In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorian. Nine aliens who scattered on Earth. Nine aliens who look like ordinary teenagers living ordinary lives, but who have extraordinary, paranormal skills. Nine aliens who might be sitting next to you now. The Nine had to separate and go into hiding.
I kind of have a love-meh relationship with this book. I suspect this stems from watching the movie prior to reading the book, which kind of eliminates any sense of surprise.
Despite knowing what happened, I continued to read the book. It was definitely an enjoyable read, albeit I found the main character, Number Four or John Smith, extremely boring and tedious to handle. Perhaps this is because I was never a teenage boy grappling with hormones, girls, and developing powers. Perhaps it’s simply because the character was dull. In fact, I found most of the characters pretty flat—Sarah, the girlfriend, was way too perfect. Sam, the best friend, was the stereotypical weirdo who is obsessed with aliens and gets beat up. Really, my favorite people were Henri (Four’s guardian) who cannot use swear words to save his life (“It’s shit good to see you”) and Bernie Kosar, the dog.
The dog had more personality than John Smith/Number Four.
I truly enjoyed the world building in the book—though we never actually visited the planet of Lorien, Lore does a great job of painting what it looked like through a series of dreams and flashbacks. His description of the enemy alien race is crazy good, too.
The magical concepts were great, as was the timeline, history, and background behind why the nine Lorien children were sent to Earth. Lore definitely has a gift with telling a story, and I can see why the series became so popular. It was a quick, easy read, and I can think of a few people who would definitely enjoy this series.
Before reading the excerpt for the second book, I wasn’t sure I was going to continue reading the series. I wasn’t wowed by the first book. However, after reading the first chapter of The Power of Six, my interest has been piqued. Instead of being told from the point-of-view of Number Four, it’s told by Number Six. She sounds way more interesting than I found John Smith, so I’ll give it a shot.
I gave this book a 4/5 on Goodreads.
lifebetweenreads.com 