"The eyes, they say, are the windows to the soul, but when Jem looks into a person's eyes she sees numbers. These numbers are a date: the date of the person's death.
Numbers, by Rachel Ward.
If all you ever saw were dates in people's eyes -- if you had no parents, but were being passed through the foster system, things would indeed seem a bit bleak. Jem eventually makes a connection -- but how does knowing when someone is going to die change how you live and interact with them?
Read the review in the UK Guardian. This book came out in the U.S. in paperback on January 5th.
3 comments:
Okay, now I want it! I was considering the premise as you quoted it, and then I read "passed through the foster system" and your question about "how does knowing...change how you live and interact..." and I thought: ooh. Yes. Must read that.
What a terrible curse. At the risk of sounding new agey, I have a friend who used to have terrible headaches right before someone close to her died. Not enough warning to save anyone, just a bad feeling you live with. After tons of medical exams, she finally went to a psychic who said, "Yeah, I used to see peoples' faces melt before they died." Developing the ability ,or asking the powers that be to lift the gift/curse was the prescription. By all accounts it worked. If you believe in that sort of thing...
Either way, I'd read the book!
Wow -- and how would one go about developing the ability? Would anyone want to -- I mean, wouldn't it change the way we saw everyone?
I'm not sure I could go there!
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