Numbers Book 2: The Chaos (2)

Adam is Jem's son and she has passed on her curse to him. Seventeen years has passed, Jem is dead and Adam has been living with his grandmother. When they go back into the city he is shocked to find that everyone's number is the same January 2027. He knows something terrible is coming but doesn't know what, or if he'll be able to stop it.

The Chaos is just as creepy and unique as the first one. I think having the curse would be scary and quite stressful. It was an good, intriguing read. Although I liked the first book a lot more. But really that has to do with characters. Jem was a great character, I loved her personality. The ending of The Chaos was pretty intense. The curse just got turned up a notch... wonder where it's gonna lead.

I'm not sure if this series qualifies as a dystopian, but I think it is a bit. It's definitely futuristic. I would recommend this series to fans of either genre. It's not one to miss.

3 Stars= Good Read

Numbers: The Chaos is an excellent sequel. In my opinion, it's better than the first installment in the series, Numbers, thanks to a smoother pacing, a stronger plot, and strong characters.

Adam is Jem and Spider's son from the first novel, and now he's a teenager living in a world that is falling apart. The seas are rising, natural disasters are happening with increasing frequency, and life in England is taking a more totalitarian bend with surveillance everywhere and human beings being chipped like household pets. The setting of this book is even bleaker than that of the first book in the series; there's little hope to be found anywhere.

Characterization is once again Ward's strong suit, and I was surprised to find that I actually like the characters in The Chaos better than I did Jem and Spider in the first book. They're all very well-crafted, realistic teenagers stuck in terrible situations, but I found Adam and Sarah-a pregnant schoolmate of his who is strangely linked to him through her dreams-to be more sympathetic and easier to relate to, despite the fact that none of my own life experiences even come close to what these two have put up with. Adam, who can not only see the date of a person's death but also how they're going to die, is frightened both by the horrible things he sees as well as what the numbers seem to be pointing to: a great disaster that rips through London in January 2027. In order to keep his sanity, he writes down all of the things he sees as a way to get it out of his head. I spent most of the book wishing that I could give Adam a hug, or that he'd at least hug his Nan.

Sarah is from a different background than Adam, as well as Jem and Spider from the first book. All of the other characters are from the working class, but Sarah is from a wealthier background. This doesn't mean she has had any easier of a time growing up. As she's introduced in the book, I felt a growing sense of horror as the details of her home life slowly came out through her narration. This girl doesn't deserve any of the awful things that have happened to her, but she's strangely adaptable and manages to make her own way after running away from home. A lot of that is luck, but she's a tough, ballsy girl who is willing to do what it takes to take care of herself and her baby.

One of my big complaints about the first book in the series is that the pacing and plot were uneven. Thankfully, the pacing in The Chaos is much smoother, building to a breathless conclusion. The plot is also better, with fewer instances of downtime in the middle of the action, and I was hanging on every word. I actually finished reading the book very late at night because I couldn't stand to sleep without knowing how it would end.

My only complaint about The Chaos isn't really a complaint, the more I think about it. The disasters, like the characters' psychic abilities, aren't explained. On one hand, I want to know why these things are happening. But as I said, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that the reader is kept in the dark. None of the characters understand why they have these abilities, and it's not like there's someone in the book who sits them down and tells them all about it. The disasters mentioned early in the book, such as the flooded coasts and volcanic eruptions in other countries, aren't explained because Adam and Sarah aren't particularly concerned with why they're happening. As a reader, I can infer that global warming probably plays a part in the rising seas, but these two teenagers in very bad situations aren't going to sit around, watching the news and thinking about the mechanics behind the disasters. So despite my frustration with being kept in the dark, I can completely understand why Ward has written the book this way, and I think it works.

The book ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm definitely hooked. Numbers: The Chaos is a strong sequel that improves upon everything created in the first novel. I'm looking forward to the third book.

4 stars out of 5

(This review originally published at The Discriminating Fangirl.)

Parents beware. The language is absolutely awful. Every curse word you can image is used. If you have advanced young readers, you'll want to put this book way way up! I was disappointed to see the Scholastic label on this thinking it was appropriate because it had that label on it. No warning label or anything to indicate that parents may want to beware.

