Noughts & Crosses is a series of young adult novels by British author Malorie Blackman, with six novels and three novellas. The series is speculative fiction describing an alternative history. The series takes place in an alternative 21st-century Britain.
At the time of the series, slavery had been abolished for some time, but segregation, similar to the Jim Crow Laws, continues to operate to keep the Crosses (dark-skinned people) in control of the Noughts (lighter-skinned people). An international organisation, the Pangaean Economic Community, exists. Seeming to be similar to the United Nations in scope but similar to the European Union in powers, it is playing a role in forcing change by directives and boycotts. Britain is known as Albion, Africa is one country called Zafrika, and Scandinavia — known as Fenno-Scandia — is the only Nought country left.
The first book is written from two different perspectives – Callum's and Sephy's (Persephone) – and their experiences of their entwined but very different worlds. The chapters alternate, with even-numbered chapters being from Callum's view and odd ones Sephy's.
There are six books in the series: Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge, Checkmate, Double Cross, Crossfire, and Endgame.
Novels Noughts and Crosses
Persephone "Sephy" Hadley is a Cross and the daughter of a wealthy senior politician, Kamal Hadley, who later becomes prime minister. Callum McGregor is a Nought, and they used to play together when Jasmine Adeyebe-Hadley, Sephy's mother, employed Meggie McGregor, Callum's mother, as a nanny. Ever since Jasmine fired Meggie, however, Sephy and Callum's friendship has been secret, as such interracial friendships are frowned upon by society.
The two meet again in Heathcroft, a high school for Crosses that now accepts the best-performing Noughts. Sephy is overjoyed to see Callum in her class, but most of her classmates do not accept her association with a Nought. Despite this, she deepens her relationship with Callum and even sits at a table with Noughts, upsetting Callum, though they eventually make up.
Meanwhile, Callum's elder brother, Jude, and his father, Ryan, join the Liberation Militia (LM), a violent paramilitary organisation against Cross supremacy. Jude and Ryan are accused of participating in the LM bombing of Dundale Shopping Centre, and Callum is also accused after he told Sephy to leave the shopping centre. He is ultimately spared due to a lack of evidence. Callum has to leave school, and Ryan faces the gallows. Jasmine, remembering her prior friendship with the McGregor family, secretly hires a prominent Cross lawyer to defend Ryan. Escaping hanging, Ryan is given a life sentence but is killed by an electric fence, supposedly in an escape attempt.
Sephy decides to start anew and persuades a reluctant Jasmine to let her attend a boarding school, Chivers. She has not heard from Callum in a week, so she writes a letter asking him to run away with her and if he does not contact her, she will be leaving for Chivers. Callum, however, has decided to join the LM, and does not read the letter until it is too late. He sprints to her house and fails to catch up to the car as it pulls out of the driveway. Having not seen Callum running behind, Sephy concludes that their friendship is no longer as important to him as she had thought.
Years later, Sephy returns home from Chivers. Upon entering the house, she discovers a letter by Callum telling her to meet him at the family's private beach. She goes there, but discovers Callum is there with other LM members to kidnap her and hold her hostage. She is taken to their hideout, and the LM members demand the release of at least five LMs and a ransom for Sephy. The LM's second-in-command, Andrew Dorn, then visits Callum and his cell members.
Callum can visit an injured Sephy in the room where she is being held. Alone together, Callum reveals to her his unsuccessful attempt to catch up to her before she left for Chivers. Their love rekindles, and the two end up having sex. Afterwards, Sephy escapes into the woods, chased by Jude and another LM member. Callum finds her first and gives false directions to the others; he then gives Sephy instructions to escape. Sephy then tells Callum that she had seen Andrew before in her house with Kamal, revealing that Andrew is a government informant. Informing the rest of the LM about Andrew, the remaining members agreed to split up and keep a low profile, not meeting up again until Callum's birthday.
Sephy then begins to experience strange symptoms and takes a pregnancy test, revealing that she is pregnant with Callum's child. When her parents learn of this, they pressure her to have an abortion, which Sephy repeatedly refuses. Meanwhile, Callum is working as a mechanic as a cover, and hears Kamal on the radio being interrogated over whether his daughter is pregnant. Callum then meets up with Sephy in the Hadleys' rose garden, and she confirms the rumors. While they are meeting, they are discovered, and Callum is arrested. Nobody believed Sephy when she maintains she was not raped, and Callum is sentenced to be hanged.
Kamal tells Sephy that if she keeps her child, Callum will be hanged, but if she has the abortion, he will serve years in prison instead. Kamal makes a similar offer to Callum, wanting Callum to publicly admit to raping Sephy. Both decide to keep the baby, and Callum is hanged at the gallows.
Knife Edge
Sephy, living with Callum's mother, Meggie, becomes increasingly fond of her daughter, Callie Rose. Callum's guard, Jack, delivers a letter written by Callum before he dies, stating he never loved her and could not believe that Sephy was stupid enough to fall for him. He tells her to forget about him. Meggie tries to convince Sephy that Callum was forced into writing the letter by others, but Sephy believes the letter and develops postnatal depression.
