Book Review: I Am Number Four

I am Number Four

Author: Pitticus Lore

Publish Date: August 2010

Publisher: Harper Collins

Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. we have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know

They caught Number One in Malaysia.

Number Two in England.

And Number Three in Kenya.

They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.

(From GoodReads)

I agree that in a small town there’s nowhere to hide and blending in is crucial. I don’t think it gets any smaller then Paradise, OH. Paradise is a small, rural backwater town that you expect in the fields of Ohio or the plains of Kansas, or the Southern plantation towns of Georgia. In reality it’s a dying culture but Mr. Lore exploits it to the max. The people of Paradise are what you expect from small town busybodies. Some are okay, and others are an annoyance that I really wished for death early in the book.

Number Four is a decent kid. In reality he doesn’t want a war, he just wants life, but we can’t pick and chose our destinies. The name changing thing he has to do must be really annoying as well as the continual moving around. We don’t ever get to find out his Loric name which, I think would be cool to go by or at least know. (Hint, hint.) The best thing to say about John is that he tries. He really does. He listens, for the most part, to Henri, his guardian, and when he doesn’t listen he has a viable reason not to. He has a code of honor, which makes him a really likeable person.

Opposite to him there is Sarah. My personal opinion is “I don’t like her”. She’s the daughter of a real estate agent and an ex cheerleader, reformed bad girl. I don’t buy one minute of it. She’s standard hero’s girlfriend material, but there’s something about her that feels off. Like she’s too nice, too good, too everything.

The plot is a mix of problems blending in with the new society and hiding from the enemy. As well as learning the Legacies as they appear in between everything else. It makes for a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. Thereof there’s always something happening. Whether good or bad is debatable but something is always going on.

The mere fact that something is always happening makes the book a pleasant read. It’s sucks the reader in as one problem ends another starts nearly within the same page. Even through periods of rest, there is always action occurring. I would definitely recommend the book to read for those that like their daily dose of aliens.

My Rating:

PS: I have not seen the movie.