Noughts & Crosses Trilogy

Noughts & Crosses is a critically acclaimed series by English author Malorie Blackman of young adult novels, including two novellas, set in a fictional dystopia.

The series describes an alternative history in which humans evolved in which African people had gained a technological and organisational advantage over the European people, rather than the other way around, with Africans having made Europeans their slaves. The series takes place in an alternate 21st-century Britain.

At the time of the series, slavery had been abolished for some time, but segregation, similar to Jim Crow, continues to operate to keep the crosses (Blacks) in control of the noughts (Whites). 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.

Persephone ("Sephy") Hadley is a cross, with dark skin, and the daughter of a wealthy senior politician, Kamal. Callum McGregor is a nought, with light skin. They used to play together when Jasmine, Sephy's mother, employed Meggie, Callum's mother, as a nanny. However, Jasmine fires Meggie for being unable to provide an alibi for Jasmine when Kamal confronts Jasmine's about his suspicions of her infidelity: that is only strongly suggested for now but is made explicit later. Since then, Sephy and Callum's friendship has been secret. As best friends, their relationship is frowned upon by society, like interracial friendships in the Southern United States before the Civil Rights Movement but in reverse, as dark skin is considered much better to have than light skin.

Callum is one of the first few noughts to start at Heathcroft, a high school for crosses that now accepts the best-performing noughts. Sephy is overjoyed to find that Callum is in her class after helping him pass the entrance examination. However, most of her classmates do not accept her association with a nought. The two develop a more intimate connection, and Sephy does not care about the opposition and even sits with at a table with noughts. That angers Callum, but the two make up.