BOOK REVIEW: I Am Number Four

I AM NUMBER FOUR by Pittacus Lore

If you've never considered aliens inhibiting the human form and walking amongst us, then you haven't been paying attention lately. Ever thought there was something strange about a friend of yours lately? Or the new person that just walked into your classroom? Or the guy who moved into the empty house just across the street?

John Smith has been running all his life, maybe you know him? Anyway, running and now he's got nowhere left to run. The others are after him; he's next in line. His senses are in overdrive and he can't take the tension any longer.

But he's not your ordinary runaway, actually his not even a thug, he's a 16 year-old alien on the verge of death because he is in the way of earth's Armageddon. They've murdered three of his kind already, but the Mogodorians won't stop until ALL nine of them are dead.

The only thing saving the rest of them is for John to stay alive. It's a count down, and HE IS NUMBER FOUR.

***

I Am Number Four as a novel has a great portrayal of what it means to be an alien on the run. I love the fact that in this story they're NOT abducting people, nor are they leaving traces of themselves on crop fields. It put Twilight to shame in the sense of abnormal people trying to be normal. John is a believable character, with real feelings and understandable fears. Number Four and the rest of the Lorien pack are today's contemporary Superman, Wonder Woman and Spiderman – seemingly ordinary people with extraordinary powers because of a twisted hand of fate or because they come from a different planet.

Like I previous wrote about the film adaptation of this book, the parallels between page-to-screen are accurate and you can't separate the two. But I maintain my recommendation of reading the book before the film, that way you understand the film a little better. It’s a little harder to differentiate the film from the book if you read it afterwards. What I did wish the movie had was a little more of the action described in the book. I wish the ending of the book was used for the film, as well as the training process that Number Four goes through in the book. That way he didn't look like he was just this super-being, but rather he was a teenager in preparation for the real fight. I did prefer Number Six in the film to that of the book. She was a little more independent, which made the fact that she's been without her Cepan (guardian) for over a year. Sam, Mark and Sarah are all identical to their characters on screen, so they've really hit the mark on those characters. Henri on the other hand is much more of a father figure in the book rather than the film, but otherwise, the re-write was not too far off. Overall the book was a great and an easy read.

I do apologise for the late review, but I have been busy with my video blogging on the MCFLY SUPER CITY website. It was a lot of fun to do and I hope you guys have a look. For those of you who would like to visit the site and have a look its: supercity.mcfly.com. Feel free to browse get a feel of what I talk about. 

OH! Almost forgot...

sL Star Rating:

1. I AM NUMBER FOUR: 4 Stars
2. McFly SUPER CITY: 4.5 Stars

Next on sL: McFly - Above the Noise