Review: Endgame – 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: Blood; Death; Death of a Parent; Grief; Gun Violence; Kidnapping; Murder

Endgame was the show-stopping, emotional, and incredible conclusion to Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses series. Packed with twists, turns, and drama throughout, it was the most incredible end to my favourite series ever.

I could never have imagined how detailled Endgame’s plot was – it was so intricate and complex with twists and turns around every corner. At the same time, the plot was never confusing – I always understood as much as Malorie Blackman wanted me as a reader to understand at every point in the book.

Endgame was a difficult book to read for two reasons: the trigger warnings listed at the top of this review, and knowing that this was the last Noughts and Crosses book that I would ever read, therefore I recommend approaching this series with caution if you have been affected by any of the trigger warnings listed at the top of my reviews. With Endgame being the final book in this series, I was stuck in the position of really wanting to read on, find out what would happen next, and finish this series and wanting to savour every last word, and never finish the book! I ended up reading slower than I have done in the past so that I could take the time to fully appreciate Endgame, and I am very happy that I did this as I think I enjoyed the book more than if I had raced through it.

Endgame’s main characters were all familiar to me as a reader, which made each tense scene even harder to read. Throughout, I really didn’t want anything bad at all to happen to any of the characters, but I knew that this was highly unlikely, making Endgame even more heart-wrenching! Each character had their own story to tell, and they all shaped the story so nicely – the absence of just one character, no matter how small, would impact the story so much.

The first 100 ish pages of Engame had me on the edge of my seat, as everything was happening in such small steps, and it felt like everything could explode at any given moment. I was scared to read on, wondering what was around the corner. Everything ultimately built up to the final few chapters, which I could never have seen coming. All the tension from across the whole series culminated to Endgame’s final moments.

When reading the final book of a series, it’s always really hard knowing that it is the end. I knew there were lots of loose ends deliberately laid throughout the series that would have to be tied together in Endgame, even if I really didn’t want it to happen! This made Endgame so heart-wrenching to read – I was not prepared for all the emotions that would come with the end of this incredible series.

During Endgame, Sephy also had flashbacks to her time with Callum. This was beautiful to read, as it felt like the series had moved in a full circle – starting and ending with Sephy and Callum. This also made me imagine what Callum would do in each situation – would he have reacted any differently to the demands of Libby and Troy’s kidnappers? Tension was also built up through this, as I was trying to move at the same pace as the characters, yet I was being pulled back to where the story began, many years ago.

Endgame was narrated by many different characters, including a mystery character, whose identity wasn’t revealed until towards the end of the book. As I was seeing everything unfold in front of my eyes, this book was so tense. A great example of this would be towards the end, where Callie and Sephy are both heading in the same direction, but neither of them know what the other is doing until it is too late!

Finally, I would like to thank Malorie Blackman for writing this incredible series. From the moment that I first read Noughts and Crosses three-and-a-half years ago, it has been my favourite series of all time, and has retained its position to this day. Noughts and Crosses has opened my eyes to so many issues, and I hope that everyone else who has read this series feels the same way. I cannot wait for further BBC series of Noughts and Crosses, and to see how Sephy and Callum’s story develops there!

Overall, I cannot reccomend the Noughts and Crosses series highly enough to everyone! It is definitely a series that everyone should read at some point in their lives.

Thank you for following my Noughts and Crosses Challenge, and for reading this post.

Hannah