I Am Number Four

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.