Product Description

Sephy is a Cross, one of the privileged in a society where the ruling Crosses treat the pale-skinned noughts as inferiors. But her baby daughter has a nought father - Callum. Eaten up with bitterness, Callum's brother Jude, blames Sephy for the terrible losses his family has suffered. Now Jude's life rests on a knife edge. Will Sephy be forced, once again, to take sides?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #606 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 449 pages

Review
" Knife Edge... is relentless in its pace... It is devastatingly powerful. - The Guardian Fast-paced and full of incident, Knife edge will be devoured by the many fans of the first book - TES A genuine literary achievement - Books for Keeps Malorie Blackman is writing a disturbing trilogy that should be read because it is important. And a gripping yarn as well. - The School Librarian"

Sephy is alone and pregnant living in an apartheid state. Her own father had her light-skinned lover Callum executed, and she's despised by Callum's brother Jude. In this racist society, where black-skinned Crosses subject white-skinned naughts to crushing racial prejudice, Sephy stands in a dangerous middle ground. She wants to raise her child in peace, but both naughts and Crosses condemn her, and Jude wants to exact revenge. Both Sephy and Jude cross race borders in their quests, Sephy joining a naught rock band and Jude romancing a liberal-minded Cross woman. As in Black and White (2005), the ideological message is heavy handed, somewhat shallow and inconsistent: Mixed-race children are either extremely rare, or common only on society's margins; naughts claim a unique vernacular which is never used in the text; a Cross woman is portrayed as remarkably kind and intelligent with no exploration of how wealth and privilege make such traits easier to come by. The personal tragedies of Sephy and Jude's lives in a broken world, however, are rich and genuine. (Fiction. YA) (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Malorie Blackman worked as a database manager and systems programmer before becoming a full-time writer. Her reputation has steadily grown and she has been awarded a number of prizes including the WHSmith's Mind-Boggling Books Award and the Young Telegraph/Gimme 5 award for HACKER, the Young Telegraph/Fully Booked award for THIEF! and, more recently, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for PIG-HEART BOY. She was voted Voice/Excel Children's Writer of the Year in 1997. Her novel NOUGHTS AND CROSSES has won both the Children's Book Award and the Lancashire Children's Book Award 2002. THE TIMES recently described her as 'a bit of a national treasure.'

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
I just finished this in a day after having last read it years ago when it first came out. It isn't as good as the first or last book in my opinion but it's important for the trilogy.

As a book in its own right, I'm impressed with how well Malorie Blackman manages to convey the feelings of Sephy and Jude. I really feel like I can empathise with the characters and it's extremely moving.

I read this straight after re-reading the first in the trilogy, "Noughts & Crosses", and I found that that helped the understanding and enjoyment of "Knife Edge". I'm not sure why but I just remember not enjoying it as much the first time I read it. It might be because there's not much of a main plot in "Knife Edge".

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed "Noughts & Crosses".

Brilliant
Many people say that this book isn't as good as the first one, and I agree it isn't, but still, this book is a truly amazing read. This sequel concentrates more on character developement, rather then storylines and twists, but I quite enjoyed this technique. The story telling method is the same as lost time and not only varies between the main characters (Sephy and Jude), but moved onto to less important characters like Meggie and Jasmine, which is very effective at showing how they feel about Jude and Sephy.

Not only does this book show the struggle that sephy suffers as a single black woman with a mix raced baby, but it also high lights the hardship that young parents go through. I found this book just as emotional as the last, especially for Sephy, who is struggling to sort her life out after the events from the last book. I felt great sympathy for her throughout the book and felt as desperate as Meggie to help her.

Although Sephy's the main character in this book, I found Jude's character devlopement to be more interesting. I found that I was able to feel for a character I had disliked and hated through Noughts and Crosses. Jude goes through alot in this book and after all his actions the reader is left feeling disappointed that he can't change his views. This books again brings up themes of racism, prejudism and class. Malorie writes this book amazingly and somehow manages to make you love and hate Sephy and Jude at the same time. Although the book does seem to be considerably empty without Callum, but that's the way it's supposed to feel.

A definete read for anyone who enjoyed the first book and is interested to see how Sephy and Jude will cope after the loss of Callum.

Not as good as 'Noughts and Crosses'
This was the sequel to 'Noughts and Crosses', but it was a different type of book; less of an adventure story / page turner, and more of a study in relationships.

Unfortunately we lost one of the best characters in the previous book, and although Jude and Sephy are interesting, it wasn't quite the same without Callum. I also felt there wasn't much interaction between the two, their lives run parallel in time, but they don't meet up until near the end. The tension of Jude trying to seek revenge on Sephy doesn't really build either.

All in all a bit disappointing after 'Noughts and Crosses', lets hope the final book in the trilogy, 'Checkmate' lives up to the standard of the first.