ŷ������

I kind of liked the first half of the book. The story of a kid, different from everyone else, on the run, lonely and tired of running, trying to find some semblance of a normal life easily kept my attention. And that is despite all the inaneness the author manages to fit in - like coming to school wearing garden leather gloves and no one finding it strange, manure-filled lockers on a second day of school or printing fake IDs facilely using commodity tools.

It's the second half that completely ruins the experience. I understand that a book about aliens with superpowers walking among us will require suspension of disbelief, maybe even a great deal of it. But I Am Number Four goes over the top. Once Four starts using his powers, it's pure retardedness throughout. And the silliness of the whole premise shines from every page.

Like how are 9 people ever going to repopulate a whole planet? Here we have Mogadorians who easily wiped out an entire race of super-powers wielding bad-asses, but now are supposedly running scared of nine remaining whelps and have to relentlessly hunt them down.

A flawed premise could probably be lived with if at least the action was readable. But it's just more silly nonsense. A space-faring race of murderous villains conveniently using swords, sledgehammers, knives and trained beasts to fight. Our valiant heroes idiotically fighting back using their limited powers, instead of, you know, picking up a gun. It's not like guns don't work against them. All fight scenes in the book are basically Four screwing up and waiting for death, the villain of course being in no hurry to finish him off, until one of Four's friends shows up from thin air and puts a trusty bullet though the Mogadorian's head. It's fine occasionally, but by the third time you see a variation of the same scene it gets old.

I sure am dying to read the rest of the series and find out what happens next...