The story is centered around two characters, Sephy and Callum. They live in a world where there are two classes of people: noughts, who have white skin and are the lower class, and Crosses, who have dark skin and are the ruling class. Sephy is a Cross; Callum is a nought. It follows their life and their relationship through their teenage years.
Since the book is aimed at young adults, I guess the age of the main characters is intended to give the reader someone to identify with. I assume the goal is to raise awareness of prejudice and injustice in society, by showing an extreme [by modern standards, but not by historic] example of what a society might be like.
The story is well written, with each chapter seeing the viewpoint alternately from Sephy and Callum. The pace is good and kept me turning the pages. There is a strong sense of their increasing maturity as they get older.
I was curious about some of the terminology. The noughts [note the lower case first letter] were referred to in derogatory terms as "blankers". I imagine that this is supposed to be about their lack of value/worth/significance, but it seems to be a play on the word for "white" in various languages [it also rhymes with "wanker" - is that accidental?]. The Crosses [with a large "C"] were called "daggers" by the noughts. On the surface, this comes from the shape of a cross, but the word does resemble "nigger". Again, is that intentional?
I am told that there are further books in the series. I may investigate them in due course, but now I need to listen to the Bookclub programme [late again!].
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