Review | Numbers by Rachel Ward

Title: Numbers by Rachel Ward
Series: Numbers #1
Genre: YA - Fantasy
Publication: February 1st 2010 by Chicken House/Scholastic Inc
Format: ARC
Source: Around the World Tours
Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis: Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she 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 awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see 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!

Thoughts: So far I've seen many "Eh it was okay" sort of reviews for this book and I must say I completely disagree! I must the only sane one (or crazy one, haha) out there. I really enjoyed this one, and although there are quite a few other reviewers out there who disagree, I completely respect everyone's opinion. I must say though, that I could not put this book down.

From the start, I was intruiged by Jem, she was an interesting and isolated character that I couldn't help but like her. She reminded me a bit about me, and maybe that is why I was able to like it from the beginning. Not only did I like her, but I liked Spider too, as weird as he was. The other characters in the book were also well written and described in my opinion, and although I didn't like them all, I was able to connect with the story better because of each one.

Now, my favorite part of the book was the actual "power" I guess we could call it, or "curse", that Jem had. I would be terrified to be able to see the date of people's death's and like her I would isolate myself from the world. It starts off a bit slow, but I didn't think it was bad, more of an introduction to the book and then the pace picks up and its twists and turns from then on. The ending, I thought, was fantastic. Just like I like them, with something you weren't expecting.