Day 4! Review: Knife Edge – Malorie Blackman

Date	Post
7th September	Announcement
8th September	Noughts and Crosses Review
9th September	An Eye for an Eye Review
10th September	Callum Review
11th September	Knife Edge Review
12th September	Checkmate Review
13th September	Double Cross Review
14th September	Nought Forever Review
15th September	Crossfire Review
16th September	Dissecting the Blurb – Endgame
??? September	Endgame Review

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Trigger Warnings: Bullying; Child Death; Grief; Gun Violence; Hate Crime; Kidnapping; Medical Trauma; Murder; Physical Abuse; Pregnancy; Racism; Suicidal Thoughts; Violence

As detailled in Malorie Blackman’s foreword, Knife Edge is a book surrounding the theme of hate. This pretty much summed up Jude in a nutshell – everything he did was fuelled by his hate of Crosses, specifically Sephy. He belives that she is the reason that his family fell apart in the way that it did, and he will stop at nothing to get his own back. It was so easy to see how everything he did was linked to retribution and revenge, and nothing would ever stop him from achieving his end goal. This theme was carried over to Checkmate, and it certainly was very interesting to see this storyline develop. To some extent, Sephy’s conflicting emotions throughout mirrored this. Although she wasn’t feeling hatred all the time, it was definitely very clear that she was far from happy at points in this book. This was definitely an interesting contrast from Noughts and Crosses, where she had her world at her feet.

There are definite contrasts between Knife Edge and Noughts and Crosses. Sephy’s life has turned upside down, living completely differently to how she was previously. This was such a shocking contrast to see for her, especially given the naivety that she had in regard to racial discrimination that Noughts face on a daily basis. For her, everything has changed, and it was very intersting to see how she was adapting to this, as well as coping with her own grief. Jude’s life has also completely changed. He is now one of the most wanted terrorists and criminals, which was such an unexpected twist in his character. Although in Noughts and Crosses, we were introduced to some of his radical ideas, I never imagined that he would take the path that he has.

Knife Edge’s plot was faultless, everything was explained and detailled so well. This really reminded me as a reader how much has changed since Noughts and Crosses. I also loved it how chapters were narrated from Jude, Sephy, and Meggies’ perspectives. This kept familiarity with Sephy’s voice, but also moved the story forward with the two new perspectives.

Jude was definitely a very interesting character to read about. In Noughts and Crosses, he was a side-character to Callum, and now he is one of the main characters. I was constantly questioning why he had become as radical as he is, as although we had seen snippets of this, I never understood what his thoughts were until I was reading his narration throughout Knife Edge. Meggie was also another really interesting character to read about. It is very easy to forget that everything that happened to Jude happened to her as well. I really appreciated the insight into her life through her narrated chapters, and I really enjoyed learning more about her.

Once again, Knife Edge is not the easiest read due to the sensitive topics listed in the trigger warnings above. Therefore, I would recommend approaching Knife Edge with caution. Also, I found it really difficult to read when the characters were changing before my eyes, as I was desperately hoping that they would revert back to the characters that we know and love from Noughts and Crosses.

Overall, I would recommend this series to an audience aged 13+, as long as they feel comfortable reading about the trigger warnings listed above. I also highly recommend that anyone who has started this series carries on reading it, as long as they fell comfortable reading about the trigger warnings listed above.

Tomorrow’s post will be my review of Checkmate.

Thank you for reading this post.

Hannah