Colorblind, by Siena Maley

[rachelmanija]

17-year-old Harper has a secret. It's not that she's a lesbian, though she's not exactly vocal about that. It's that she can see the age people will be when they die. It appears as a number on their forehead.

This is basically the worst psychic power ever, as she doesn't know how they'll die or a time frame beyond a year. Ever since her mother died four years ago, in a car crash at age 41, Siena has given up on the idea of being able to change the number. She works at a depressing fast food joint with her only friend, Robbie, who can also see the number, and is basically sleepwalking through life in a depressive haze. Until she meets Chloe, a new girl in town, who wears a Pride bracelet, throws herself into life with reckless abandon, and cheerfully hits on Harper. And whose number is 16, and will be 17 at the end of the summer...

This might be the first book I've ever read that I would have liked better if it was straight-up realism instead of fantasy. Harper and Chloe's romance is believable and sweet. Harper's issues feel very real, and would have been perfectly plausible if they were motivated solely by her mother's death and the fear that anyone she loves will die. The supporting cast, including the woman her father starts dating, is well-drawn. The only part of the book that didn't work for me was the numbers and the rushed ending, which felt extra-rushed because of the numbers.

This may be a minor point, but it points to the number issue in general: I can't figure out how Chloe even realized what the numbers meant. She already knew before her mother died, so exactly how many people did she know who died at their number age before her mom? There must have been at least two, so who were they and what was that realization like for her?



Harper never tells Chloe about the numbers, which felt like a huge missed beat in their relationship. This wouldn't have been a problem if there were no numbers, as Chloe understands Harper's issues as stemming from her mother's death and that would have sufficed.

Chloe's number changes for the first time in Harper and Robbie's experience after she's in an accident and momentarily dies in surgery. Her number said she'd die at 16, she did, and now it says she'll die in old age. This does nothing to resolve the central number question, which was whether fates are fixed or malleable.



It looks like Maley's other books are contemporary FF romance, and I suspect those work just fine. Everything about this book was sweet and enjoyable except the fantasy element.

I have absolutely no idea why the book is called Colorblind. It's never referenced.

Comments

[ethelmay]

Maybe the title is a reference to those tests for colorblindness where you either can or cannot see a number?

[rachelmanija]

Oh! That makes sense.

[yhlee]

That was my first thought too.

[asakiyume]

Oh wow, yeah: that makes sense.

[minoanmiss]

The author could have made a sly joke about it sometime in the book. I wouldn’t I’ve been able to resist

[movingfinger]

This reminds me of Elias Canetti's Die Befristeten, in which everyone's age of death is known, so that, for example, there are men who seek out women who are slated to die young to marry, knowing they won't be around long. Canetti, however, never explains in the play how one knows this: it's possible to lie about it.

[rachelmanija]

Oh, that's interesting. I never heard of it. What's the tone?

[summerstorm]

I feel like I've read this premise in fanfic at least once? Is this a thing?

It sounds cute, though that cover is confusing the everloving fuck out of me. How is she positioned. Is the white in the corner her shirt or the background.

[rachelmanija]

I think I've seen it in another YA novel, too.

The cover is weird and bad. What is she doing? What is that white stuff? What does the cover have to do with the book?

[ratcreature]

I'm pretty sure she is just standing in front of blurred trees and greenery, looking down slightly, only for some reason I can't begin to guess they rotated the picture 90° and cropped it oddly. Most of the white is part of the background. The picture is much easier to parse if you rotate it.

[falkner]

I don't know about fanfiction in fandom specifically, but this (and a myriad of "someone can see xxx of others") is such a common trope in Reddit writing prompt subreddits that you'll get sick of it within a few hours of first discovering it.

[asakiyume]

Okay, you answered my question in your last sentence. Weird.

I find it weird that not one but TWO people have this weird ability, and they happen to be in the same town. If only the MC had it, fine. But the other guy does too? And they're unrelated and just happen to live in the same town?? Then to me it seems like probably/possibly bunches of people have the ability, in which case, how has no one talked about it before? If I were writing this, I'd make it impossible for people with the ability to talk about it with anyone other than someone else who had the ability--like if they try, the words just don't come out. And yeah, I would definitely do something with whether the fate is fixed or malleable. Like why make this a plot thing if you're NOT going to address that? .... All of which likely contributes to why you felt like the story would have been better without this aspect.

[meara]

Yes I was wondering too. Like, generally if you went around telling people you can see when they die you’d get sent to a psych ward. So how did she and this other dude discuss? (Also very curious—what is her own number? Is it low, is that why she is depressed and working in fast food? Did we need the other guy in order for someone to know what her number is because we decided this superpower doesn’t work in the mirror? What?)

[rachelmanija]

See below for how she and the other guy realize they both have it.

Neither of them know their own number. It doesn't appear in mirrors, and they agree not to tell each other because neither of them want to know.

[asakiyume]

This is making me think about what if everyone knew how old they'd be when then died ... thinking about the difference between knowing you're mortal and will one day die and knowing there's a window of 365 days in which you're going to die. Some years ago there was an anthology (I think there ended up being two of them) called Machine of Death, where the conceit was that there was a machine that would tell you HOW you would die, but not when. That sort of thing prompts Sleeping Beauty spindle destruction behavior....

[rachelmanija]

It's even more coincidental than that: Harper and Robbie meet because they're both employed at the same fast-food joint. They figure out that they both have the ability because upon meeting, they both automatically stare at the forehead number spot.

They both were apparently born with the ability, but stopped talking about it as young kids because everyone just went "What a funny imagination you have, dear." And later they didn't want to be sent to a psych ward. (I do find that believable.)

But yeah, the book would have been much better without the numbers.

[asakiyume]

Nodding in silent agreement to everything you've said but returning like a five-year-old to my preoccupation: but doesn't having two people employed in the same location who can both do this thing make you think about how many others ought to be able to do it? One person--okay, a chosen one (for this bizarre and dubious gift). But two? And not one of them in the US and the other in Namibia, but in the same town?

[rachelmanija]

You'd think.

[illariy]

Oh, this book sounds right up my alley but after your review, I think I'll pass on it. So thank you for saving me the money! Your book reviews are truly invaluable. :D