Malorie Blackman

She's the author of the Ending Fire trilogy, Cleopatra, and the Faebound trilogy, of which the final installment, Earthbound, just came out.

Saara chose Malorie Blackman's iconic 2001 YA novel Noughts and Crosses, and we had a great chat about Saara's experiences of reading it as a teenager and coming back to it as an adult, and the profound effect it had on her as a reader and writer.

Finally, two reminders before we get into the episode.

Firstly, this episode contains spoilers for Noughts and Crosses, but not for Saara's work.

... safe assumption 'cause it's many people's favorite, but it was free for you.

So could you tell us which book you've chosen and why?

Yeah, so I chose Noughts and Crosses by, uh, Malorie Blackman.

Um, honestly, this has been such a joy to go back and look at, um, and reread as well.