I Am Number Four

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Rounded down to 3 stars

Summary: 9 young children and their guardians escape their planet as their civilization is being destroyed by another alien race. They come to Earth and must live long enough to develop their legacies, or their powers, which will allow them to fight back against those that slaughtered so many.

This book isn't anything groundbreaking. It's a YA science fiction book written for entertainment first and foremost. Is it the best book ever written? No. I'm sure there are many others that accomplish this same thing in a much better way. However, this one is entertaining, fast-paced, and ultimately a quick read. I liked Sam Goode and his friendship with John.

I saw the trailer for the movie around a month ago and decided to read the book before the movie came out. I had very high hopes that this book would be nothing less of amazing but I was saddened to learn that it was just mediocre. I really enjoyed the first half of the book. During the second half of the book I found that I kept getting more and more frustrated with each chapter.

Four and his guardian, Henri, are constantly moving around the US to keep from being found by their enemies, the Mogadorians. The Lorien childrien that came to earth had a spell placed upon them that meant that the Mogadorians had to kill each child in order unless 2 of the Lorien children come near each other, then the spell is broken and the Mogadorians can kill them in any order they please. Each time a Lorien child is murdered all the remaining Lorien children receive a scar that forms around their ankle. Each Lorien child lives in a different part of the world to keep the Mogadorians from finding them so easily.


Four and Henri decide to move to a small town in Ohio this time around. He is supposed to lay low and to blend in. You would think that Four would take this serious considering he carries 3 scars around his ankle as a reminder of the 3 Loriens that have already died, but it seems as if he could care less. On the first day of school he gets into an altercation with the school bull and accidentally shows people his first legacy. Even after that he still remains to be careless throughout the entire book. He gets a beautiful (Surpise!) girlfriend and a best friend. Several times his guardian wanted to leave town because not only were the Mogadorians we're close, but also because Four has messed up time after time, leading the Magadorians towards them. Four uses his new powers to his advantage and forces Henri to stay against his better judgement. Even when he knew the Mogadorians had found him he still refused to leave, endangering everyone he cares about.

On the front of the book there is a blurb from Michael Bay that says “Number Four is the hero of our generation” I'm actually baffled at that statement. Four lies through his teeth and puts his own selfish needs before the safety of anyone else, and in the end, it backfires getting people hurt and killed.... But yet we're supposed to sympathize with him? NOT A CHANCE. At one point in the book there is a war going on, a war that he knew was coming if he didn't leave town, and he tells Henri he “didn't know this was going to happen” even though through the whole book Henri is telling him this is exactly what would happen if he wasn't careful.

I also couldn't get past all the holes in the book that left me with lingering questions. For example, If the Loriens sent the kids to earth so that they could come back one day and repopulate their planet, why did they only send 9 kids? Shouldn't they have sent an even number of people? 5 boys and 5 girls? It was made clear that Loriens are monogamous. They find their love and stay with them until they die. So, assuming that they would hope for the best and none of the kids died, why would they send an odd number?

I didn't hate the book, but I didn't like the book either. I still want to see the movie and I honestly think it's going to be better then the book which is a bid deal for me because the book is always better.

Considering the target audience seems to be 8 to 12 year old boys, I'm mildly surprised at the amount of noise I'd heard about #4 or Pitticus Lore. Maybe it was something non-story related? Whatever. I enjoyed the story, though not enough to make me want to read further. Maybe the inevitable movie adaptation will change my mind.

Overall, this was a fun, fast read, though it wasn't the best written book.

The book opens with a scene that's supposed to grab you by the lapels and not let go for the next 440 pages. Personally, it didn't work at all, particularly because I could see the authors doing that.

Thirty pages or so later, the story did get rolling pretty well and before I knew it I was hip deep in the book, and fairly invested with some of the characters.

I had a list of quibbles I had with the writing, but decided not to bother. While they detracted from my enjoyment, they didn't ruin anything.

The highpoint of the novel was the mix of SF and Magic. It's not often that you come across that kind of thing, and when done right, it's dynamite. These authors pull it off pretty well, as they do the rest of the story. I'll be back for more.

I enjoyed the book, which I listened to through Audible.com. The narrator for the book was sub-par, bordering on bad, but my ranking of this book on here does not reflect that.

While the book was good, the writing style seemed a bit amateur. Some scenes were covered in great detail, others just glanced over. I got lost while reading as to how much time had elapsed, as the author did a horrible job at conveying the current and elapsed time. I also feel the author portrayed the dialog of “teenagers” horribly.

