A review by leonajasmin
Checkmate by Malorie Blackman

5.0

I was expecting to take three days to read this book but did in two. This was my joint-favourite with the first of the series during my first readthrough and is still as good as I remember it. I loved the characters and they all had distinct voices in this one, despite the number of regular POV's being higher than in the preceding books of the series. There are slower points in the book, but they never last long enough for them to feel dull; it's appropriate pacing rather than poor. I found that adding Callie's age did help with the time skip's and made them less confusing than they were in Knife Edge. Overall, this book felt cleaner than Knife Edge, not quite having the same iconic-ness of Noughts and Crosses, but still being enjoyable, especially for those who like a book spanning a longer timeframe.