Title: Numbers: The Chaos
Author: Rachel Ward [website]
Genre: Dystopian, Paranormal
Publisher: Chicken House
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: drugs, alcohol, violence, death, language, bullying, sexual abuse, pregnancy
Teachable Moments: self-sufficiency, interpersonal communication, overcoming addiction, sexual abuse

“The brick under my skin is alive.  I can feel it through my fingers; it’s humming in my ears and coming up through the soles of my feet.  I can hear noises again, the screaming, the flames licking up, a deep rumbling sound getting louder and louder.  It’s filling my head now.  I stand my ground but I close my eyes tight shut.  The vibration and the noise are the same thing, building up around me, inside me.  There’s flames and faces, twisted, distorted, terrified.”

Summary (from the publisher):
When he was just a little boy, Adam learned about the numbers.  The first ones he saw were Jem’s.  That was how he knew she was going to die.

Adam inherited his mother’s curse.  With a vengeance.  When he stares into someone’s eyes, he not only sees the date of their death, he feels the searing, shocking pain of it.

Orphaned, Adam has grown up by the sea with his great-grandmother, Val.  But as rising tides flood the coast, they flee to London.  The city is an alien, anarchic place.  Most disturbing of all, Adam can’t help but clock how many people’s numbers are in January 2027; how many are on New Year’s Day.

What chaos awaits the world?  Can Adam and his damaged friend Sarah stop a catastrophe?  Or are they, too, counted among the “twenty-sevens”?

Opinion:
At the completion of Ward’s initial book in the series, Numbers, I read the preview of this book and immediately knew I was going to like it.  And like it I did.  Numbers: The Chaos was so much better than the first.

A much better example of dystopian fiction, the scene is set in London at a time when global warming has turned much of England’s climate and landscape into dangerous territory.  Not only that but the government, in an attempt to maintain a level of control, now monitors it’s residents electronically.  Big brother is not only recording where people navigate on the Internet but has even started placing microchips into humans to track their whereabouts.

Furthermore, I was much more drawn to both of the main characters in The Chaos than I was to those in it’s predecessor.  Adam, the son of Jem, has inherited her ability to see the date of a person’s death.  He, however, also has the ability to see how said individual passes and at times feels it as well.  He is a gentle boy who keeps mainly to himself as a result.  Like his parents before him he is an outcast, is bullied by those around him and is ultimately persecuted by the law and government.

Upon Adam’s return to London he meets Sarah, a young woman who has a special ability of her own.  Sarah can see into the future, most specifically her own.  Unfortunately, that future is shown to be filled with danger, much of which appears to be at Adams hands.  A typical girl who wants only to worry about boys and school she’s forced to endure the consequences of years of abuse.  Then, taking her fate into her own hands, Sarah flees her family in the hopes of better ensuring her safety .  Only in doing so she’s put herself in ever more dire circumstances.

The Chaos, told in alternating points of view between Adam and Sarah, follows the two as they make their way towards one another.  It is a long journey for them both and it’s fraught with plenty of potholes.  Adam is desperate to figure out what exactly it is that is going to happen to spark the deaths of more than half the population on the same day.  Sarah, a recent runaway, is desperate to keep everyone from knowing who she really is.  She’s also frantic to keep the stranger she continually dreams about from stealing the child that she will bear in the future.

I was pleased that this book was a much more action packed and speedy read.  There was not a time where I felt as though it dragged on or lost focus.  It was tightly plotted where the smaller parts fed into the whole in a way that didn’t feel disjointed or off track.  Many times, I’ve found, that books telling a story in alternate points of view feel staggered but Ward infused just enough of each character’s plot into the others that it flowed quite well.  Despite the fact that there were actually two individual stories being told it still felt like one.

Ward also built a much more interesting cast of characters in The Chaos.  Val, Adam’s great-grandma, was still as stubborn and curmudgeonly as she was in Numbers.  Sometimes the friend and sometimes the foe she is often the person who pushes Adam into action and more times than not she’s the person who saves his ass when whatever he does goes wrong.  There is also Vinny, the drug addicted protector of Sarah.  Though he has a clear problem he is also sweet and kind and generous when he takes a pregnant Sarah in then helps care for she and the baby.  Lastly, I quite enjoyed the brief appearance of Nelson as the computer nerd hacking his way to information in an effort to help Adam discover what the big New Year’s catastrophe would be.

Speaking of which, there were subtle hints to what it was that would happen on New Year’s Day.  So in the end it wasn’t any great surprise when it happened (at least to me anyway).  However, that didn’t ruin the story since the book was much more about the journey to getting there than the actual moment it occurred.  I will say that when it did happen there was plenty of action and reaction by all of the characters.  Of course I’m not going to expound on it here as I prefer not to spoil it but as mentioned prior I did enjoy it.

I’m glad for having made my way through book one to arrive here at book two.  It was an intriguing and enjoyable read filled with excellent characters and a smart plot worthy of a readers time and attention.  I encourage you to give it a try.