Another book fallen victim to what I like to call the Percy Jackson effect, great books but horrible movies. I could not even make it past the first couple of minutes in the movie, so I will not be reviewing it here, simply the book.
I Am Number Four is a sci fi novel about aliens with special gifts called legacies escaping their environmentally fresh planet called Lorien when other aliens called Mogadorians try to take it over. The Mogadorians are kind of like an early version of current world citizens, knowing they have an environmental problem but refusing to fix it until its too late and they have to take over another planet in order to survive. Citizens of Lorien did the opposite and now have a fresh planet and are blessed by the planet with their Legacies.
John, as we know him in this book, is one of the 9 that escaped the invasion the day the Mogadorians came to Earth, and is meant to try to go back to restore Lorien to its former glory. However, the Mogadorians have come to Earth and are hunting down the 9 one by one in some strange numerical order that they have. John knows that he is going to be the fourth to die, and so him and his protector Henri have to go to Ohio to try to escape them for as long as possible.
John falls in love with a girl named Sarah at his school, becomes best friends with a boy named Sam who is ironically obsessed with science fiction and aliens, and he is beginning to settle in. At the same time, his Legacies begin to appear since he turned 15 and he gains the power of being fireproof and also is supposed to have the power of telekinesis which he struggles with. He thinks that he might be able to stay in his current place awhile, but with a strange article in Sam’s alien magazine appears he realizes how much danger he is actually in.
I will admit. This novel has a slow start to me. I struggled to make it past the first 100 or so pages, but after that the book picks up the pace and I found myself drawn in. I enjoyed the small teenage romance brewing under the secrets of John and his life. I admired how John befriended Sam, a formerly quiet and lonely boy. The bond of Henri and John only grew throughout the book as John started to step into his own personal responsibilities as the fourth hero. I am not sure how I will do with the rest of the series as I struggled quite a bit more than I would have liked with this book, but if all goes well I should be able to finish the Lorien Legacies series.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
“Percy Jackson Effect” LOL true