When fifteen-year-old Adam Dawson looks into your eyes, he can see the date of your death. It is a curse he inherited from his mom, Jem Marsh, who died of cancer when he was eight. Because of the rising oceans, Adam and his great-grandmother Nan have been forced to leave their seaside apartment in Weston and relocate to Kilburn in West London. During his travels, he looks into the eyes of many people and realizes that approximately one-third of them will die on January 1, 2027 or soon afterwards. At school, Adam meets Sarah Harrison who experiences nightmares of an impending disaster. Together, they must try to evacuate London before three million people die!

"The Chaos" is Rachel Ward's terrifying sequel to "Numbers." In fact, I found "The Chaos" to be much more intriguing. In "Numbers," dozens of people die at the London Eye Ferris Wheel when a bomb explodes. Most of the novel dealt with Jem and her boyfriend, Terry "Spider" Dawson, avoiding capture by the police who suspect them of planting the bomb; they were seen fleeing the Ferris wheel moments before the explosion. Some of "Numbers" was dry. Not so with "The Chaos," which was non-stop action and suspense. From the opening chapter, the countdown to horror begins.

Poor Adam has more problems than the average teenager. He is an orphan living alone in a poor neighborhood with his chain-smoking Nan. He is in love with a rich girl, Sarah, who is terrified of him because she sees him in her dreams snatching her baby and walking into a hellish conflagration. He is victimized by the school bully, Junior Driscoll. Meanwhile, Adam wrestles with his curse. He is tormented by physical and emotional pain; he can actually feel the suffering of millions of Londoners who will be experiencing numerous types of gruesome deaths. He constantly debates with himself on whether he should warn the public about the approaching disaster. To make matters worse, the police want to arrest Adam for a murder he didn't commit.

I admire Adam for deciding to risk his life to warn millions of strangers of impending disaster. However, the one I admire most is Sarah. She leaves her abusive father and strikes out on her own. Initially, she finds herself living in a flat with a group of young prostitutes and a cruel pimp. Later, she becomes housemother to a trio of drug addicts. One of them is Vinnie who is her self-appointed guardian; he protects Sarah and her newborn baby, Mia.

"The Chaos" is written in the first person. Chapters alternate between Adam and Sarah. Each one describes events according to their point of view. Sometimes, especially towards the end of the novel, I became confused as to who was speaking, Adam or Sarah. Also, I found the language rather vulgar for the intended audience of fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds. I wouldn't want my fourteen-year-old nephew reading this novel. Also, the adult situations, such as prostitution, drug abuse, and incest, were too mature for young teenagers. (I'm merely stating this as a warning to parents who wish to monitor what their children are reading; I never allowed it to affect my overall evaluation of the novel.) Fortunately, there was the absence of a sex scene between teenagers as there was in "Numbers." At least that was necessary in order for Jem to become pregnant and pass her curse on to the next generation.

The setting for "The Chaos" is an unique one. Here we have a futuristic London in the year 2026. The students all have palm-nets in which teachers can remotely download their lessons. Drones hover above the city; equipped with cameras, they constantly watch the citizens. Prisoners and newborn babies are injected with microchips, which make it easier for authorities to track them. Starvation, rioting and blackouts are common. The world is in political and economic turmoil; in other words, chaos reigns. Many religious people would say the end of the world is near.

The majority of the novel occurs around my favorite time of the year, the holiday season. Unfortunately, there is not much Christmas cheer at the Dawson residence. In fact, Nan has to remind Adam, who is consumed with worry, that it is Christmas. The cold, freezing weather plays a significant role; it will make it more difficult for people to survive the disaster of which the author doesn't spare the reader any gory details.

I highly enjoyed Rachel Ward's nightmarish novel, "The Chaos." I recommend it for mature readers who like futuristic horror. If it was a movie, I'd definitely give it an R rating because of the graphic language, drug abuse and violence. Nevertheless, I look forward to the next installment, "Infinity," which, according to the author's website, will be available in England in June 2011. Perhaps, in this novel, someone will look into the eyes of everyone around them and realize that a natural disaster will not only destroy a city, but the entire world. I do know this, there will be some hell raising and chaos at my home if I don't get to review "Infinity."

