The main character, Digit or Farrah, is a math genius. She just got into high school and has already been accepted to MIT. Farrah notices a weird string of numbers in the credit of a movie and before she knows it she is working for the FBI. ( )

Farrah Higgins has been known as Digit for most of her life due to her extraordinary ability with numbers, puzzles, and codes. Moving to a new school has given her the opportunity to hide her abilities in order to appear "normal," but one night when watching one of her friends' favorite teen shows on television, she notices a group of numbers in the corner of the screen. She is fascinated when different numbers appear for the next three weeks, but when she begins to figure out the meaning of those numbers and realizes that they point to a terrorist attack that occurred at JFK Airport, she has to find someone who will listen to her theory. After several failed attempts, she finally gets an FBI agent to listen to her, which leads to a fast-paced chase that takes her from California to New York and back again.
Digit uses sarcasm and a natural sense of humor that make her many quirks hard not to like. When she meets John, the young FBI agent that believes her story, the action, adventure, and romance amp up pretty quickly. Overall, a quick enjoyable young adult read. ( )

I love books about nerds. ( )

3.5/5
I've read a few fantastic reviews of this book and was really enthusiastic about reading Farrah's story. Add to it that YA spy novels is like crack to me (Ally Carter, I'm totally blaming you!), so of course I didn't hesitate to buy it.

All in all, A Girl Named Digit is a nice book. I know that plenty of girls and boys(mostly girls) would enjoy it, but ultimately it turned out to be way too fluffy and silly for me.

Farrah's life and her obsession with numbers, lines and seeing something systematic in everything she does and experiences was the most fascinating part of the book and its most enjoyable quirk for me personally.

However Farrah's silly mistakes and her partnership with a rookie agent who should have had way more sense than he exhibited didn't make much sense to me.

You tell me, after watching a few spy movies made in the last 10 years, - would you leave your cell phone on knowing full well you can be tracked by GPS signal while you are hiding in a secret FBI location? That was the first thing that seriously irked me.

Secondly, you are telling me that two youngsters cracked the code for terrorist cell phone conversations in their spare time while proper decoders haven't done it before? And the same two youngsters were sent to retrieve the documents of said terrorist cell from a public location when just days ago they were still in hiding? I just... can't even... Sorry, my problem was that I couldn't suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the silliness.

When something doesn't make sense it turns the whole experience sour. The only other plus of this book is that the relationship between Farrah and John, the secret agent was really sweet.

I urge you not to give up on this book until you read Joy's excellent review because she ended up loving A Girl Named Digit.

( )

A Girl Named Digit was akin to eating cotton candy. It's colorful, it's enticing, it's a treat, and it disappears very fast, but a couple hours later you're sitting there wondering if it was really such a good idea.

Digit is a girl with a mathematical gift, which is great to see in a young female protagonist, but it seems that she only uses her gift to impress John and his father. She is so focused on getting the boy that she shows very little concern that she's being hunted by terrorists, and the sappy "boy gives up life-long dream to be with girl he's only known for a few weeks" is hardly something to write home about. Overall, it was a lot of fun going down but it left me with a tummy ache. ( )