YA Book Council discussion

Someone talk to meeeeee!

This was a really bleak read, but I liked it all the same. I do have to say that a lot of the circumstances came about a bit weirdly. Like I found it a little difficult to believe that Val would so easily let Jem and Spider go after the bombing, and it was odd to me that they came to the decision of leaving so quickly in the first place.

Also when that girl took Jem in... what's her name? The cop's daughter. Anyway I thought that was way too unlikely, although I did enjoy it happening anyway. I thought the interactions between them were cool.

Kevin read it too, by the way. We were talking about how messed up it was that she was sort of at fault for Spider's death. We both agreed that if it hadn't happened with him falling then it probably would've happened a different way on the same day, but I brought up that it probably would've been a lot easier for her to cope if he had randomly tripped while walking somewhere and broke his neck or something. I think it would've eased her pain if there wasn't the question of her possibly having brought about his death herself.

Also, yay, only a month left till I get back!

I did not get a sense of the book being bleak. Which parts did you feel were bleak. Val seemed kind of weird to begin with, so I can see why she might let them go off. She seemed to let Spider do what he wanted.
I can see where their first instinct would be to run. They are troubled kids, especially Spider. I know that when I was younger and we did something stupid, I ran first and thought second....

The tone throughout was bleak, like their lives were wrapped up in tragic situations that ended up making me feel depressed by the end, lol.
I guess that's why I thought Val was weird then? Because they couldn't really think reasonably, so she should have. I don't know, but it felt off overall, like I wished they'd had more of an incentive to run, more reason to think they'd be targeted as terrorists instead of witnesses.

I agree about how they believed that they were terrorist instead of witnesses.

It seems that the people would have died one way or another even if she was not there to witness it happen. I thought that it was interesting what happened to Karen.

Yeah it does seem that way to me too, and I did think the whole Karen thing was sad, but I actually wanted to know more about how she interacted with Val in the end more than how she interacted with Karen, lol. Still, that was pretty sad, and it seemed almost like another moment where Jem might've felt like it was her fault (I don't remember if she thinks this to herself) even though it wasn't.

Roxy: "We both agreed that if it hadn't happened with him falling then it probably would've happened a different way on the same day..."

Most of us at the meeting thought the same. I brought up Final Destination (which Jason said we should never watch again), but that's what this reminded me of. Jem and Spider probably also caused the death of that homeless guy they followed.

The cop's daughter's name is Brittany; I really like her.

Another thing that came up was expectations--about the book that is. I didn't like the story that much because I was expecting something totally different. If this book had been marketed as a teenage issues book instead of sci fi, I might've been more accepting of the way things happened.

The sequel is about her son.

I brought up Final Destination to Kevin too, he's never seen the movies. They have scarred me for life, those movies.

I didn't have many expectations going into the book so I liked it well enough overall, and I'm looking forward to the sequel, but that probably won't be for a while.

I was also expecting something more sci-fi. Books about troubled teens in the city don't have so much appeal for me, but this one made up for it by having such an interesting concept. Roxy and I were talking about whether or not we would want the power to know our own deaths. I said under no circumstances would I want to know, and she said that she might appreciate knowing a year or so prior to tie up loose ends. I think for me it would destroy whatever time I had left by hanging that over my head. The kids didn't need to run from the bombing and the police. I think they just wanted to be rebels, and I think that it's written in that way. So it does credit to the book that their actions aren't overly glorified. No Mary Sues, Roxy. Last thing, did anyone else make the connection that possibly Jem's mother had the power to see the numbers before she had Jem? Like it's passed on through the first born? Roxy thought it was a little ambiguous, but to me it seems all but implied.

I never said there were any Mary Sues, I know a Mary Sue when I see one. >.>

I think there might be a chance it came from the mother, maybe. It would sort of explain her drug addiction, she might've gotten into it to "escape" from the numbers. Or, like I said before, it could've come from the dad.

I thought that the mother might have had the power to see the numbers too. There is a part in the book when Jem *I'm going to live forever* is a child an is reciting numbers and the mom shakes her and tells her to stop. No more Mary Sues talk, hahaha.
Alyson has the second one and from the description the son has the power and she looses it.

I don't know if I would want to know when people are going to die. I am up in the air on knowing when I will die. If I knew, I would take advantage of knowing and maybe travel abroad and do things that I always wanted to do. I would probably also test the theory out. Jane ruined my theory (thanks a lot Jane)!!