“Callum was the one person in the world I could tell anything and everything to without having to think twice about it.”

Sephy describes the deep connection she feels toward Callum. Their connection is natural and organic despite the social barriers between them. Their relationship stands at the center of the novel and explores greater themes of love, honor, and acceptance.

“Sometimes I wondered if it was worth losing your marbles to find that kind of peace. Sometimes I envied her.”

Callum discusses his sister Lynette, who suffered an accident three years earlier and now lives in a mental state separate from the world around her. Callum envies her lack of understanding of what’s happening around her. Callum searches for peace throughout the novel and does not find it until his final act of sacrifice for his child.

“It seemed to me we’d practiced segregation for centuries now and that hadn’t worked either. What would satisfy all the noughts and the Crosses who felt the same as Mum? Separate countries? Separate planets? How far away was far enough? What was it about the differences in others that scared some people so much?”

Callum argues with his mother about attending Heathcroft High, a Cross school. Callum’s mother harbors a deep mistrust of Crosses and believes in the segregation of the two groups. Callum poses rhetorical questions that explore the nature of discrimination and its root causes.