Noughts & Crosses: Post-reading Discussion

Use this thread to discuss Noughts and Crosses after you've finished reading it.

NOOOOOO!!!! That did not just happen...he didn't...that didn't...*cries*

Okay, this book goes right up there at the top of my Best Books Ever list. No way did I think it would be THIS good. It's a fascinating concept, and the scariest thing is, it isn't so very different than some parts of our world today. Some societies still condone racism, and even if they don't, many people are still incredibly racist. It shook me up and it was just so...sad.

I mean, it just gets worse and worse for Sephy and Callum and everyone involved...and then it gets a bit better...and then much worse...and then there's the faint light of hope...and then it all comes crashing down. The ending was heartbreaking. Yes, I really did cry. It's all just so tragic...futile...

Spoiler:

*sniff*

Okay, so i finished the book! It was an incrediable novel! Sooooo much to talk about. It seems so unreal that here in America it was not so very long ago that we had segregation, not so long ago that people could be owned because of the color of their skin. I wasn't raised to be prejudice, and yet there are so many things that I never realized could be percieved as racism..the color of a band-aid...that's an image that really sticks with me.

When Callum just missed Sephy on her way to boarding school...but what if they had run away? Most likely they would have ended up like Lynette and her boyfriend. I cannot wait to read the sequels and will try to find them on Sunday. When Callum was struggling with all his family problems, and Sephy was drinking it reminded me of The Outsiders when Cherry, a rich soc, tells Ponyboy that things are rough all over. Both Callum and Sephy suffered because they knew what was right in life but were often powerless to do anything about it. It's a sad fact of life that sometimes love isn't enough... I am glad that Sephy had the baby, despite the hardships Callie Rose is going to face, that is really the only way to stop hate. It may take generations to change, but eventually the attitudes will shift. Look at how being born out of wedlock used to be percieved, now it no longer carries the stigma it once did..well at least in some cultures.

This book touches on so many issues! But one issue from the book that I am not clear on- if Andrew was working for Sephy's dad, then why would he insist that she be killed? Is it just because he thought she recognized him, or do you think her dad was hoping to cause a backlash against naughts by sacrificing his daughter?

A small technicality has been bothering me as well. When Mrs. MacGregor goes to the hospital to get her broken finger set, she is upset that the boys' ID cards are entered into the system, and demands they be removed. Later on when the police are after Jude, she says they must've somehow gotten the fingerprints out of the hospital's database.

But this doesn't make any sense, because when they MADE the cards the prints would've been entered into a national database, no? Otherwise, what is the point of having the cards? So I don't get why she was so worried about their cards being in the hospital's database, if they were probably in the national databse anyway.

Streams, I think maybe the reason she was upset is because often police will look at hospital records after violent crimes like the mall explosion, hoping to catch the criminal in case he was injured and went to seek help. So within a certain timeframe they would be looking at everyone coming and going. But I wonder if the nurse called the police, as Callum's mom was acting quite concerned about her son's fingerprints....

It still doesn't make any sense though. The story goes that they found prints on a can, and then a distraught Mrs. MacGregor figures that they found the prints through the hospital's database. But they could've just run the prints through the national database, and found them anyway...a print is a print...

True- the family should have just gone into hiding, which is apparently pretty easy for Jude to do anyway.

The poor mom! I wonder, is she in the sequels? Does she get to know little Callie Rose?

Meggie? You'll have to read them to find out

Anyway...I put this aside to read DH, but I finished it last night. I'd forgotten how much the ending makes me cry (as if DH hadn't made me cry enough!).

One thing...knowing what I know from the sequels made me read the ending in a slightly different light, which I wasn't sure I liked.

I honestly looooved the book and I can't wait to read to sequels! .. but it was so sad.. and, as Streams said, frighteningly close to reality *shudders* And of course I cried... not only at the end, as far as I remember well, but of course that's when it was the most dramatic... *sighs*

... but it's really a justified ending. I would have found a happy ending weird, as it wouldn't have fitted in with the rest of the book. As Sephy said it, it all went towards that point, from Callum's first day at school.

Not particularly to do with the book itself, but I'm going to see the stage play of Noughts and Crosses on Thursday. I hope it's good! I'll post to let you know when I've seen it.

EDIT: So, I just got back from seeing the play. I thought it was really good, very well executed (hmm, perhaps not the best word!). The actor playing Sephy was a little over-enthusiastic, but the guy playing Callum was really good.

They handled the more sensitive scenes very well, when they

Spoiler:

But yeah, I really enjoyed it - I had thought before going to see it that they might not be successful in transferring the book to the stage, but they did it well.

It was the performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and if you're in England and it comes near you, definitely go and see it.