Scan barcode
A review by nooralshanti
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
2.0
Maybe I would give it 2.5 stars. A pass. I knew it was YA when I read it, but I've read YA before that is more interesting and engaging than this.
This book did keep me reading and flipping the pages. When you're reading you want to know what happens next so something about the writing style and plot makes it a page-turner. When I put it down for a day though that day became two and three and then four and I only picked it back up because I didn't want to leave it unfinished, not because I actually cared about any of the characters.
I don't want to make this review too long, but I do want to speak to the characterization in particular. The main character is supposed to be an alien who has escaped to earth to go into hiding and who has to be constantly on the run because the bad aliens are after him to kill him and finish off what they started when they destroyed his planet. For all that, he acts and thinks and sounds just like a stereotypical whiny American teenager. The book is written from his point of view, but you never get the feeling that he's actually an alien.
Even worse, when he has the flashbacks of his own planet it seems exactly like your cardboard cut out stereotypical American suburbs. And at the end of the book the main character suddenly remembers the real name of his adult guardian from back on their home planet and *drumroll* it's Brandon. *sigh* I do sometimes get tired of the exaggerated Fantasy names in other novels, but the author wasn't even trying here.
I could go on and talk about the pointless time wasting love story and the lengthy, but completely useless at giving you a visual) descriptions, but I think you get the idea. If you're looking for a quick page-turner that won't consume your life you might want to give this a try, but if you want something with deep characterizations and thoughtful world-building that will have you really feel with the characters you might want to look elsewhere.
This book did keep me reading and flipping the pages. When you're reading you want to know what happens next so something about the writing style and plot makes it a page-turner. When I put it down for a day though that day became two and three and then four and I only picked it back up because I didn't want to leave it unfinished, not because I actually cared about any of the characters.
I don't want to make this review too long, but I do want to speak to the characterization in particular. The main character is supposed to be an alien who has escaped to earth to go into hiding and who has to be constantly on the run because the bad aliens are after him to kill him and finish off what they started when they destroyed his planet. For all that, he acts and thinks and sounds just like a stereotypical whiny American teenager. The book is written from his point of view, but you never get the feeling that he's actually an alien.
Even worse, when he has the flashbacks of his own planet it seems exactly like your cardboard cut out stereotypical American suburbs. And at the end of the book the main character suddenly remembers the real name of his adult guardian from back on their home planet and *drumroll* it's Brandon. *sigh* I do sometimes get tired of the exaggerated Fantasy names in other novels, but the author wasn't even trying here.
I could go on and talk about the pointless time wasting love story and the lengthy, but completely useless at giving you a visual) descriptions, but I think you get the idea. If you're looking for a quick page-turner that won't consume your life you might want to give this a try, but if you want something with deep characterizations and thoughtful world-building that will have you really feel with the characters you might want to look elsewhere.