Num8ers

Num8ers by Rachel Ward

Numbers #1

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!

Jem has always tried to keep herself apart from others. She carries a terrible burden. Every time she looks into someone's eyes she can see the date they die. One day she meets Spider and everything changes. For the first time in her life she allows herself to get close to someone. However, everything goes terribly wrong one day when she realizes they are in a place where everyone is about to die. They hightail it out of the place, but not before they are spotted by the officials. In a fit of fear they go on the run, but Jem knows time is running short as she knows everyone's numbers, including Spider's.

This book deals a lot with the aspects of fate and choice, with fate seeming to be the ruling factor. As I'm a major believer in choice this kinda grated at me. Well, actually I should say I believe in a mixture of the two, as I think some things are fated to be, but there always is a choice. It is our decisions based on those fated events that send us one way or another. This book more made it as if things were fated to happen and no matter what you did, you couldn't change that fact. I think I would have rather the character had some sort of say in their lives, even if the chance to change things was very slim, at least they would have a little power in the end.

At first I thought the relationship between Jem and Spider was unrealistic and forced. However, once I took at step back and really looked at what their lives where, it is no wonder the two fell in love so quickly. Growing up without anyone to really support them and no one to trust things had to be incredibly rough. So, when someone comes along that fits that bill, they would grab and hold on tight. So, while things may have felt a little rushed, in their situation they had to take advantage of the time they had as they never knew what was coming next.

This was a very difficult book for me to rate as I both loved and almost hated it at the same time. The book had a very predictable ending, yet it teases you the entire time making you think your prediction might just be wrong. Then it pulls the rug out from under you. It read very quickly and kept me sucked in right until the end. I think my biggest problem with the story was the fate aspect as I spoke about earlier, but that won't stop me from reading the next installment. Even though I'm rating this a three, I still think it is definitely worth checking out as it was a very intriguing read with a good "moral" answer at the end.

Rating:

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Numbers 

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