Joseph B. Hoyos

THE CHAOS picks up more than a decade after NUMBERS ended. Both Jem and Spider are dead and their son, Adam, is being raised by Spider's grandmother. The heartbreaking ending of NUMBERS confirmed that Adam had indeed inherited his mothers morbid ability of seeing the date of a person's death in their eyes and the burden of that `gift' has taken its toll.

But Adam is not just his mother's son. He's every bit as angry at the world as his father was. More so. I could feel his rage boiling under his skin constantly, even the slightest provocation would set him off. It's no surprise that he makes a nasty enemy his first day at a new school, but it is surprising when he meets Sarah. She is the other protagonist in THE CHAOS and gets half the chapters. Her story is every bit as tragic as Adam's and his parents, if more insidious. Like Adam, she's special, but in a different way. When she meets Adam for the first time, it's literally her nightmare come to life.

The depiction of London is every bit as vivid as before, both the posh and seedy locations described with equal clarity. The characters are likewise portrayed with complete transparency. Ward doesn't shy away from the ugly truth, but neither does she gratuitously exploit her characters. They are all hard, brash and belligerent, angry at the world and themselves, Adam more so than Sarah. But I found them both so compelling and realistic that I wasn't put off by the volatile aspects of their personalities, quite the opposite. I cared about them desperately.

THE CHAOS is a story that demands your complete attention until its over. I was held captive by this story, these young lovers, the injustice of their lives, and the impossible task set before them. There is love and hatred, desire and depravity, hope and despair. All told in beautiful prose by the talented Rachel Ward. The third Numbers book, INFINITY, will be released on June 6, 2011. I can only pray that my number is not up before then.

Sexual Content:
Kissing. A scene of sensuality. References to rape and incest. References to prostitution.

The Chaos is the sequel to [[ASIN:0545143004 Numbers]], and is a much better book. The way the numbers work is explained better and the plot is more consistent. The Chaos also has the effect of making Numbers feel like a prequel. Jem is long dead in this installment, and her son's story has a much larger scope.

It's the year 2026, and things are a little different: climate change has led to many towns being flooded, and the government microchips people for identification and surveillance. Adam has been raised in a country town by his great-grandmother, Val. When their town is flooded, they move to London, despite a warning from Jem before she died -- that vast numbers of Londoners are destined to die on New Year's Day, 2027.

Adam soon sees these dire numbers too, and the nitty-gritty of his ability is explained. He can, and Jem could, only see the numbers if direct eye contact is made. It doesn't work with photographs, TV, or mirrors. Adam has an additional dimension to his power that Jem didn't have: Along with the person's death date, he gets an impression of how the person will die, and so he learns that most of the New Year's deaths will involve fire and twisted metal.

He meets Sarah, a pregnant girl with plenty of trouble of her own. She instantly recoils from Adam - she has a recurring nightmare in which he does something horrible amid a fiery cataclysm - yet life keeps throwing them back together in spite of themselves.

One of the strengths of Numbers was its realistic, gritty portrayal of how society spits out teenagers who don't fit in. This continues in The Chaos, and Adam and Sarah face real-world obstacles as they try to warn people about the coming catastrophe and, perhaps, change a few numbers. How do you warn people, when most of them think you're just crazy? How do the police treat you when you're seen as a juvenile delinquent and all of your forebears had a rap sheet too?

The disaster, when it comes, is frightening and the tension nearly unbearable. Rachel Ward does a great job of keeping it personal and showing us intimate, human scenes rather than "panning out" and going for spectacle. It's rather predictable that Sarah's dream comes true rather differently than she thinks it will, but it works anyway.

The only disappointing aspect of The Chaos is the ending, which is abrupt and leaves many questions unanswered. I wonder if it's the setup for a third book...

Unfortunately, once again this plot didn't really do it for me. While the idea of someone being able to see the date when people die grabs me, the characters just don't. I really just didn't care about them. More troubled teens that I just wasn't compassionate about.

And the whole setting of the story was just weird for me. It was like the world was at its worst, but I never really figured out why. Almost like a bad dystopian novel.

I don't really have too much to say. It wasn't horrible. It just didn't really interest me.

It’s s book.

I bought this series for my daughter and she absolutely loved the books.

Grate book really recommend this book has a great story to it