The Chaos , by Rachel Ward

Paperback, 345 pages

Published June 7th 2010 by Chicken House

ISBN

1906427305 (ISBN13: 9781906427306)

edition language

English

original title

The Chaos

series

Numbers #2

characters

Sarah Lynn, Mia, Adam Wilde

setting

London, England (United Kingdom) 

Adam sees “numbers” – when he looks in peoples’ eyes he can see their death-dates, just like his mum Jem used to. Adam has trouble dealing with his awful gift, and when he realises that everyone around him has the same series of numbers, he becomes deeply afraid of what might happen in 2025.

Desperate to find out what could be about to go wrong, Adam spends hours researching possibilities – war, nuclear accidents, killer viruses. He knows something big is coming, but what? And is there anything he can possibly do about it?

 My Review
This was certainly better, in my opinion anyway, than the first book in the series because it seemed to have a lot more in the way of a plot and a story. The idea that you can see when someone is going to die is still a very mysterious and scary thing because it challenges you to think about the way in which you would have to live were this something you had to deal with. Adam is a smart but troubled kid and considering his mum was Jem and his dad spider, its not hard to tell. But you can see the characteristics of both his parents in his personality and the things that he does. It was nice to see that Val was in this story still as she seemed to be the super nan that we all dream of having. Cool when you need her to be cool and strict when she needs to be strict. The characters were clearly thought about a lot more within this novel which of course makes it that much more stronger. you can see the finer definition of them, of there traits and there personalities and this meant that you were able to identify with them more as well. Sarah, was a nice twist on the scene, but you dont really get to understand her family lifestyle persay, but that was not a disadvantage. Sarah in many ways is complex and complicated like Adam, but when you see what it is that her father does to her you can begin to understand why.

I like the fact that the book is based in london as this really meant that I was able to visibly imagine it a lot more, what with coming from and being around the london area myself. The book started of as something very mysterious from the bebginning because it is obvious that something large is going to occur but that no one knows what it is yet or how it comes to be. More characters are pulled into the plot this time, in that they are actually seen to try and work out what is occuring. I like the fact that there was a lot of mixed messages going on but at the same time it was a little cliche. When I read about adam being the one taking the baby away from sarah and into a fire, I almost kind of guessed that he wasnt doing it to get rid of her but to instead save her, save them both for that matter. Perhaps this is merely for the sake though that you can see that he is caring and he wants to try and change the way of life that a lot of them are having to go through. you can see in his character persona that he actually wants to be able to prevent the deaths of many by trying to change what is going occur, or how it will occur. 

I wouldnt say this is the novel of them all, the one that I would brag about to everyone I know because it did start to get a little tiresom in some places. It is positive though that this was much better than the first one in the series and was actually more enjoyable in that you could actually follow the story more. It didnt come across as something that had been rushed, but instead came over as a novel that had been cared for and bred in a timely manner so that it was at its best possible suitor. I do think that there were elements within it that could have been changed, but this is the same for most books, after all there is no such thing as a perfect novel. Therefore I am awarding the novel a four star rating, because it was moderately better than the first one and it had a lot more edge and style to it to make it something worth reading.

My rating