Review: Numbers

Numbers by Rachel Ward

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today's number. Today's date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem's world is about to explode!

Jem tries to avoid people. It's not like she doesn't like them or the fact that she's been pushed from foster family to foster family ever since she found her mother dead from an overdose, it's just that she has a secret. She can see the exact day people are going to die, just from looking in their eyes. So, she tries to avoid them. That is until she meets Spider, another outsider and decides to break her rules. When the two plan a trip to the city and they wait to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem notices that everyone surrounding them has the same date of death: Today. After fleeing, panicked about what is going to happen, the police begin to seek them out, but whether it's to question over what they saw or to blame them for what happened, Jem doesn't want to find out because who would believe that a couple of troublemaking misfits were innocent?

This book definitely wasn't what I expected. I didn't expect to find a foul-mouthed orphan who deliberately pushes everyone away because she doesn't want to be burdened with knowing when they are going to die and not being able to warn them. After all, even if they did believe her, what would they do if they knew how many days they had left? At times it felt hard to connect with Jem because she was so distant from everyone, but that was her character. For a character who's life seriously sucks, Ward does a good job at creating a character that is full of conflict and doubt.

The beginning started off slow as the reader was introduced to Jem's school, life and the turmoil she has to deal with. Once the incident at the Eye happened, the story turned into an adventure with constant twists and turns as Jem and Spider tried to keep away from the authorities who wanted to question them over the tragedy.

While I wasn't expecting the adventure and chase to be the central focus as I would have liked Jem to be more concerned with proving her innocence rather than running from the law, the world Ward created around the power of the numbers was intriguing and I look forward to reading the second book to see where the power goes next.

Source: Audible
2012 TBR Reading Challenge: #4 of 11

2012 YA Reading Challenge: #15 of 50