Just discovered through the I Am Number Four movie website (due for release 2011) that the author of this work is in fact James Frey, known for his best-selling so-called memoir, which proved to be a pack of lies: A Million Little Pieces. Not sure I'm happy putting money in this con's pocked.

To the book: Love the premise. Who can resist a story about aliens masquerading as humans, hiding from a despicable race of killers? Well, not me. This is the story of number four, one of nine children sent to earth to escape a ravaged race. Now the bad guys are hunting each down one by one -- in order, I might add. Number four and his carer move frequently and change identities, but it doesn't stop the vampirish baddies finding them. Maybe they should have thought to bed down in a nice, quiet Armish community. What ensues (naturally) is a battle, which at its conclusion sets things up nicely for the next five or so books to come in this new series.

There's lots of secret superhero stuff and action here so kids should be happy. From a writer's perspective, the story is lacking on oh so many fronts: dead-pan narration, cliched cardboard characters and a very predictable plot that offers absoltuely no surprises. Given that I could say the same about Twilight, that hardly means much.