I Am Number Four Movie Tie-in Edition (Lorien Legacies, 1) Paperback – August 23, 2011

When I spent a holiday season working in a book store as a book seller, we always kept the Pittacus Lore books on shelves. They were very successful with the teen readers. I, however, had invested no time in reading them myself. Then I saw the movie and the Kindle version went on sale roughly at the same time. I have a strong belief that books are better than their visual counterparts. They don't have time constraints for number one. For number two, you get to use your imagination to build the worlds and characters which will most certainly not match up to a stylist, concept artist or casting director anywhere.I was surprised at how close the movie was to the book. It was impressive. The plot was directly correlated between screen and page with minor, "unnecessary" scenes taken out. These are the scenes that don't really build the characters or the world yet keep the book moving at a nice pace and filled out with pages. As usual, nothing and no one looked like my imagination of them, but I may have been a little biased with having watched the movie first as to how they all shaped up in my mind--(they were like some hybrid of imagination and movie representations).The most surprising bit of the entire story is how gut-wrenching the action was. I haven't read a book in quite awhile where I stayed up past my bedtime to see what happened next. The action or adventure stories I've been reading all had a break in the action somewhere that made a good stopping point for me to jump back into the real world. I couldn't pull that off with this novel. I found myself binge reading for hours and had the whole thing finished before I realized there was a real world happening around me.

So I watched to movie for this and thought hey this is pretty good, I wonder what the book is like. Yeah I know, generally it is the book is so much better since there is more detail and plot development.Which did happen to be the case here. Which is nice since it had the potential to be a full blown train wreck. Let's face it a book about an alien teenager coming of age on the Planet Earth with enemies looking for him so that they can kill him and his other Alien refugees (but it has to be done in numerical order) has the potential to be a whole load of sour grapes. Fortunately for me (although maybe not for fans of Twilight) the author doesn't wallow in the pathos of being a teenager and an outsider in overwhelming detail. Enough to know it is there and to add to the overall sense of loss that is supposed to be a part of the Main Character's life.This book is every bit as good as the movie at delivering good pacing, without letting the 'alien' aspects of it overwhelm the story.I am quite impressed and will be looking forward to reading more of this authors work.

Contemporary Sci-fi, Young AdultJohn Smith and his guardian Henri seem to be living a normal life in Paradise, Ohio and John seems to be an ordinary teenager. John is most definitely not an ordinary teenager and keeping a low profile is essential for him. He is on the run and is an alien from the planet Lorien. Aliens that are evil and from the planet Mogadore, destroyed his world and are now hunting anyone that escaped.There were nine Loric children that come to Earth to hide until they grew up and developed their Legacies. The powers that would help them fight back, survive and save Earth. Three are now dead. John is Number Four and knows he is next.This is a story that is full of action and adventure and makes for a very fast read. It will also have readers checking out the other books in the series to learn more about this world and those that live in it. Reading how John fights to stay alive makes for an amazing read and will have readers hoping for more about him in the other books. It will also have readers hoping for a good ending at the end of the series. The book is full twists and turns and definitely takes readers on a roller coast ride that is unforgettable.

I am almost speechless after reading this book. It has everything in abundance - action, romance, some funny spots, loyalty, superior storytelling and world building - just everything.I saw the movie and really enjoyed it. When I saw the movie was based on a book, I bought it and immediately started reading; I can’t say I did much else until I finished it two days later.The story of John, Number 4, and Henri, his Cepan, was so touching. You could feel the love between them. And Number 4 and Sarah - well, everyone should experience love like that. But the book to me is about trying to survive while being hunted; trying to have a life and survive. It was beautiful.I’m off to read book two now - Six’s story. I don’t know how many books there are in the series, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy them all. Five stars. Easy.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, Divergent etc, then you simply have to read this series!! I couldn't put the books down - fair warning, you should only start reading these if you are prepared to say goodbye to any social life you may have - highly addictive and well written books!!!

I enjoyed the book and its concepts and also the constant tension of being constantly hunted but I didn't much enjoy the romance part of the story. John and Sarah's relationship didn't really work in a logical sense- it started out well and felt real but soon it is nothing but an obsession with each other and has no weight behind it. That part of the book sucks.The rest is incredible and the ending truly toys with your emotions. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the rest of the series- a good long series is one of my favourite things.

