I Am Number Four

This opener to a new teen series is a serious page-turner – and way better than reviews say the movie was. This is no surprise, but a real shame, because this had serious potential as a movie, in the right hands. As a book, though? I could not put it down.

I Am Number Four
by Pittacus Lore
HarperCollins
ISBN: 978 0 061 96955 3
Audience: teen

I am, you may be surprised to hear, a slow reader. Even children’s novels typically take me a few days, at least. This book, I gulped down in one day. It’s gripping from the get-go, and has plenty of action to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout, right until the ending.

To go back to the beginning, though, we need to talk about the planet Lorien, which was destroyed by the Mogodorians. Nine special children called Garde and their protector/trainers escaped the planet during the brutal invasion, and headed for the next livable planet – Earth. They’ve been living here, knowing that the Mogodorians are hunting them down, one by one, in order. The third dies as this book opens, and the fourth narrates his own story as he and his mentor hide and, when they are eventually tracked down, have to make a stand…

While I’m not going to spoil anything for you here, I will say that I appreciate it when books in a series wrap up satisfactorily, instead of leaving the cliffhanger. That’s the case here, where the fight ends, and though there is obviously more to come before this is over, but readers aren’t left hanging.  (Thanks, Mr. Lore!)

That said. the second installment, The Power of Six, comes out in just a couple of weeks, on August 23rd! I’m tempted to preorder it so I don’t have to wait…