You can’t review a book about an alien superbeing living on Earth without thinking about our favourite Kryptonian. And neither can you expect any book about aliens with superhuman powers to stray far from the Superman themes of duty and destiny. I Am Number Four, a book about a young alien refugee living on Earth doesn’t bother reinventing the wheel. Yes, I know, it’s not Pulitzer Prize literature but neither was the incredibly enjoyable and layered Harry Potter.

Like Clark Kent, the alien Number Four also known as John Smith escapes a devastated planet seeking refuge. Like Kent, he has superhuman strength and unknown powers that are yet to be developed. Where it departs from the super
road is in the back story. John is one of nine alien children from the planet Lorien which was destroyed by another group called the Mogadorians. The children or the Garde as they are known on their planet develop superpowers in their teen years and are trained by their adult guardians called Cepans who protect them from the Mogadorians on Earth who are bent on killing all Garde. The children are protected by a magical charm that only allows them to die in the order of their numbers. Unfortunately the first three have been killed by the Mogadorians and John is the next one in line.

The story is extremely formulaic, almost as if the authors —the novel is rumoured to be penned by the notorious James Frey (yes that one from Oprah) and his writing partner Jobie Hughes— wrote it using a checklist containing the most common clichés in hero stories. Our hero gets bullied by the high school’s alpha jock. Check. Falls in love with a popular ex-cheerleader. Check. Strikes a friendship with the awkward geek in his class. Check. However, the story’s suspenseful momentum and the authors’ fluid writing style kept me reading up to the end, past the cheesy dialogue and choppy illogical action sequences. The odd combination of magical charms and alien technology would work in more skillful hands but not here. I wondered why Frey and Hughes chose to use a pseudonym which turns out to be a character in the book even though the book was written in first person from the perspective of Number Four.

I have low expectations for the upcoming movie adaptation. The trailer intrigues me and the fact that Timothy Olyphant is in it makes me look forward to it. Hopefully the movie won’t be a faithful adaptation or it would turn out to be just another shallow Hollywood action flick, the kind you watch once and then forget, never creating any desire to go back and read the book.

Trivia:
The actor Alex Pettyfer who plays Number Four has starred in other movie adaptations—-Alex Rider: Stormbreaker and Tom Brown’s School Days.

Rating: Not recommended.