Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing -

There were multiple love triangles in this book for NO REASON. Why is romance just shoved into a story pointlessly? Honestly this series had such potential to be a groundbreaking dystopian masterpiece in the analysis of power play and race in society, and the first book made a good attempt, and from here it’s just unreadable. It just felt like a weird contemporary read with a random suicide-bomber and cancer storyline thrown in for shcok-value. It all felt so cheap and I literally felt nothing for any of these characters. These facts are the only things that are mine and real. So I don’t mind so much that I’m leaving it all behind. There’s nothing here worth holding onto.There is quite a bit of dotting about in the timeline, indicated with statements such as 'Callie Rose is seven', and we gradually see how the child develops from a happy trusting child who has been taught to love the father she has never known, without being told what really happened to him, into a disillusioned, confused and embittered teenager who is vulnerable to being groomed by Jude on behalf of the organisation for which he works. This is an original, intelligent, perceptive and though-provoking series of books – and whilst squarely aimed at the Young Adult market, it clearly transcends the restrictive boundaries of that genre. At last the book to tie up the loose ends of the Noughts and Crosses sequence and it certainly doesn’t disappoint in anyway. The originality of the plot is breathtaking and the characters superbly drawn. You’ll be gripped to the last. In the world of Noughts & Crosses, racism is not ‘fixed’ – it is simply inverted. Photograph: Ilze Kitshoff/BBC/Mammoth Screen

Ah, where did this series go so wrong? I just feel like the direction of the story has taken such a sharp turn from Noughts and Crosses, it’s completely not even the same story and I’m so disappointed. It’s lost all of its momentum; I feel like the dystopian and unjust society they live in isn’t even a focal point of the story and has just been pushed aside for some really weak relationships ‘development’. I can’t even begin to express how sad I was reading this book. The series had so much potential but it really should’ve been a standalone, or the first book should’ve been the basis for a more dragged out story. Sigh. The room's clean?' the General turned to ask Morgan Green, his personal assistant and right-hand man, who sat, not at the table, but just behind him. Next to Morgan sat Tanya, Morgan's assistant. They were the General's retinue and he was hardly ever seen without one or both of them in tow. Exhibit C - If you're going to write a book in first person jumping around characters, they need to have an individual voice. They all sound so logical and perfect, especially Sephy's 'mother' voice. She sounds like a generic maternal character who would get about 5 speech lines in a book; she's meant to be the main character.Okay so I'm quite confused with that ending; are Jude & Jasmine dead? Did she set the bomb off? I don't know. There's another book and the blurb for that book also confuses me (I highly recommend not reading the blurb for 'Doublecross').