I Am Number Four (YA)

I Am Number Four. Pittacus Lore. 2010. August 2010. HarperCollins. 440 pages.

From the prologue: The door starts shaking. It's a flimsy thing made of bamboo shoots held together with tattered lengths of twine. The shake is subtle and stops almost immediately. They lift their heads to listen, a fourteen-year-old boy and a fifty-year-old man, who everyone thinks is his father but who was born near a different jungle on a different planet hundreds of lightyears away.

From chapter one: In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost too young to remember. Almost.

Wow! This is a book I could NOT put down! So intense, so compelling. I just had to keep turning pages! It's a science fiction novel with a great premise. Nine kids and their guardians are sent from the war-torn planet of Lorien; they seek refuge on Earth. But the hunt continues. The hostile aliens--the Mogadorians--have followed them here, seek them still. But. Because of a charm, these nine can only be killed in order of their number. If they remain apart from one another. This is how the novel opens:

In the beginning we were a group of nine.
Three are gone, dead.
There are six of us left.
They are hunting us, and they won't stop until they've killed us all.
I am Number Four.
I know that I am next.

Our narrator is always changing identities because he is always on the run. His guardian, Henri, protects, guides, trains him well. We know him as "John Smith". He is a young man--an alien--coming into his powers, his legacies. These powers are to be used defensively in battle. And he spends much time in training preparing for the inevitable showdown, the big confrontation. But. When he's not training he's struggling with typical problems--making friends, falling in love, learning to drive, going to school, facing bullies, etc.

I enjoyed this one very much. I would definitely recommend it!



© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews