Review: Numbers

Title: Numbers
Author: Rachel Ward
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic Inc.
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: R.A.K. (Random Acts of Kindness)

Whenever Jem 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 an awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships.  Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance.  But while they're waiting to ride the Eye Ferris wheel, Jem notices that all the tourists in like flash the same number.  Today's number.  Today's date.  Terrorists are going to attack London.  Jem's world is about to explode!

My thoughts:

Numbers is a whirlwind right from the beginning.  We learn so much about Jem in the first couple chapters and begin to understand why she prefers to keep people at a distance.  Just thinking about it, it would be really hard to have a best friend if you knew the exact day they were going to die.  The details concerning the first part of her life are so heart-wrenching that you want her story to turn out good to make up for her beginning struggles.

I liked Jem and Spider's relationship from the beginning.  Their interaction and the way they support one another is so easy and comes so natural.  Which is surprising for a character like Jem who prefer's to avoid relationships. Their relationship is pure and essentially beautiful without any harsh judgments or doubt in their ability to take care of each other.  I also really like Spider's grandmother who is so wise and knowing.  She knows Jem is different from the first time she saw her and she accepted her without question.

After the explosion of the Ferris wheel, the story and plot line are constantly going until the end.  When Spider and Jem were on the run together, I was constantly torn between wanting them to go to the police and just tell them the truth or to keep running until the police lost track of them.  I couldn't decide which was the better decision.  I also wanted there to be some huge significant event that would change the course of Spider's life and therefore change the date of his death, but no such luck.

As much as I loved this story so much, I didn't like the end at all.  The whole book is about the span of one week and the end suddenly flashes forward about six years.  The book was still really good, I just wish that it would have ended different.  The fact that it was so different is what I liked about it the most.  Most supernatural books have to do with witches, vampires or werewolves, but there are not too many books dealing with a teenager who can see the date of everyone's death.  It is definitely a memorable read!