Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
RHCP Digital (2008), Edition: New Ed, 416 pages
Description
Following Callum's death, the people who loved him relate how their lives have been changed, especially in reference to his girlfriend, Sephy, and their mixed-race child. Persephone Hadley is six months pregnant with a mixed-race baby. In their society this fact alone will threaten the child's life every day. To make matters worse, the baby's father, Callum, is dead. He was hanged for terrorism months ago, but his presence still torments Sephy. And she's not alone. Callum's brother, Jude, blames Sephy for the death, and thirsts for revenge...in the form of her life. Obviously, Sephy is not fond of Jude, but when his actions take him to the brink of disaster, his life poised on a knife edge, can she stand by and do nothing? Will she be forced -- once again -- to take sides in a chilling racial drama?… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member MrsHillReads
I didn't like this as much as I liked Black & White. The message about race seemed very heavy-handed and I didn't like the ending. Obviously there is to be a sequel; but there were still too many loose ends in this book.
LibraryThing member cinf0master
Now an 18-year-old single parent, Persephone (Sephy) Hadley is raising her inter-racial daughter in a sharply divided alternate England, where black Crosses suppress the white Naughts. She faces pressure from both her less than understanding Cross family, her disintegrating Naught family, and
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everyone in between. When her brother-in-law’s violent behavior leads to murder, Sephy provides a false alibi to save Jude, but doing so irreparably damages other lives. Second in Blackman’s trilogy, this work presents similar themes with the same lack of subtlety that dominated the first work; Blackman’s approach to communicating racism is to change instances of black disenfranchisement to white. The most popular white rocker is actually black; white performers must use the back doors to enter venues; popular desserts have racist names. Such a heavy hand leaves readers alienated from the dark history of racism. Jude and Sephy dominate the narrative, though occasionally other voices are included. Stiff language and murky motivation hampers the thin characters from generating emotional suspense. Woodson’s If you come softly (1998) and Krishner’s Spite Fences (1994) address very similar issues, but with rich characters and taut feeling. Show Less
LibraryThing member brokenangelkisses
From the beginning, this is a sad tale as it follows Jude, a nought who has tried to make himself invulnerable by ceasing to feel or care, and Sephy, a Cross who is struggling to come to terms with her life. She is alone except for her new baby and generally despised by her community for giving
Although the mood is sad and tense initially, there are moments which suggest positive possibilities for some kind of resolution until two fifths of the way through when two deeply shocking and traumatic events occur. From then on, Jude is set on a path of total destruction and Sephy loses all hope for the future. Thereafter almost relentlessly bleak and depressing, this is not a novel that can be treated lightly.
Blackman emphasises the increasing agony of her central characters by moving through the colour spectrum, from red to violet: from anger to despair. Possible new ventures wither for Sephy and Jude’s malevolence is stunning. The ending, while leaving Sephy’s ultimate intentions ambiguous, will leave you reeling. The warning on the back cover should be adhered to: this book is ‘not suitable for younger readers’. This is a sequel which I would recommend reading swiftly to allow you to turn to the final book in the trilogy.
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birth to a ‘halfer’ child.Although the mood is sad and tense initially, there are moments which suggest positive possibilities for some kind of resolution until two fifths of the way through when two deeply shocking and traumatic events occur. From then on, Jude is set on a path of total destruction and Sephy loses all hope for the future. Thereafter almost relentlessly bleak and depressing, this is not a novel that can be treated lightly.
Blackman emphasises the increasing agony of her central characters by moving through the colour spectrum, from red to violet: from anger to despair. Possible new ventures wither for Sephy and Jude’s malevolence is stunning. The ending, while leaving Sephy’s ultimate intentions ambiguous, will leave you reeling. The warning on the back cover should be adhered to: this book is ‘not suitable for younger readers’. This is a sequel which I would recommend reading swiftly to allow you to turn to the final book in the trilogy.
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LibraryThing member pinkmouse
i really liked this, but thought that the ending let it down. will look forward to reading the next book but the first was better. It was unpredictable which i like and wasn't always just a nice story, definately worth a read.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
These days it's cool to be reading teen books when , to well past your teens as I am. Always intended to read on in this trilogy, but I really should not have left it three years after reading the first - it took a while before the plot came back to me, and all the way through it kept referring to
That said, this would probably just about work as a stand-alone novel. It's written in a simple, direct style, and has less twists and turns than the first but a comparable dollop of violence on the side. The viewpoint shifts from chapter to chapter, all the chapters are short and and to the point, and are finished off with a punchy statement of defiance (along the lines of 'I was going to kick his head if it was the last thing I did'....), all it needed to top it off in each case was the drumbeat that heralds the credits in EastEnders.
