''Noughts & Crosses'' series is set in a parrellel world where [[PersecutionFlip the people with dark skin (Crosses) are dominant over the white people (noughts)]] in the 1960s (with technology from the 1980s), written by Creator/MalorieBlackman. The title is a reference to the game [[TabletopGame/TicTacToe Noughts and Crosses]] [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage (tic-tac-toe)]].

A [[Series/NoughtsAndCrosses TV adaptation]] of the first book began airing on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC One]] in the UK during March 2020.

!! This series consists of:
* ''Noughts & Crosses''
* ''An Eye For an Eye''
* ''Knife Edge''
* ''Checkmate''
* ''Double Cross''
* ''Crossfire''
* ''Endgame''

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!! This series provides examples of:

* TheAlcoholic: Jasmine Hadley. Sephy for a while but she works through it.
* AlphaBitch:
** Bliss, one of Callie Rose's classmates, to the point of speaking in a valley girl manner.
** Averted with Cara Imega, who cares for Jude regardless of race until she is [[spoiler: killed off by Jude.]]
* AlternateHistory: The reason why there is so much prejudice against noughts is because they were enslaved by people from Africa, rather than the other way round. (See below).
* AluminiumChristmasTrees: The story is centered in an alternate universe where Africans took over Europe. In real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus Muslims took over Iberia (modern day Spain)]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople and eastern Europe]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade and enslaved white people (although they also enslaved non-whites]].
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Lynette, Ryan and Callum himself in the first book. Jasmine and Jude in ''Checkmate''.]]
* BittersweetEnding: ''Checkmate''. [[spoiler: Jasmine kills Jude, preventing him from harming Sephy or Callie anymore but dies as a result and Meggie loses her last child. Sephy and Callie reconcile and realize Callum loved both of them all along, but will never really get over his death.]]
* BigotWithACrush: In ''Knife Edge'', Jude falls in love with the rich Cross Cara, [[spoiler: which does not end well, with Jude attempting to reconcile his feelings by beating her to death after stealing her money.]]
* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Sephy and Callum, but due to the alternate universe PersecutionFlip, he's viewed as her inferior rather than vice versa, making it more of a case of WhereDaWhiteWomenAt.
** Likewise with Jude and [[spoiler: Cara.]]
* BreakTheCutie: The whole book is basically this for Callum and Sephy, who start off as relatively optimistic and hopeful about their futures (Sephy moreso than Callum) and become much more cynical and broken. Lynette and Jude also go through this before the book even starts.
** Callie Rose goes through this after she is told what happened to her father.
** Meggie reflects in ''Checkmate'' that telling teenaged Jude that he had to leave school early was this to him, and she even believes this started the path towards what he would eventually become, stating that she saw all his idealism and affection withered away after that.
* ButNotTooWhite: On account of PersecutionFlip, pale skin is looked down upon.
* ChildrenAreInnocent:
** Played completely straight in [[spoiler: young]] Callum, Sephy, Callie.
** Averted by the younger peers in Callie's school.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Sephy and Callum. [[spoiler: As they grow up their romantic feelings are completely, 100% reciprocated but outside forces tear them apart averting them becoming 'victorious' childhood friends.]]
** Played straight with [[spoiler: Tobey and Callie Rose.]]
* CrapsackWorld: If you're a nought. Also, Britain is a rare example of dystopia/CrapsackWorld in that society functions ''well''.
* CrusadingLawyer: Kelani Adams who defends Callum's dad in his murder trial. Sephy plans to become one [[spoiler: before she gets pregnant.]]
* DeadGuyJunior: Sephy names Callie Rose after her father (although she decided that before Callum was sentenced to death). If Callie had been a boy, she stated that she would have called him Ryan after Callum's deceased father. Rose was actually Callum's suggestion when they met for the last time, but Sephy suggested Callie.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: And how. Much of the attitude against noughts mirrors prejudice against black people during segregation in America, apartheid in South Africa and to a lesser extent attitudes towards black people in Britain until the 1960's. The Liberation Milita are realistic WellIntentionedExtremist, with echoes of the IRA in cell structure, modus operandi and treatment by the media, and of MK and PAC anti apartheid guerrillas in South Africa. Kamal Hadley's political policy of "sending white people back where they came from," resembles some peoples ideas about immigration in (modern) Britain. There is even a reference to a KKK-esque band of Crosses who tied a nought to the back of a car and dragged him till he died for being in a ''Cross only'' area.
* DomesticAbuse: Kamal, both physically and emotionally towards Jasmine.
* DownerEnding: Depends on which book you read. [[spoiler: ''Noughts and Crosses'' and ''Knife Edge'' have these, but it's averted overall because AndTheAdventureContinues.]]
* DrowningMySorrows: Jasmine from the start, then Sephy as a teenager.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: [[spoiler:Tobey to Callie Rose.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Toby's struggle throughout his entire Main/ADayInTheLimelight book is for this cause. The entire series is this because it is the [[spoiler: final book]]
* EmptyShell: Jude eventually becomes this, somewhat because he wants to stop feeling anything. He reflects that he can't even feel happy that he's got to that point.
* EthnicMenialLabour: Meggie is a housemaid, Sarah is a cleaner, Tobey works in a shop for a while, Callum in a garage...
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Utterly subverted with Jude, who attacked a pregnant Sephy and planned to kill her, only sparing her when he realised she wanted to die... then decided it would hurt her more if he let her live then turned Callum's daughter against her mother.
