of a series.....

The Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins

3 books: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay (all read)

A fantastic dystopian trilogy about a world that makes their children fight for their life in a game. Fantastic books.

The Medusa Project series  - Sophie McKenzie

6 books, all read. A wonderful sci-fi series about teens with supernatural powers.

The Medusa Project #1: The Set Up -Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project #2: Hostage - Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project #3: The Rescue -Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project #4: Hunted - Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project #5: Double-Cross -Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project #6: Hit Squad -Sophie McKenzie (not pictured)

Missing series - Sophie McKenzie

3 books - Girl, Missing; Sister, Missing; and Missing Me (all read)

Brilliant series of a family whose kids keep on going missing. Brilliant series though Sister, Missing was not my favourite.

World's End series - Monica Dickens

Have read the first two books: The House at World’s End and Summer at World’s End.

A brilliant series, set many years back but a house full of rescued animals with just kids living there. Very good books!

Slated - Teri Terry

Loving the books so far (Slated is the first book and Fractured is the second book in a planned trilogy)! It is about a girl who has had her memory wiped clean, like a slate.

Insignia - SJ Kincaid (not pictured)

Sci-fi novel about a boy who is fighting in WWlll. Brilliant series - This is the first and Vortex is the second in a planned trilogy.

Knife Edge - M's Review

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is the second novel in Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses sequence. If you haven’t read Noughts & Crosses, you can read my review here. Please note that there are spoilers for Noughts & Crosses from the third paragraph onwards in this review of Knife Edge.

Billed by some as a dystopian novel, Knife Edge doesn’t read like one for me. For me, it's much more like a gritty contemporary crime novel for teens. The only apparent aspect that is speculative in Knife Edge is that domination by race is reversed – so blacks (Crosses) over whites (noughts).  While this was interesting in the first book, Noughts & Crosses, it feels a bit repetitive in Knife Edge.

 

SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!! DO NOT read on if you wish to avoid small spoilers for the first novel, Noughts & Crosses.

Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses #2) by Malorie Blackman

 

Knife Edge is a story about loneliness, revenge, discrimination and motherhood. It continues Sephy’s story. In Noughts & Crosses, her story ran parallel to Callum’s story. In Knife Edge, her story runs parallel to Jude’s, Callum’s brother. Sephy is now a single teen mother estranged from her powerful Cross family, and she has to get on with her life.  Jude, is a terrorist in hiding, he wants revenge – and he’s desperately lonely.  

Like Noughts & Crosses, Knife Edge is written from the different characters' points of view. But in the last sections of the novel, the story is also told from Jasmine and Meggie’s perspective, Sephy and Callum’s mothers respectively. The novel is also divided up into sections which are titled by colours that make up a rainbow. Rainbows and mothers are interweaved themes that run through Knife Edge and these could make very interesting discussions for reading groups.

Malorie Blackman describes Noughts & Crosses as being her novel about love while Knife Edge is her novel about hate. I don’t see it this way. Yes, Noughts & Crosses might be about love but that is not what stood out for me most. And yes, there is definitely hate in Knife Edge. A lot of hate and some of the characters are truly hateful. But I would describe Knife Edge as being the book about mothers and how motherhood affects their lives and the choices they make: Jasmine, Meggie and now Sephy too (remember, she’s a teenage mum).

Aspects of Knife Edge's plot and particularly the storytelling from the mothers' perspectives reminded me of Sindiwe Magona's novel, Mother To Mother, which told the fictionalised account of a high-profile racial killing in Cape Town.

The ending to Noughts & Crosses shocked me, and if shock factor is what you’re after, Knife Edge will deliver. There are plenty of shockers in it. I didn’t like that but, of course, that might be the point of the Noughts & Crosses sequence – racial discrimination is not a happy life. Nor is any form of discrimination. More and more, I’ve started to notice that the treatment of women by men in the Noughts & Crosses sequence so far is vile. another dimension to explore in reading groups...

On a more positive note, the Noughts and Cross characters alike make some awful choices that impact badly on themselves and others around them. Blackman doesn’t impose her views on the story and it’s left up to the reader to deal with the moral issues that form the backbone of the sequence. But for me, Knife Edge is a bit too dark and gloomy.

Publication details:

Corgi, 2012 (new edition), London, paperback

 This copy: received for review from the publisher

Burning Sky: Codename Quicksilver #3 - Little M's review

Burning Sky: Codename Quicksilver #3 by Allan Jones

 

Burning sky: Codename Quicksilver #3 by Allan Jones

Codename Quicksilver is a series about young teen spies who are in a secret government organisation, Project 17. They track down criminals and help MI5. Burning Sky is the third book in the series. You can read my review of the first two books here.

In Burning Sky, the main character is Zak who has the codename Quicksilver. He is now part of a mission called Mozart. What he needs to do is impersonate a boy to help that boy get to safety.

I really enjoyed Burning Sky because it’s got a whole lot of adventure and action, which I absolutely adore. I have loved every single one of the three Codename Quicksilver books I have read so far.

Burning Sky is my favourite book out of the three I have read because the first one is about Zak getting into the secret agency; the second book didn’t have as much adventure in it.

Action, adventure, crime-fiction, and Codename Quicksilver fans should love this book.

  

Publication details:

Orion, 2012, London, paperback

This copy: received for review from the publisher

 

Review - Noughts & Crosses

 Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman

Noughts & Crosses is a critically acclaimed alternate history that tackles racism, oppression and rebellion. But it tastes like Marmite. You’ll either love it or hate it.

Noughts & Crosses tells the story of Callum and Sephy who live in a society that is cruelly ruled by the dark-skinned Crosses at the expense of the almost-enslaved light-skinned noughts. Callum is a nought and Sephy is a Cross. Once childhood friends, an event happens that tears their families apart. From all parts of the community, brakes are harshly applied to their continued and blossoming relationship. Noughts & Crosses is Callum and Sephy’s tale.

The dual narration by Callum and Sephy works really well and, for me, is flawed only by the similarity of the two voices.  I didn't think they were distinct enough and I had to keep flipping back to the header to see whose tale was being told.

There is a lot of plot movement.  Too much for me but perhaps this is what many Young Adult audiences relish. And more importantly, a busy plot signifies the multiple difficulties that many people deal with on a daily basis - especially in societies that set out to destroy the very fabric of your souls.

It’s certainly not an enjoyable read but I don’t think it was meant to be. What I usually love about alternate realities is the hope they provide for the future.  Sadly, Noughts & Crosses lacked this for me and by the end it really felt like a punch in the stomach. On Malorie Blackman’s own website, she admits that there is mixed feeling over the ending. As a result, some readers may find it unsatisfactory.  I know I’m one of them. But there are plenty of readers who don't feel this way.

Perhaps the thing that stands out for me most in the novel is the issue of choices, consequences and individual action. So many characters make really bad choices and the unexpected (and sometimes unintended) consequences are very painful – and far reaching. After the punch that this novel delivered, which left me feeling cold inside (as Callum felt too), I’m starting to find peace with the novel. I see it now as an indictment against forms of violent action – and a call for people to think their choices through.

Noughts & Crosses is the first in a series of books (all of which are published so available to buy or borrow from libraries).

The copy I read has a warning printed on the back cover: Not suitable for younger readers.  I think anyone recommending this to a young teen should do so believing that the child has the mental maturity to evaluate the actions characters take in this novel.

Publication details:

Corgi (Random House), 2006, London, paperback (special edition including An Eye For an Eye)

This copy: our own