The main value of these books, for me, was the theme of racial prejudice, the clever way in which it is turnedf on its head in the imaginary country in which the stories are set, to make white people the ones discriminated against. Again and again it demonstrates small ways in which a racial group can be treated badly, but nobody thinks anything of it - from patronising tokenism in soap operas to the colour of sticking plasters. It is as though the author is exposing the individual atoms that build up to form rcial prejudice and inequality of opportunity, and it provides food for thought for everyone.
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events in the previous book that I could barely remember.That said, this would probably just about work as a stand-alone novel. It's written in a simple, direct style, and has less twists and turns than the first but a comparable dollop of violence on the side. The viewpoint shifts from chapter to chapter, all the chapters are short and and to the point, and are finished off with a punchy statement of defiance (along the lines of 'I was going to kick his head if it was the last thing I did'....), all it needed to top it off in each case was the drumbeat that heralds the credits in EastEnders.
The main value of these books, for me, was the theme of racial prejudice, the clever way in which it is turnedf on its head in the imaginary country in which the stories are set, to make white people the ones discriminated against. Again and again it demonstrates small ways in which a racial group can be treated badly, but nobody thinks anything of it - from patronising tokenism in soap operas to the colour of sticking plasters. It is as though the author is exposing the individual atoms that build up to form rcial prejudice and inequality of opportunity, and it provides food for thought for everyone.
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LibraryThing member BridgetsBookNook
Sigh>....
I really don't like it when I love the first book in a 'series'..Then get to the 2nd book and strongly dislike it. It makes me not want to go on in the Series/Trilogy. Maybe eventually, I will move on to Checkmate, but right now, I will just go through my other books in my TBR pile and
I really don't like it when I love the first book in a 'series'..Then get to the 2nd book and strongly dislike it. It makes me not want to go on in the Series/Trilogy. Maybe eventually, I will move on to Checkmate, but right now, I will just go through my other books in my TBR pile and
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just see what happens a couple months or so down the road. Show Less
LibraryThing member crashmyparty
Oh no. What a disappointing follow-up to Noughts and Crosses.
I was blown away by Noughts and Crosses the first time I read it and this week when I read it for the second time I still highly enjoyed it. But Knife Edge just didn't really do it for me. I wanted to know what happened to Sephy and the
The look into Jude's mind was interesting. He's a very angry, hostile young man but it feels like for him, the fight is not about equality. Its about vengeance. This is something I picked up in the previous book and was glad that Morgan challenged him about it. I was disappointed, though, that this was not further explored. There was a lot of potential for this to go somewhere and instead it became something Jude neve thought about again.
I'm still interested enough in the story and the characters to continue reading the two remaining books, but I was still disappointed with this one and hope they will improve and return to the same calibre as Noughts and Crosses.
I was blown away by Noughts and Crosses the first time I read it and this week when I read it for the second time I still highly enjoyed it. But Knife Edge just didn't really do it for me. I wanted to know what happened to Sephy and the
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baby, yes, and I got that. I also got a look into who Jude was and that he still has weaknesses and a vulnerability (interesting!). But I feel like more could have been done with this. The world building really could have been explored and more dimensions added. I liked how more of the rest of the world was developed through Jude's interactions with Cara and when Sephy sang in the band at clubs, but at the same time there was a lot of nothing going on in this book. Sephy's first few chapters are boring, saying only how she hated her daughter and then all of a sudden her feelings changed, new mother stuff. Sephy was still quite naive at the beginning, although her voice had matured. I feel like she's lost her fight though, and that's upsetting, because I had always loved her spunk and how she believed in equality.The look into Jude's mind was interesting. He's a very angry, hostile young man but it feels like for him, the fight is not about equality. Its about vengeance. This is something I picked up in the previous book and was glad that Morgan challenged him about it. I was disappointed, though, that this was not further explored. There was a lot of potential for this to go somewhere and instead it became something Jude neve thought about again.
I'm still interested enough in the story and the characters to continue reading the two remaining books, but I was still disappointed with this one and hope they will improve and return to the same calibre as Noughts and Crosses.
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LibraryThing member MsBridgetReads
Sigh>....
I really don't like it when I love the first book in a 'series'..Then get to the 2nd book and strongly dislike it. It makes me not want to go on in the Series/Trilogy. Maybe eventually, I will move on to Checkmate, but right now, I will just go through my other books in my TBR pile and
I really don't like it when I love the first book in a 'series'..Then get to the 2nd book and strongly dislike it. It makes me not want to go on in the Series/Trilogy. Maybe eventually, I will move on to Checkmate, but right now, I will just go through my other books in my TBR pile and
Show More
just see what happens a couple months or so down the road. Show Less
LibraryThing member ellsie98
Fantastic book, believable characters and just as good as when I read it the first, second and third time around!
Subjects
Awards
Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing (Nominee — 2005)
Language
Original publication date
2004