Blood Numbers
Rating: 3 out of 5
The system is perfect. At least it’s supposed to be.
Blood Numbers gives off some serious Hunger Games, Katniss vibes. In a world that has been ravaged by genetic warfare we see society divided into two groups Donors and Recipients. The two groups are kept separate from one another because of the potential for Donors to make Recipients even sicker than they are. At least that's the story used. How else can you explain away the vast distinction between the two classes?
Before Aston's sixteenth birthday a technician comes to do her blood test, already a flaw in the otherwise perfect system. As time goes on she begins to see more faults in the system. Aston is perhaps one of the only people in her town who does not feel the impacts of the Donor serum; though she quickly begins to find others who seem able to resist the impact. As she decides to donate to save her family, she quickly becomes a symbol for the resistance. A resistance she has never met! Aston finds herself struggling with a world she doesn't understand. She wants to feel all the ups and downs and free everyone else so that they can also feel.
I don’t want to be unattached from the world around me, unable to see what really goes on. I want to really feel, even the bad, even the rough rocky parts of life.
Yet, this novel is also a love story Aston finds herself dreaming of a world where people marry for love and not because of the benefits of blood numbers. She quickly finds herself developing feelings for her technician Gannet and a low blood donor named Marcus. Aston soon is drawn to Marcus because he seems to be the only other person able to feel in her unfeeling world.
The way he irritates me makes me feel alive at the same time. His touch makes me feel things that remind me I am real.
Is this feeling enough? What do all the obvious flaws in the system mean for Aston? Soon she finds that love might in fact be the death of her.
This book was a great start to a trilogy. It does a great job of creating the world that our characters inhabit. The character development is great and one finds things to like and dislike in each character. At times the novel felt a little stilted and hard to connect with. Yet, I think it does an excellent job of starting the trilogy and is definitely a book that you should give a chance if you enjoy dystopian novels.