Brilliant Concept, well written

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This was a really good book. Brilliant story, well read, worth buying.

About a london teenager who sees peoples death dates when she looks in their eyes. For this reason she doesnt get close to anyone, but makes friends with a boy from school, and this is their adventures getting caught up in trouble with the police and making headline news.....

The only thing that I could say was a downfall was the author must be american as americanisms were used and the narrator was using a london accent which was a bit weird. she was brilliant to listen to. some of the other characters her accents slipped a little but i'd definitley recommend this one

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1 person found this helpful

Good read but let down by 'Americanisms'

I hadn't realised this was a book aimed at teenagers when I downloaded it, but found it a surprisingly good read anyway. The one thing that let it down were all the American words used in the narrative of an English book, (sidewalk, potato chips, crackers, flash light, sneakers etc, etc). This particularly surprised me as it is set in London and the two characters are both Londoners. The more often these words were used the more it irritated me and therefore distracted from the story. Other than that, well written and well read.

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3 people found this helpful

Teenage book

If you could sum up Numbers in three words, what would they be?

A 15 year old with the ability to see that date people will die when she looks someone in the eyes. Poor girl. Because of this, she's a lonely narrator with a hardened London teen attitude and a lack of emotion toward others. How can you if you knew when they'd die?This book makes social statements in addition to it being a blockbusting adventure yarn - it is both comforting and disturbing with powerful messages - good and bad, hope and despair, love and hate - with issues reinforced as various characters are introduced throughout. `Numbers' provides a penetrating insight to what is generally condemned as delinquency - it identifies problems, it raises awareness, it assists understanding

What does Sarah Coomes bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Narrator done the very good job here. highly recommended

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1 person found this helpful

OK set up but not much story & odd Americanisation

This story starts well and the narration is generally good - but, ultimately, this version is just bizarre.

When has a British kid - or, indeed, person - ever said "five-pound bill"? They might say "fiver" or, at worst, "five-pound note". There are teenagers talking about "chips" (crisps), "sneakers" (trainers), butt (ar*e or bum), flashlights (torches), sidewalks (pavements) - and so on.

Before long, the dialogue becomes so jarring that you're thrown out of the story by how weird it all is.

Then there's the issue that there's not really enough story for an actual novel. The stuff with Britney could be removed entirely with no adverse effect. In those chapters, we learn nothing about Jem, Spider, or her powers. Much of the "middle" is irrelevant, neither driving the narrative, nor having any happen that expands the central characters. It's just padding.

After a good set-up, this quickly fumbles its way into something quite dreary. I would not recommend.

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Americanised

The Americanisation of a British story set in London England ruined the story as every time it used American words or dates it jarred me out of the story. The actual book is written in British English

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unlistenable

If you are going to read the entire book in a working class London accent get a working class voice artist from London. I couldn't listen for long enough to find out whether the narrative voice in this book is actually as inauthentic as the reader made it feel, but my impression was of an unconvincing characterisation and I couldn't suspend disbelief.

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2 people found this helpful