Reviews

Malorie Blackman broke my heart with the first book of this series and only now, has she tried to mend it. This is a remarkable story. The turmoil - emotional, physical, mental, and social - is overwhelming. Its like standing on a log in the water, constantly being tipped over here and there, your arms flailing about, never knowing when you'll finally lose your balance and plunge into the depths below. Sephy, Callie Rose, Meggie, all these people take so many punches I can't understand how they're still upright.

My favourite thing about Blackman's writing is her characterization. We've been with Sephy for three books now, and we've seen her grow from a carefree child, to a bitter teenager, to a dissipated woman; she's so clear on the pages its impressive. We know why she's affectionately distant with her daughter, we know why she's suddenly cold towards Callum's mother, why she's suddenly in the good with her own mother, Jasmine. Sephy's development is so linear with the books, its like we know her for real. Sephy is a solid image that stays in our memory when not engrossed within the folds of their lives, and one that we immediately recognize as soon as we do return. That's an achievement in my opinion. We come across many characters, most of them disappearing into faint blurs as soon as we close the pages shut, but Blackman does not let her characters slip through our readers' hands - she makes sure of that.

Thanks to her writing, we can see and feel the connections between these women. We see Sephy in Callie Rose, we see Jasmine in Sephy. More than just another commentary on racism (a good one at that), this is also a story about women...women who have to pick up the pieces of their broken lives, women who have had very little power to act and affect, women who have had very little say and contribution in the outcomes, their voices echoing in the hollowness of deaf ears either because they are not the right color, not the right age, not the right gender. Women who have lost so, so much and have been beaten down to their absolute lowest, who have been left with nothing to hold onto but their pride and stubborn will, sometimes their anger and resentment, sometimes love, sometimes desperation, sometimes pure determined conviction...it knocks the breathe out of you once you're able to have a full grasp of what it must be like for these people. I tell you, these are women who have been left with nothing but each other...which they come to find is enough. Eventually.

They are victims, yes, but Blackman does not serve us characters that deserve or need only sympathy. They are flawed. Sephy chooses to take what has been done her and bury herself in the darkness. She turns her rage and sadness and bottles them up, occasionally patching cracks throughout the years. She has made herself alone, and numb. So different to the girl we first met. We get mad at her because we know she knows what she's doing is destructive; that she should go over to her daughter and hug her, tell her all the things we read her saying in her head but never has the courage to say out loud. Meggie, who has lost her entire family, should not have bribed and threatened Sephy and Callie Rose into staying with her. Jasmine should not be so methodical. Callie Rose, so blind, so disillusioned. We have reasons to want to shake them and wake them, except that these are incredibly sad people, and we also know why they are the way they are, and we ask ourselves, what would I have done?

But in the end, they pull through. These are strong women, despite being wronged - perhaps, it is even in spite of being wronged. They have strength they've kept hidden from their oppressors (who take all forms, from husband to son, from the public to one's self), and we see them reaching the end of their patience, moved by urgent events, to finally unleash their wrath. We see what they're capable of and we're in awe. Another extraordinary thing about them is that they might argue that what they've at last resolved to do isn't bravery at all. And in a way, it isn't. Jasmine and Meggie shake, cower, doubt and fear every step of their path. Jasmine and Meggie might rationalize and say its out of necessity, that it is for the greater good. But it would be a lie. Because they do not, for one second, choose willingly what they're called to do. They accept, that is all. They are required to make the deepest, greatest sacrifice and its one of those moments I think we'll never fully understand unless we're one day asked to do the same. Blackman gives us a lot to swallow, and it doesn't go down smoothly.

This isn't a review is it? More like a rant of the opposite kind. I love these books and I'm angry I didn't have time to write a review immediately after reading as that's when I have most to say. But days have gone and most of what I wanted to write has gone with them. I wouldn't have been able to do this justice anyway, so perhaps its just as well.

Somethings I will say I didn't enjoy (as much), hence the missing star, is that there were a bit too many p.o.v.s, but again, I didn't hate it. The problem was that I wanted so much of Sephy, of Callie Rose, that when I was taken from them, I was disappointed. But then it was to get to know more about Meggie and Jasmine and I complained no more. This is also a very reflective book; it is marinated in internal monologue. Many, many thoughts are expressed. Now, usually I hate that but it works here because I love the characters. The dialogue was also occasionally cheesy, but digestible.

Remarkable book, let me say again. Remarkable. More people should be reading Blackman's Noughts and Crosses series. I don't know how I'll get my hands on the fourth, but I tell you now, I will.