Title: Numbers
Author: Rachel Ward [website]
Genre: Dystopian, Paranormal
Publisher: Chicken House
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: terrorism, drugs, alcohol, violence, death
Teachable Moments: honesty, persecution, loneliness, abandonment, legal system, bullying, acceptance

“Something made me open my eyes again — something different about the noise, someone pushing against me, I don’t know.  Across the room, things were heating up.  A group of guys, including the one with the tattoos, were shoving somebody around.  Hands, shoulder,s, elbows all going in.  In the middle of it all, towering above them, was Spider.  Big as he was, there was no doubt what was going on.  They were bullying him, intimidating him.  He was holding his hands up, as if to say , Hold on, guys, while they ranged ’round him like hyenas.  He’s tall, Spider, but there’s no meat on him, and my stomach flipped over to see him like that.  So vulnerable.”

Summary (from the publisher):
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 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.

Opinion:
I will be honest and say that for about the first two-thirds of Numbers I was not at all taken with the plot or characters.  The introduction to Jem and her circumstances was told at such a leisurely pace that on many occasions I contemplated abandoning the book.  I will say, however, that I’m glad I stuck it out because the last third of the is where it got interesting.

Jem is not the kind of character I am easily connected to.  She’s hard-edged and closes herself off from the people around her as a defense mechanism.  Given the life she’s lead thus far such behavior is to be expected but when crafting a character I’m expected to follow through a story it helps to have something that allows for empathy or at the very least sympathy.  This was a deficiency in Jem’s character much of the time.  Now, having said that Jem’s got deeply rooted abandonment issues which influence her ability to create and maintain relationships.  This means she’s supposed to keep me at a distance.  In that way I felt Ward did a wonderful job.  It’s just that for a reader like me (one that needs that immediate spark) the more leisurely pace tends to fall towards the negative than the positive.

I’m glad to say, again, that the end of the book did go a long way to bettering my opinion.  Jem progresses as an individual to the point that I finally found a way to feel something for her.  By the last third of the book she was able to open herself up to the possibility of love and sharing parts of herself with someone else emotionally and physically.  As a result she became less robotic.

So, slow build = no; but ultimate destination of connection for Jem = yes.

In the relationship Ward built between Jem and Spider she found another success.  Like all other elements of the story their romance was slow to build.  Initially friends, she latched on to him for no other reason than to be able to spend time with someone with little need for depth or reflection.

Much like Jem, Spider too starts a bit blah on the character rating scale.  A boy who’s also raised in less than happy circumstances he’s significantly introverted.  Thus making him all the more appealing.  But, over time, as comfort levels increased, they started to peel away the different layers and were ultimately able to form a loving relationship.

Naturally, in lives such as theirs there is little good fortune or happiness to be had.  The plot centered perfectly around both being outcasts.  It’s hard for me to speak to how the story played into all of it but when tragedy strikes (in the form of a terrorist attack in London) it is not hard to see how things escalate so quickly then progress further to the finishing point.

I admit I struggle with labling this book dystopian though that is where I’ve seen it marketed most.  I’d fall a little closer on the paranormal side frankly.  Jem has this power where she can see the date of a person’s death but only very smallsubtle parts of the story alluded to anything dystopic.  And while Jem’s ability played into the story it wasn’t the central focus of the entire story.  It was a burden she had to bear and it was a catalyst for the larger whole of the story but the power itself was a much more minimal part overall.

Interestingly enough, as a person who typically likes the “why” of something I didn’t have my usual concern with it’s dismissal here.  The point of the plot wasn’t to explain how Jem came into her power or the history behind it, it just happened to be something she could do and something that spurned movement in other facets of her life.

In the end, I was glad I stuck it out with this book.  Is it my most favorite read ever?  No.  Is it the bottom of the barrel?  Most definitely no to that too.

Numbers is an interesting take on one girls’ journey to self-discovery and provides a mainly character based look at a circumstances instigated through the paranormal.