Review: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Synopsis: Nine of us came here. We look like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books--but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you with you knowing.

But they know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They Killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.

Review: I Am Number Four is a great story. John Smith, a.k.a. Four, has been running for as long as he can remember. He is from the planet Lorien, a planet that is much more advanced than earth. This planet had already gone through their destructive behaviors and started to kill their planet. They reversed this process and were given powers, or Legacies, as a way to take care of their planet. When their planet was invaded by the Mogadorians, another race from another planet that have ruined their own planet. They destroyed all of Lorien and their people-except nine Garde, those with Legacies, and their Cepan, their protectors. They were sent to live on Earth, the closest life-sustaining planet, to hide from their invaders, and save their race.

John is finally coming into his Legacies at age fifteen and can now fight back. He has never had a need to fight before he moved to Paradise, Ohio. He finally has his first friend, Sam, and his first girlfriend, Sarah. Everything he has ever wanted, including feeling normal for the first time, will not last long because the hunt is already under way. Because the Garde can only be killed in order of their numbers, John is next. The first three have been killed by the Mogadorians and they are looking for John next. John's struggle is mostly with himself in this book. He tries to live a normal life while at the same time trying to develop some sort of defense to protect himself and his Cepan, Henri. Overall a great story that will make you want to read the next in series, The Power of Six, to be released August 23.