From The Stacks – I Am Number Four by: Pittacus Lore

Synopsis

So basically there’s this planet called Lorien that is attacked by Mogordians (aka creepy bad guys). As the Mogordians attack nine children (with special abilities) and their guardians escape the planet in an attempt to keep their race alive. When the Mogordians attack the planet they kill everyone and eventually they destroy all life on the planet. (Lorien is like Earth but people have all of these special abilities and their technology is more advanced than ours.)
So anyway these kids who escape Lorien have a charm put on them in an attempt to protect them. When one of the kids dies the others are made aware by the presence of a scar on their leg. (Ouch, but cool design.) These Lorien Legacies (the kids) are being hunted by the Mogordians so they all live life on the edge and with the threat of leaving their current home at a moments notice always over their head. And oh yeah, they can’t live together because of the charm somehow, (author was a little vague on that) and for increased protection. Oh, and the charm makes it so that the Loriens can only be killed in order. 1, 2, 3, etc. (Hope they answer how the order was decided at some point.)
Anyway, all this space alien stuff is okay. I like Star Wars as much as the next girl, maybe more. (I had a big thing for Obi-Wan Kenobi and read a lot of books etc. Plus I have my own copies of the original trilogy, love that Han Solo and I would totally be Princes Leia!) Ahem, geek moment over back to the point, what is more engaging about the story is Number Four or John’s narration. His struggle with fitting in, falling in love, and discovering his inner-Lorien.

Why I Like It

I enjoyed this new story of teen angst, drama, and love. I also enjoyed the innovation of this new space story, very creative. I like the drama of the story, the presentation of the book, and the listed author as a character in the book. It’s also a story that has intrigued me enough to continue thinking about it. I wonder what will happen next, what secrets of Lorien will be revealed, and how everything will fit together.
I also really enjoyed the characters, which I have discovered is pivotal to my enjoyment of a story. (If the characters suck the plot has to be damn good.) Anyway, good depth to the characters and good interaction and rapport between them. The Henri-John relationship was particularly nice.
John starts dating (against Henri’s wishes) the super cool Sarah. She’s one of the awesome high school characters that you wish you were. Gorgeous, smart, creative, nice, and everybody likes her and wants to date her! (No I’m not jealous.) But what’s best about Sarah is she doesn’t do what’s popular she does what she wants and that includes dating hot new guy John. John and Sarah have a really sweet relationship where the tension increases as the story goes on. (Was kinda holding out for a “getting it on” scene.) But there was totally a Twilight leg/bed scene, which was satisfactory for the first book. Again, without giving too much away a character is introduced late in the book who will provide an excellent third person for a John/Sarah/‘mystery character’ Triangle. Yay, yay, more tension!
One of my favorite characters is Bernie Kosar, John’s dog. He is like a totally badass dog who protects John and for a beagle is super cute. (Being in the thralls of puppy love with my own dogs I was particularly susceptible to Bernie’s charm, especially since I read a good chunk of the book with a dog in my lap.) There’s more to Bernie than meets the eye but I hate to give away spoilers so I won’t say anymore…but did I mention he’s named after a football player? Nice. (Doesn’t matter I’ve never heard of him.)
I also like that this story will appeal to both boys and girls. Faced a big dilemma as to who to lend out/offer this book to first. Brother, sister, bff? I think the movie will also help book sales. (But that’s the marketer in me.)
I think there are also some underlying themes/messages in this book, especially that of green living. Basically the reason why the bad guy Mogordians are SO bad is because when they take over a planet they destroy it. There technology requires the life source of other living things. This can totally be translated to our current use (and waste) of resources. Perhaps the author is trying to impress upon young adults the importance of valuing the gifts of our planet and treating them with respect. I also suspect that he is a big sci-fi geek who is totally into aliens.

Bonus Round - Movie!

The movie, I Am Number Four will be released at the end of February 2011. Which is what prompted to be to read the book and spend the extra bucks for a hardback copy, not to mention debate between the movie cover and the original cover. The book purist in me decided on the original cover. Tough decision though because….hot Alex Pettyfer is the star of the movie! I’m really digging him. (Although, bummer is I couldn’t really picture John/Four as a character on his own. I pictured him as Alex.) AND Quinn Fabray from Glee is his love interest Sarah!!!! Yay for Quinn being in other stuff besides Glee! Makes me happy. Over all I’m pretty excited for the movie. I think it’ll be a good one. Good action, adventure, special effects, and sexual tension.







I enjoyed the book but am not sure it’s for everyone. It’s a little more sci-fi than I’ve read in a long time. It was a good engaging story and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. There promises to be a lot of adventure, intrigue, and love. The story wasn’t as engrossing and all consuming as I’d like, maybe because the author is a guy. :) And maybe because I had a lot going on the weekend I read it including The Packers, Titanic, and cheerleaders.

Bottom line: good book, good story, but I’m not obsessed. Looking forward to the rest of the series (and for someone else to read it so I have someone to talk to about it) and I’ve already put the next book in my Amazon Wish List. By the way, the next book doesn’t come out until August.