Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - I Am Number Four

I am number four is a slow paced tale of how an alien named John Smith comes into his powers. Him plus 8 others were brought to earth after the Mogs, evil soul sucking aliens, destroyed their planet Lorien.

The story is a good kick off to an epic series. It moves slow and allows you time to get comfortable with the characters we are introduced to. Reading it again I have a new found appreciation for the novel.

It is one of the few sci-fi books I enjoy because this series tells so many stories. If you enjoy slow paced, action filled, world building novels then I think you will enjoy this.

Content Warnings

marareading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This is a fun YA read. It reads quickly, and is very interesting. The world building is very fun and unique! I enjoyed it a lot.

We are following John and Henri who are from Lorien. Their planet and people were destroyed for resources my the Magadorians. Only 9 of the children and their keepers, the Cêpan, survived. John is number 4. Protected by a charm, they can only be killed in order. 3 are dead. John and Henri and running and in hiding. They find a new home in a small town in Ohio, and things starts to go wrong.

If you like YA fantasy with a bit of sci-fi, I would definitely recommend this.

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onefineelephant's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

3/10. It was pretty bad. The love interest, Sarah, had no personality at all and essentially only existed for the main character. Also, the main character, Number 4/John had no personality either.

What are the chances that the closest inhabitable planet in the entire universe has aliens that look exactly like humans but have superpowers? Additionally, what are the chances that John's superpowers are being immune to fire and then his girlfriend is the only person out of 150 drunk teenagers who gets trapped in the burning building? Also, the villains are just pure evil with no redeeming qualities which is not my preference. I am also so mad that Henri, the only adult in the book and John's only family, dies in the battle. I am also mad that Sam just abandons his mom at the end of the book when she has nobody but him and his dad disappeared too. There are just so many questions left unanswered at the end of the book and I'm pretty sure these never get answered even though there are more books in the series. Like why was John just not allowed to know that they had a chimaera pet? Why was Mark involved in the battle in the first place? What were the secrets that Henri was keeping from John about the original invasion?

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cianarae's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The story is interesting but the writing is pretty lazy. A lot of really convenient coincidences as well as a lot of leaping to convenient conclusions that didn’t always make sense.

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hdelossantos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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ashybear02's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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lindseyrenee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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venti's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

six could stab me and i’d say thanks

actual review incoming:

so i finished my reread and wow, still as good as i remember. of course now i’m older, i can see the inconsistency in some of the writing — likely a result of the possible ghostwriters involved. though that isn’t really prevalent until the next few books. overall, just a nice nostalgic read. i still hate sarah.

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