All that being said, the book and premise was intriguing, and I'll likely finish the series. Hence the 3 rating.

Really like this story about Number Four and the nine Lorien Gardes. I do think some of the action scenes lacked a bit of action but all in all it was a great story and can't wait to read the next installment. This book was definitely better than the movie although I quite enjoyed the movie as well. The book allows for the growth of some relationships where as in the movie it seemed rushed for obvious reasons. The movie also altered a lot of what happened in the book and appreciated the quality time the book gave with certain characters that the movie did not.

I didn't realise this was a children's book, so this review comes from a place of ignorance. As someone who can no longer even rightly be described as a young adult, I found out hard to connect with characters written for high school students, and the holes in the plot didn't help. A great idea for a story executed to the level of expectation of a teenager and marketed as such. My fault for not being about to read the signs, really. 

Wow this book is so good... Hanya 1 sih yg membuat buku ini turun 1 bintang, teenage love antara John & Sarah yg menurutku bleh...
Karakter John ak suka, kecuali klo dia sdh bersama Sarah, & yg membuat gemes itu dia memikirkan Sarah lebih dr dia memikirkan Henri... I mean come on, man, you know her for how long, while Henri ready to risk his life just for you. Ah, numbert four, you & your stupid teenage love & stupid girfriend...
Nyesek banget waktu Henri mati (ups...spoiler. Hell, i love the number six character & i wish i could bash Sarah's head to the wall because distracting John. Kenapa gk Sarah aj sih yg dieliminasi dr cerita??
I don't mind romance in YA fantasy novel, tp John & Sarah? Ugh, gk banget deh...

When it comes to the books I read, or any media for that matter, it can be difficult for me to separate the author''s personal beliefs from the book they create. Or, in this case, make that authors. Pattacus Lore is a character in the book, that actually is also a pseudonym for the team of writers that apparently wrote this book. A man named James Frey managed to assign the basic concept of I am Number Four to a team of writers specifically for writing the next big literary/film hit like Twilight or Harry Potter. Based on the first film's reception, I doubt that is going to happen any time soon, but still, I find this reprehensible. At least Twilight and even Fifty Shades of Gray came from some kind of creative premise based on the idea that the authors wanted to write because they enjoyed it. Here, they are writing a story just to make a multi-million dollar franchise and nothing more. Sure, Myer and James probably aren't sorry that they are making tons of money, but they wrote the things they wrote because they wanted to. They saw an opportunity to tell a story they wanted to write that they thought people wanted to enjoy. This, on the other hand, wants to make money off you at the beginning, and that is what I find to be so insincere about this series.

Anyway, all that aside, how was the book itself? Not very good. It feels like a book that has so much potential only to be wasted by writing for the most common denominator. We have to reach the common school boy, so let's not write about the possibility of going to another world completely different from ours. Let's write about a boring school in the middle of Ohio. We have to have a character that our audience can relate to, so we will make him be a normal guy with alien superpowers named John Smith. He has a boring nerdy friend who, of course, is into aliens. And he has a romance with one of the most boring romantic leads since Bella Swan: Sarah. All of these characters are cardboard cutouts, and have little personality in the way they are written to make them distinguishable from a thousand other characters I've seen.

Then there is the narrator for the audiobook. As I was listening to this, I could not help but think that this guy was greatly miscast. Perhaps he was only chosen because he can do a french accent for Henri, but the rest of the time, his voice feels grossly out of place. He would work in a kind of action thriller, but not here in a YA novel.

Another element that I find kind of annoying is the difference between the perceived audience that this book is for and the actual audience. When I started reading this book, the writing seemed to dictate the audience was for a middle grade audience. It featured many simple choppy sentences complete with bland sentences that had little originality or creativity to them, but were ones that a middle schooler may like. Then a character would say a swear word, you know one of those words you'd get in trouble for saying in class, and I would be forced to bump up the age limit. This disconnect between the writing style and the age limit does not sit well with me.

As for the plot, that is boring too. It goes for long times of seemingly nothing happening. Just boring conversations between John and Sarah. Then, probably because the writing team decided they had to add in action somewhere, there is a scene where John is forced to use his powers, and then back to the boring scenes again. This repeats itself too often, to the point where I wondered why this book had to be so long. It easily could have been 50 to 100 pages shorter and I would have been fine with it.

It is this reason why I give it a two out of five. Although I can see the potential with this series, I just am not up for reading it. That, and the message that this book stands for is one I can't accept. In terms of series to continue, this series is number zero.