I Am Number Four
Lorien Legacies #2
by Pittacus Lore

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous book in the series, I Am Number Four.

John Smith’s attempt to stay out of the hands of the Mogadorians and the FBI is interspersed with the introduction of another of the Garde, number seven out of nine who are meant to be the saviors of their planet Lorien. Where John has been on the move throughout his time on Earth, Seven—known as Marina—has been living in a convent orphanage for years. But she’s not as safe as she seems to be.

I don’t know…I enjoyed the previous book quite a bit. John and Henri’s father-son-like relationship was the heart of the story, and we’re completely missing anything resembling a heart in this one. I already didn’t really care about John’s relationship with Sarah in the previous book, and now I am supposed to care about a love triangle? John is beating himself up over the fact that he’s “supposed to” love only Sarah all his life, because Henri had told him that Loriens love only one person for life. But he (and the author) failed to keep in mind that 16-year-old love isn’t necessarily real love. I get the feeling, though, that the author(s) just assume that YA is supposed to have a love triangle.

Meanwhile, in the sections about Marina, not a whole lot happens. Her Cepan has turned her back on her and Marina’s heritage and Marina is dealing with bullies, both in the form of peers and nuns. Again, it seems like the author(s) just took every trope of YA (in this case, the MC being bullied) and put it all into a story. John’s and Sam’s choices at various points are pretty terrible, which maybe points to them being badly in need of a wise adult, but mostly makes them seem inept. There’s a lot of action, though I’m not a huge fan of major fighting/battle scenes. Overall, this one just didn’t work as well as the first one did for me. Still, I’m interested to see what happens, since there’s clearly an over-arcing plot going on. I just hope the characters get a little wiser.

Find out more about The Power of Six

See what I’m reading next.

If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!