* FamilyThemeNaming: The Hadleys named both their daughters after goddesses - Minerva (the Roman goddess of wisdom) and Persephone (the Greek goddess of springtime and maidenhood). May also cement their positions of Minerva being the responsible, logical one, and Sephy being the idealistic, somewhat naive one.
* FantasticRacism
* FantasticSlur: Nought, Cross (although those are politically correct, "nought," means to be nothing, not worthwhile,) Blanker, Dagger, Halfer. The list goes on.
* FirstLove: Callum and Sephy for each other.
* ForbiddenFriendship: Sephy and Callum start as this and upgrade to StarCrossedLovers during the course of the book.
* HerHeartWillGoOn: [[spoiler: Sephy attempts to invoke this, dating Sonny and eventually agreeing to marry Nathan years after the events of the first book. However Callie doubts than she ever really got over Callum.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Callum allows himself to be hanged in exchange for Sephy keeping their child.]]
* IgnoringBySinging: Just after Callie Rose finds out the truth about her dad, she starts refusing to talk to Sephy apart from asking for confirmation for the truth and then stating her feelings. When all else fails, she starts singing, making it impossible for Sephy to talk to her.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Kamal starts here, and continues as he means to go on.
* LadyDrunk: Jasmine Hadley.
* LaResistance: The Liberation Militia.
* MamaBear: Meggie [=McGregor=] and Jasmine Hadley.
* MeaningfulName: Persephone (Sephy) Hadley.
** Callum's name (meaning Dove of Peace) is a particularly tragic example, as he starts out believing in fighting for racial equality through peaceful, non-violent means, [[{{TraumaCongaLine}} but has the hope slowly]] [[{{TheWoobie}} beaten out of him.]]
* MeaningfulRename: Sephy drops the "Callie" from Callie Rose's name, and starts calling her "Rose".
** Reverted, when Callie Rose [[spoiler:joins the LM and starts going by just "Callie".]]
* TheMole: Kamal has one inside the Liberation Militia, which leads to the destruction of Jude and Callum's cell. Making things worse for Jude and Callum, the mole outranks them, meaning they can't expose him without risking their own lives.
* MorningSickness: [[spoiler:Minerva correctly assumes Sephy is pregnant after hearing her being sick in the mornings. This a bit of a shock to Sephy who was in denial about her pregnancy.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Callum and Sephy having sex that night sent both their lives down the crapper, something Jude did pointed out at the time.
* TheOphelia: Lynette, in a creepy, realistic way. "But I'm a Cross. Look at my skin, so dark and rich..." She does recover, eventually, but can't take the real world after a while.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:All three of Maggie [=McGregor=]'s children die before her: Lynette by suicide, Callum by execution, and Jude by assassination in a murder-suicide attack.]]
* PapaWolf: Ryan [=McGregor=] to his children.
* PresidentEvil: Kamal Hadley was planning on being Prime Minster, but he doesn't succeed.
* RayOfHopeEnding: Noughts and Crosses. [[spoiler: Callum is hanged with Sephy screaming her love for him as he dies and no one else believes he's innocent of rape.However the last page of the book bears the announcement of the birth of their daughter and Sephy's declaration she'll take Callum's surname.]]
* RebelliousPrincess: Sephy is a modern version as the daughter of a politician.
* SaveTheVillain: [[spoiler: Sephy to Jude, so she can help his mother, Meggie.]]
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Eventually, Callum gets fed up with the unfair treatment he gets at school, and just walks out before he can be expelled.
* SiblingYinYang: Snobbish, bitchy Minnie and idealistic, open-minded Sephy.
* SleazyPolitician : Kamal
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: Sephy names their daughter Callie-Rose after Callum and the rose garden where they last saw each other.]]
* StarCrossedLovers: Sephy and Callum.
* SwitchingPOV:
** ''Noughts and Crosses'' switches between Callum and Sephy in first person
** ''Knife Edge'' switches between Sephy and Jude.
** ''Checkmate'' features Sephy, Callie Rose, Jude, Meggie, and Jasmine all as POV characters.
** ''Double Cross'' switches between Callie Rose and Tobey.
* TokenWhite: It is mentioned by Meggie that in all T.V shows there will only be ONE nought if any.
* TraumaCongaLine: Basically the entire first book for Callum: [[spoiler: His sister is borderline insane, his older brother picks on him and his parents disapprove of him continuing his education at a previously Cross only secondary school. At said-school he's constantly bullied by students and teachers for his race. Then his sister is killed in an accident, and he discovers it was actually suicide but can't bring himself to tell anyone, his dad is arrested for murder, almost executed and then killed trying to escape. And of course he has to keep his friendship with Sephy a secret, then falls in love with her while knowing they can never be together and he misses his one chance to run away with her. They eventually have one night together and conceive a child...which results in him being put to death and not even being allowed to see her again before he dies.]]
** Thanks to the above events, Callum's family suffer this as well.
* UptownGirl: Sephy, the daughter of a wealthy politician to Callum whose mother used to work for her parents. It's just one of the many obstacles they face.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Jasmine and Meggie, before Jasmine fired her (wrecking her family's life in the process) for accidentally not providing an alibi about a night out. Jasmine eventually does her best to mend their relationship and even states in her will that ending her friendship with Meggie was one of the biggest mistakes she ever made.
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Lynette and her mentioned boyfriend, Jed. [[spoiler: They are almost killed because of it, sending her over the edge.]]
* WideEyedIdealist: Sephy, at least during the first book. Callum is this in comparison to the rest of his family but gets steadily more cynical.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:[[spoiler: Jude]], starts of a sweet but troubled kid who eventually slides down the slope into being a ruthless and destructive leader of the Liberation Militia.
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