I got this when it was free on Kindle and thought it might be worth a try. It has some positive points, but I felt that this really was a novel written for a young adult audience which doesn't cross over well for older adults to read (as in the case of other books which are similar to this in genre, for example, the Hunger Games Trilogy). The hero comes from a distant planet which has been wiped out by Mogadorians. The hero is one of nine survivors along with their guardians. He is waiting to develop "legacies" (gifts/supernatural powers) which will help him defeat the Mogadorians. "Number Four" aka John Smith, goes to an ordinary American high school and duly develops the power to resist fire/run very fast etc. The action scenes are well-written and easy to visualise - I felt like I was watching a film in my mind whilst reading it (I think it might have been made into a film and can see that it would make a great action flick). Other than that, there's nothing here that you haven't read before about teenagers developing supernatural powers in order to save us all (and if that's the future, we really are in trouble). The most striking thing about this book, I felt, was that the author "Pittacus Lore" puts himself in it in a cameo role as the most gifted elder of the Planet Lorien. This struck me as a really odd thing to do. I didn't know what to make of it really; but the conclusions I drew were not flattering to the author. Also, I really don't like the way that no book for young adults can be written without a string of sequels these days. Original ideas for your next book please.

I loved the fact this book was action packed from the word go. There is nothing worse than having to read 200 pages before the story actually gets going and good; I can assure you this is not a problem here.With so much action, it is not really surprising this book has a strong male following and made it to the big screen. I also enjoyed how it makes you paranoid. I actually dreamed of aliens while reading it!!!Is this an original idea? Hardly. But the characters are good and the plot is really interesting. It is also nice to read the story from a male point of view. However, I found myself drifting and wanting to jump pages. I thought, maybe, it was because I was so taken by the last book I read and still had the story on my mind, but then I came across Novel Novice's review in Goodreads and I could not agree more. Reading this book does feel more like reading a script than reading a prose and you do wonder if the book was based on the script rather than the other way around.What was fundamentally off for me was the lack of emotions. I am one of those annoying people who likes to feel what happens in what I am reading as if it was happening to me. I like to laugh, cheer, cry, get angry and heart-broken with a story, and even though this book has moments where I should be able to do exactly that, it just did not happen. The way it is written is so straight forward and to the point that I didn't have time to feel upset or happy about anything.If you are a fan a romance, you will also notice how quickly he gets his girl. We all know the best part of a relationship is the chase and in I'm Number Four he not only does not chase much but Sarah, his love interest, is the one that comes to him. And it also happens within the first quarter of the book.In short, while it is a good plot and I looked forward to seeing it on the big screen, I will not be reading it again. Having said that, I am curious to read the second book of this series: The Power of Six as there were a lot of questions left unanswered such as: why do the Mogadorians - the evil aliens - care if nine Lorics escaped? Why would they care if they went back to repopulate the planet as it sounds as though the Mogadorians themselves are no longer there and the planet is desolate? I will have to wait and see.

I liked John's character and had a lot of sympathy for him - it's hard enough settling into a new school and making new friends without the added complication of being an alien. Despite his powers and background, for much of the book, John comes across as an average teenager with the same concerns about fitting in and relationships as the rest of us and I liked that dimension to the story. I also enjoyed that fact that the book is narrated by a male character - most of the books I read have female leads so this was a refreshing change.Henri acts as John's mentor, protector and guide throughout. On coming into his legacies, Henri is able to share with John the secrets of his past and the truth about their exit from Lorien and the fate of the planet. I found the back story to the book interesting but not particularly original; there is a lot here that reminded me of Roswell and Superman. I haven't read much sci-fi before but I suspect that fans of the genre may think that there is a lot in this book that has been done before.I would have liked a bit more depth and insight into the other supporting characters in the book too. Sam was my favourite - he becomes John's closest friend after they unite to take on the school bullies. Sam is a typical science geek with an obsession with aliens - his reaction when he finds out that there is truth behind his obsession is great but I would have liked to know more about Sam and his life. I felt that the other key characters in the book; Sarah and Mark were quite one dimensional too.I was surprised to find the book had quite a slow pace following the energetic start and although it held my interest, I did find myself wondering where it was all going. The high octane ending comes on quite suddenly and is a full on sci-fi battle! I can see that the story will translate well to the screen and I will watch the film version one day. I think there are elements in I Am Number Four that will appeal to a lot of different readers and as the first in a series it's a promising start. I will certainly read the next book in the series when it comes out to see where the story goes.