A review by reginacattus
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

3.0

It's been quite a while since I read the first one, which set up a backwards world where the ugly stereotypes of race have been reversed. Now, as I thought then, I find it a lovely slap in the face. Sometimes you need the bad stuff poured on you to really see it. In any case, this book is in the same universe, following mostly the same characters in a mostly unchanged world. The stakes now, though, are if anything higher yet. But the same core values are held as Sephy fights to love her mixed race child despite it all, and each character struggles against the deeply seeded prejudices. Jude, though, is an absolute sickening piece of work. He is so messed up he thinks he's right, but every one of "Jude's Laws" is too immovable, too fixed to allow exceptions and that has made him basically a psychopath. Yet I'm certain there are real radicals out there quite like him; able to feel but far too indoctrinated or emotionally scarred to let themselves. Still, he either has to miraculously redeem himself or die in the next book. The book's written in the same charismatic writing style you expect from Blackman, and I rather enjoyed it. I gave it three stars because all the love is dead. Not bad as a serve it fresh book, but not what I wanted to read.