Knife Edge: Book 2

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Sephy felt completely different in this story and I guess that aligns with all she'd been through in book one. She was struggling to get with the mothering plan and all I can say is thank goodness for Meggy. I really came to dislike Sephy in this one. Sephy is suffering from depression or something similar. It’s never explained, so she’s just down in the dumps all the time, acts like a brat, and just makes life difficult for herself. She’s up and down about whether she loves her baby or not, which could hold the promise of an interesting discussion, but her thoughts on the matter are shallow, so you don’t get to understand her thought process. Frankly, it’s hard to create a character suffering from depression interesting. Unlike the first novel I hadn’t read this one at school so this is my first time reading this novel. Note this review does contain spoilers for the first novel and short story in the series. They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question.

Sixteen years have passed since Sephy Hadley first met Callum McGregor. For Callie Rose, growing up mixed race in a world where bitter prejudice divides Noughts and Crosses has meant she’s an outsider wherever she turns. The other thread in the book is Jude's life on the run and his mission to avenge himself on the Nought who is deputy of the terrorist network - a man he believes has been betraying agents and betrayed his group at the end of book 1. He also, due to his rabid hatred of all Crosses, finds himself engaged in more and more extreme behaviour, with a harrowing scene about halfway through the book concerning a Cross woman with whom he forms a relationship, meaning to steal from her, and for whom he starts to have feelings - which he cannot accept and which lead to tragedy. The book spirals down into a darkness, which includes a depression that by the end has swallowed up Sephy with seemingly further tragic results. In this paragraph Jude talks about the beauty industry of this society and how even the underwear in shops is designed for Cross women and their naturally curvaceous figure. Or how Nought women get implants to make their lips fuller or spend longer in sunbeds to make themselves darker.

In this book, however, the time period is not even a year. Which is more comfortable as a reader, as we have space to more fully explore what's going on.

Les personnages sont vrais. Et d'une complexité qui est vraiment la bienvenue. Tout le monde n'est pas noir, tout le monde n'est pas blanc (sans jeu de mot). Et tant mieux ! Bon sang, tant mieux ! First off I really did enjoy this beautiful masterpiece its filled with sorrow, hate, passion, revenge, depression, pain, rage, second chances, love and so so so much more. There was so many different things going on this novel at once I don't even know where to begin. Can I just give a hand to Sephys mom though like ohmygosh all the awards to you. I seriously admired her and if anything good that came out of this novel it was her. Sephy... all I can say is Sephy is not the same little naive girl who thought she and Callum could be friends without a second glance.Sephy Hadley - a Cross, supposedly powerful and privileged - has bound herself forever to her nought lover Callum McGregor's family. Jude's announcement at the end was quite clever of him putting Sephy in it as well as Andrew Dorn while clearing his name. If anything, that guy is good at dishing out his revenge.

Callum is a nought: he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life. But soon Callie is caught in a trap she can’t get out of – one which will have deadly consequences.

Everything about our lives, the style of clothes we were, even down to the food we eat, it’s all dictated by Cross aesthetic, by the way Crosses see the world.” As with the first book, there is a rather bitty structure where short section follows short section, each in an alternating viewpoint. This time, the switching is mainly between Sephy, the young Cross woman who was pregnant at the end of book 1, and Jude, the brother of Callum, the baby's now deceased father. Unlike book 1 there are a few sections in minor viewpoints, that of Sephy's mother and Jude/Callum's mother. Then - in spite of a world that is fiercely against them - these star-crossed lovers choose each other. The book also introduces some very interesting new themes and some that are quite grown up including mental illness, grief and post-natal depression. Sephy’s involvement in the band in particular I also liked as it introduces comments on the music industry, including racism and how image plays a large part of success. Callie Rose knows all about the danger of saying ‘yes’. She knows about terrible mistakes, and violence and family feuds, and the fierce divide between Noughts and Crosses.