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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Promising, But Uneven, December 12, 2009
This review is from: Numbers: Book 1 (Hardcover)
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Rachel Ward's NUMBERS has a good premise: a teenage British girl who can see your "number" (that is, the date of your death) just by looking into your eyes. It's the kind of "blessing" that is, in fact, a "curse" and has all kinds of possibilities as a science fiction thriller. The trouble is, NUMBERS has an identity problem. It's a coming-of-age tale that wants badly to be a science fiction piece and ultimately winds up being a hybrid -- one that doesn't quite satisfy on either front.
Not that there's a lack of things to like about the book. It maintains your interest as the protagonist, Jem, a rather street-smart type, hooks up with Spider, a black ne'er-do-well who gets in trouble with the law and goes on the lam with his sweetheart. In fact, the "road" portion of the book, where Jem and Spider are fleeing authorities after witnessing a terrorist attack (they ran because Jem saw the same numbers -- that day's -- in all the people's eyes), is the best stretch of all, as it allows Ward to show a deft hand at characterization and humor. But the numbers keep getting in the way, and when they do, you expect Ward to go somewhere with them. She never quite does that. Instead, the book holds to realism more than you might expect, and you grow increasingly intolerant of a numbers sub-plot that ultimately transforms into an irritant. It all lands in a heap at the end -- an eye-roll "surprise" line at the finish which doesn't quite satisfy and seems a bit pat.
Still, I wager that the book might appeal to older teens (if it were a movie, it would assuredly earn its "R" rating) curious as to what happens with the death-date thing. I myself wondered how Ward would handle it. But ultimately it was the "book that wasn't" that I liked best -- the narrative of an unlikely "odd couple" falling in love. Take away the premise of the numbers and there you have it: a solid story of two dumb but lovable kids. Gimmick-free, that alone could have carried the novel in my mind.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Formulaic Young Adult Book, November 28, 2009
This review is from: Numbers: Book 1 (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The earlier reviewer who wrote: "The book started off strong, bogged down in the middle, and then whimpered toward an unsatisfying predictable ending" was spot on.
The premise is that Jem, a 15 year old orphaned girl in London knows when people will die. When she looks someone in the eye, a date pops into her head; that date is the day the person will die. Knowing when others will die leads Jem to avoid personal relationships with everyone; she never lets anyone get too close.
Jem, begrudgingly, befriends another social outcast like herself nick-named Spider. When the pair finds themselves suspended from school, they head for the tourist areas of London, and wind up making a bit of a scene in front of the London Eye. Jem then notices that a bunch of people in line for the Eye have the same number: today.
It's a wonderful setup that quickly devolves into familiar themes and worn out cliches.
The big lure of "Numbers" is centered around the London Eye, but this particular plot device runs its course rather rapidly (and yet, is never resolved). It's merely the launching point for the "grand adventure" in the book. I put grand adventure in quotes there to signify that it's really not all that grand. I completely understand the author's decision to use this event as a fulcrum, but the adventure that follows seems to glorify being homeless, not showering, and stealing. I could mention a few other items, but I don't want to completely give the story away.
The upshot for me being that Jem and Spider make some SERIOUSLY bad choices and the author justifies these choices by saying it's because of where they come from. Blaming society... hasn't that been done already?
There are, however, a few memorable moments in the book where Rachel Ward scores a direct hit. When the kids first encounter cows ("That cow is sick...") is the comedic high-point of the book. And when Jem's foster-mom asks her if she's ever been camping gets major points for symmetry and poetry.
I'd imagine that the target audience for this book is mid- to late-teen girls, but I'm not too sure if the bleak and hopeless adventure that makes up 80% of the book is going to satisfy them.
For me, "Numbers" was formulaic, thematic, predictable, and unsatisfying. I have a feeling a lot of others will agree with me.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
3 Stars for Num8ers, March 12, 2010
This review is from: Numbers: Book 1 (Hardcover)
3 Stars - First off, I almost didn't finish reading Numbers. It kept me forever waiting for something to happen. I never felt that I connected with either of the characters until I'd say the last few pages. Then I finally felt like Jem was or could be a real person, who was more then the hard shell she put up around her.
After I finished reading, I figured a few things out, that the parts of the book that dragged for me, needed to drag for the end result to have the affect on me that it did. To be able to really see just what the message of this book was, there needed to be all that came before it. At least for me to be able to understand things that is.
The message is finally clear in the last few pages and I'm sure there are other readers out there who will have the same reaction I did. I don't want to tell anyone because it will give too much away.
Jem is such a strong 15 year old girl that sometimes that strong nature gets in the way. She tries to stay away from everyone for her fear of the numbers that she knows are the dates people will die, she just doesn't understand why she can see them or what they really mean.
Along the way she allows herself to connect with a fellow classmate Spider. After witnessing a horrible event, they run. Most of this story is of the two of these characters as they flee from London. Oh, and that's another thing I loved about this book. It's all set in England. Some who aren't familiar to British terms or slang might be a little confused, but don't let that bother you. With the internet it's easy to look things up to understand what the various things mean.
Jem and Spider somehow fit together. They are both so different from each other and yet they work. At the end of the book I was rooting for them in their relationship and in their troubles with the police.
As I said before, there's a bigger picture to this whole story, it just took this reader awhile to get there. If it wasn't for the ending I don't think, no correction - I would not have been able to give it the star rating that I did.
If you're just picking this book up and want to give up, keep reading. If your hearing mixed reviews, give it a try; just don't give up on it. The message at the end is well worth it. I'll be reading the sequel - Numbers 02. The Chaos, what about you?
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