15 Books with Numbers in their Titles

Last updated on 20 June 2020

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There are so many books with numbers in their titles once you start looking

The Blogger’s Bookshelf Book Club theme for May is ‘a book with a number in the title’, so I thought it would be a fun idea to suggest some books that I’ve read over the years that fit this category. BB has already done a post with 12 suggestions of books, and while some of these will double up, you might find a book (or two or three) that you can read this month. I’ve included a couple of thoughts for each book as well as links to my full reviews where possible.

Let’s get into it!

Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman

I read this book last year via audiobook as I road-tripped down the country. I actually love taking a road trip and listening to an audiobook (usually on 1.25 or 1.5 speed), especially if I haven’t read it before. Noughts and Crosses is the first in the series, and while I really enjoyed it, I haven’t read the next one yet. The TV show is showing in New Zealand at the moment, but I haven’t been game enough to watch it in case it’s one of those that combine all the books in a series into one TV series … If you see what I mean.

One of Us is Lying, by Karen McManus

I really enjoyed this book! Goodreads says it’s a combination of Pretty Little Liars and the Breakfast Club, and I couldn’t agree more. The whole story alternates between the four main characters’ perspectives (obviously not Simon, because he dies in the first chapter), as they try and unravel what might have happened to Simon. Everyone is a suspect, everyone has secrets, and no one knows what’s really going on.

One of Us is Next, by Karen MacManus

The sequel to One of is Lying, I found myself really enjoying this one too. The Bayview Four from the previous book have moved on from the events that occurred 18 months prior, as best they can, but now there’s a new player in the halls of the gossip-heavy high school.

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One was so crazy good. I don’t think I had remembered from the reviews I’d read previously that it was so geeky. The characters loved the 80s, so all the clues, pop culture references and little quips and nods towards things of a time gone by were geek central and so wonderful. From Star Wars to Back to the Future, Pacman to Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams to Monty Python, there’s a little of everything 80s in this book, which, of course, made it that more entertaining to read.

Three Dark Crowns, by Kendare Blake

This book was such a great concept! I don’t think I’ve read anything like it before. We’ve all read books about a girl needing to achieve some goal to get the crown and become Queen of a probably-riddled-with-monsters world, but a story in which there are already 3 queens who need to battle to the death to win the crown? Colour me intrigued.

Four Dead Queens, by Astrid Scholte

Four Dead Queens had everything a good Young Adult Fantasy book should have: action, mystery, interesting and well-rounded characters (my English teacher would be so proud of me for using the term ‘well rounded’), a beautiful and intricate world which had been thought out on so many levels, and even that little bit of romance to keep the feels alive and well.

Court of Fives, by Kate Elliott

On the whole, I did enjoy this book. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but loved the concept of the Fives Court. It reminded me of the second arena in the Hunger Games series (Catching Fire), with the different trials in different segments. The different sections they have to run through changed each time, making it more exciting and interesting to read about. It’s the kind of game that would look great in movie form.

The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey

Told in the perspective of three people: Cassie, a teen called Zombie, and Cassie’s little brother Sammy, The Fifth Wave is a fast-paced book that is written wonderfully. Cassie’s voice was great to read, and I really enjoyed the way she was smart and realistic and funny, all at the same time. The human-like alien factor (the ‘Them’ in the book description just there), was brilliant, and, as Cassie mentions, were not like the Hollywood movies that have depicted aliens as small green guys.

Daisy Jones and The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book was written in a really interesting way: a transcription of interviews with various people connected to Daisy Jones, and The Six, a band. It’s a work of fiction, and yet it seems like it could be very real. While it’s a very different read, it was still an enjoyable one and one that was still full of details and storytelling elements, despite the format it was in.

Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo

One of my favourite duologies, and while I’ve only read it twice, as soon as I start thinking about it, I want to read it again. Bardugo’s writing is just as fantastic as always. I love the way she differentiates between characters, and even though the perspective is split between the Crows throughout the book, it was never jarring, nor was there a perspective I didn’t enjoy reading.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

For the most part, The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo is a classic Hollywood tale, one you’d definitely see on the big screen. A beautiful girl wanting to be big in the film industry does whatever she can to get there, even if that includes lying, cheating, sleeping, and marrying her way to the top. She makes it, of course, she does, because she’s strong and determined and passionate about chasing her dreams. But at what cost?

Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo

The eight Ancient Houses of Yale University need supervision. Their dark magic, their rituals, their prognostications, their general secret society happenings. That’s where the house of Lethe comes in. Given the job to oversee the activities of the Ancient Eight and to keep the people of Yale safe, Lethe is a tightly knit group of people on a mission to keep the houses in line. When Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern is scraped off the pavement and offered a scholarship (of sorts) to Yale on the condition she becomes the next ‘Dante’ at Lethe, she has little choice if she wants to get her life back.

The Tenth Circle, by Jodi Picoult

I don’t have a review to link to for this one sorry, but I remember reading this in my teen years and really liking it. It’s quite intense, as are most Picoult stories, but I remember enjoying the combination of the setting of Alaska and the fact that one of the characters was a comic book illustrator/creator. Throughout the book, there are sections of an actual comic in it. Dante’s Inferno is referenced throughout the book too.

The Twelve, by Justin Cronin

This is the second in The Passage series, but if you’ve read the first one then the second is a must-read. I find that this book is a hard one to summarise, but in (very) short, the characters from The Passage have split up from their group, and are all over the place, doing various things in order to figure out how to rid the world of virals.

A Thousand Pieces of You, by Claudia Gray

When it comes to multidimensional stories, I haven’t actually read that many, but I do know that it can either be great or can be horrible. But I really enjoyed A Thousand Pieces of You, by Claudia Gray, and I think she did a great job. I really liked the characters in this book, even if they did chop and change a bit between dimensions.

What other books with numbers in their titles would you add to this list?