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