My First Review: I Am Number Four

First review on this blog, and most likely not the last. The book of the day is I Am Number Four.

Author: Pittacus Lore
Page Count: 440
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age Range: Young Adult

From First Glance: Gosh, it's such a handsome book! Whoever made the cover and did the formatting for this thing did a brilliant job with it! As in the picture above, it looks pretty simple but instantly catches your eye. Also, the side of the pages has two words on it: Lorien Legacies. I'll honestly say that when I bought this the woman at the register started freaking out at this, which was quite hilarious (although I feel the same way).
The back is really interesting as well, but it is pretty vague. Even with finishing the book, I'm not sure if it's the good side (the Loriens) or the bad side (the Mogadorians) for it could be either. Still, it was very well done.

Brief Summary: The book is about Four, a boy from a distant planet called Loric that was destroyed. He is sent down to Earth and hide. Eight others (with their guardians) are also sent. Those that destroyed Loric, the Mogadorians (that's a mouthful, huh?) then go to Earth to kill these Nine and succeed on killing three. The story then jumps to John (aka Four with a name change), who moves with his guardian Henri to the small town of Paradise, Ohio. While there, he starts developing powers known as Legacies. These Legacies will give John and the other Loriens a chance at fighting the Mogadorians.

Thoughts and feelings:
The writing itself-- It was okay. I wasn't impressed with the book at the beginning, with its confusing and practically meaningless prologue (even when I reread it after finishing the book, it was still pretty meaningless) to finding two spelling/grammatical errors on the first page of Chapter One. The first half of the book was all right, but enough to keep me reading. It got a lot better about 200 pages in, when everything really started to get interesting. The ending was fabulously written, although it really got me ticked off. Overall it was good.

The characters-- I'm at a 50/50 here whether I like them or hate their guts. Some were likeable (such as John's guardian Henri), but the others didn't feel real. They weren't developed enough as they could have been, although they did manage to be interesting. Four/John was okay, but didn't wow me in any way. The friends he makes I kinda liked, but Mr. Lore should have gone even further with them. Then there were a few characters that couldn't make up their mind, and didn't have a set personality of who they were.

The plot-- Great work here! It's pretty original, and I was entertained by Pittacus Lore (the author) how he named the planet after himself (Loric and Loriens) and had the founder of Loric be Pittacus Lore ( an elder who randomly showed up there. . .it wasn't really explained why he did. *Shrug*). The idea of John and Henri in hiding in plain sight from the Mogadorians was great, and the action scenes written in this book were fabulous! The book was filled with action scenes too, which made it go by quite quickly.

Final Thoughts: Gah! The ending bothered me. It really bothered me. I'm not sure if I'm depressed about it or if I'm furious at it. It didn't seem to really have a good ending point either. Still, that will not stop me from getting the next one whenever it comes out.

Rating: **** Four Stars. It was a great concept, but the characters did not seem developed enough. It also had points where the characters swore unnecessarily (swearing just to swear), and the school didn't seem that realistic. It had that stereotypical feeling to it, and the bullies pulled pranks I doubt any quote on quote "bully" does in school nowadays. Still, the action scenes were very well written! Overall, I did enjoy reading it.