This is one of the ARCs I got at ALA Midwinter. The title used in my ARC is Digit: She's Got Your Number. The cover of my ARC is plain red, which, while boring, at least isn't as completely wrong as the cover the publisher finally decided upon. I'm guessing the girl on the cover is Digit/Farrah, but Farrah would never, ever have worn a shirt like that - it would have given her a mental breakdown.
Synopsis:
Farrah Higgins can act as a human calculator and can look at a group of numbers and see patterns that no one else can see. Her abilities can be so overwhelming that it's sometimes hard for her to function, and one particular freak-out period at school earned her the nickname Digit. Her parents moved her to another school, somewhere she could make a fresh start. She tried her hardest to blend in and be like everyone else, but being like everyone else meant suppressing her mathematical abilities.
While watching a TV show with a group of her friends (none of whom know about her math skills), Farrah spots a set of numbers during the opening credits. In later weeks, she spots more sets of numbers in the opening credits of the same show. Unable to help herself, Farrah puts the numbers together and starts considering what they might mean. The next day, her theory about the meaning of the numbers is proven correct when a suicide bomber blows up a plane at the JFK International Airport.
Shaken, Farrah goes to her dad, who takes her to the FBI, but John Bennett, the young agent who speaks to her, doesn't take her seriously. Farrah opts to do a little investigating on her own, only to get chased by a scary guy who isn't happy she managed to figure out the numerical code. Back at the FBI, Farrah finally manages to get John to really listen to her. It turns out Farrah has cracked a code used by a group of dangerous eco-terrorists who love Fibonacci numbers. In order to protect her and enlist her help in deciphering future codes, the FBI sends Farrah into hiding with John, who has more in common with Farrah than she first realizes.
Review:
I found a good chunk of this book to be highly addictive, even as I realized it was basically wtf reading for teens (see my Pregnesia post for an example of something I consider to be wtf reading for adults). I loved the early descriptions of Farrah as a girl who could be completely derailed by a bunch of randomly-placed tiles or sequins that aren't arranged in predictable patterns. I liked that all the terrorist stuff started with a bunch of numbers unobtrusively placed in the opening credits of a popular TV show – the eco-terrorists love Fibonacci numbers!