She meets Jaxon, a hot-tempered man with a band, the Midges. He offers Sephy a singing part, but the Noughts are prejudiced against her because she is a Cross. In her emotional turmoil, she begins to neglect Callie Rose.
Callum's brother, Jude, blames Sephy for the terrible losses his family has suffered and is determined to destroy Sephy's life by any means necessary. He meets Cara, a Cross, and befriends her to access her money. After spending a lot of time with her, he falls in love with her despite his hatred of Crosses. Frustrated and confused with his feelings for a Cross, Jude beats her severely and runs off with a large amount of money. After Cara dies in the hospital, Jude is eventually arrested and charged with Cara's murder. He is almost guaranteed to receive the death sentence due to the wealth of evidence against him.
Sephy struggles with seeing Meggie losing the last remaining member of her family, and decides to give a false alibi to Jude for Cara's death for Meggie's sake. He escapes the death penalty and only serves a few months in prison for LM membership; afterwards, he accuses Andrew of Cara's murder in addition to being a government informer; Andrew is soon shot dead by the LM. Despite Sephy saving his life, Jude still holds a grudge against her and plots revenge.
Sephy's life begins to fall apart, as the Crosses hate her for helping Jude escape the noose, and the Noughts because she did not come to his aid sooner. While singing "Rainbow Child" to Callie Rose, she hugs her too tightly, causing the child to stop breathing. The book ends with Meggie repeatedly screaming at Sephy, "What have you done?"
Checkmate
After her friend Tobey calls her a terrorist's daughter, Callie struggles with discovering the real career of her father: he was considered a terrorist. She becomes angry with her mother for hiding the truth and decides to follow in the path of her father, cutting off her friendship with Tobey despite his attempts to apologise.
Sephy feels trapped and rejects an offer of marriage from her boyfriend, Sonny. She then meets Nathan, the owner of the restaurant in which she sings, and the two start a relationship. Nathan later proposes, and Sephy accepts, but Sonny comes back into her life. She is left confused but engaged.
Jude takes Callie Rose to Kamal's house. After Kamal denies that she is his granddaughter, Jude, now the General of the LM, exploits her anger to groom her to become a suicide bomber. Jasmine attempts to bring Callie and Sephy closer together, but develops breast cancer and struggles with her mortality. Eventually, Jasmine traps Sephy and Callie Rose in her wine cellar, where the two reconcile.
Celine, the daughter of Callum's prison guard Jack, gives a letter that was written by Callum before he was hanged. Callum told Jack this was the letter with his true feelings; in the letter, he wished he had been able to stay with Sephy because he loved her so much. He also tells Sephy to keep his past secret from their child.
In the book's climax, Jasmine sets off Jude's bomb to prevent him from injuring anyone else, dying in the process. Kamal had been the intended target of the bomb, but he lost power after Jasmine's letter to the press about his rampant corruption was published.
Double Cross
The book opens with Kamal's party badly losing to a more liberal government. Callie Rose fears the return of her vengeful uncle Jude, and the press fails to mention Jude in connection with the bomb.
Callie Rose's best friend and later boyfriend, Tobey, is worried about his future. As a Nought boy at an exclusive school, he hopes to keep out of trouble, go to university, get a good job and leave behind the dangerous streets of his childhood. However, he gets caught up in gang warfare when he is offered the chance to earn some easy money by making a few "deliveries." He finds out the delivery was for one of the prominent members of the Dowds, a notorious gang of Crosses.
He keeps this a secret from Callie Rose, and after they consummate their relationship, Callie Rose leaves but promises to return. The next day, when Tobey and Callie Rose meet up with their friends, Callie Rose is shot by a hail of bullets from McAuley, the boss of a gang of Noughts, the rivals to the Dowds. Her surgery is successful, but she remains in a coma. Sephy is furious at Tobey for not telling the police who shot Callie Rose, but is unaware that Tobey plans on getting revenge on McAuley himself.
While Callie Rose is in the hospital, Tobey gets a new job at the Dowds' restaurant. He meets Rebecca, Vanessa Dowd's daughter. Rebecca enjoys his company as he treats her like a person, unlike the other boys who are interested only in her family and money. Tobey eventually goes out with her but is conflicted between her and Callie Rose.
Callie Rose wakes from her coma and finds out that Jude was indeed killed by the bomb. However, she also discovers that Tobey is now dating Rebecca, as she had been in a coma for so long.
During a visit to Vanessa Dowd's house, Tobey is revealed to have once made deliveries to McAuley, shocking Rebecca. Tobey reassures her that he does not work for him any longer, but he decides to end their relationship and be just friends. When Rebecca leaves, McAuley appears and stabs her. He then orders Tobey to meet him at his warehouse.
Aware of McAuley's intent to kill him, Tobey sets up a plan with Owen Dowd, Rebecca's brother. He invests in one of McAuley's minions to frame him as a traitor. The plan works, but Owen and Tobey are almost killed in the process. However, one of Tobey's friends, Dan, comes in and kills McAuley's minions, saving both their lives. Dan then goes on the run for the murders.