Reviewing I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four

by Pittacus Lore / James Frey and Jobie Hughes

"She has just been in a plane and a car for ten hours and she is wearing sweatpants and no makeup with her hair pilled into a ponytail and yet she is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I don't want to let go of her."(Lore, 268) Does the previous sentence seem odd? Comma deficient perhaps? Now I don't know much about commas, and I'm a a certified abuser of this wiggly piece of punctuation, but I do know that this book was missing two or three thousand commas. Poor commas never even had a chance.

A summary I stole from the back of the book:

"Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you—but we are not you. We have powers you dream of having. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in Kenya. And Number Three in Kenya. They killed them all. I am Number Four. I am next."

 I try to be an optimistic reader. I seriously do. Sometimes, however, I come across things that are just not that good. This was one of those things.

The plot has a lot of the same aspects as Superman, Ender's Game, and The Giver, which might sound good at first glance, but just didn't work for me.

We follow Number Four who comes from the planet Lorien and likes to give insane amounts of backstory so we're still reading backstory even a hundred pages in. (Not inserting commas could work for me.) I found that not only did I not care about this planet that was better than Earth in every sense of the word, but I also found it to be a little too convenient. The planet was dying? We genetically developed superpowers! We had to evacuate the planet immediately? Well at least we have this charm that will protect most of us until we finally return to our beloved Lorien! We're injured? Let's whip out our magical healing stone!

A lot of things seemed forced and clichéd. It read like something that was trying to be something new, inventive, and intense, instead of just being good. The most interesting character by far was Bernie Kosar.

Please know that, just because this was not my cup of tea doesn't mean it's a bad read. If you like science fiction, training, and a hint of mystery, you could like this book.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ / 5