A student cam running in to the library to tell me about this book - we looked it up and I immediately purchased it. She was so excited... until she realized it was the first in a series. Now, she's not sure she'll read it.

As for my reading, I think the idea is good. Of course, it's vaguely like Superman, except John/Number 4 has a Lorian 'minder' to help him survive and the Mogodorians apparently arrived on Earth around the same time he did. The idea of being tied in to <del>nine</del>six people, with your survival depending on never being able to meet them despite having complimentary Legacies.

Forgetting about the alien overtones and Legacies, John's life on the run means that he learns to keep as insignificant as possible; in Paradise OH that's not possible from day one. He's the victim of a bully, as is Sam. Together, they need to negotiate the hell that is high school social strata. John's life is even more complicated because he's falling for Sally, ex-girlfriend of the bully-in-chief.

This mixture of realistic look at high school and aliens on earth makes me think of "Smallville" (really, the links to the whole Superman saga just kept coming back to me). Because of that and the cliffhanger ending and the expectation that we'll be looking for yet another series to add to our shelves, I'm not inclined to give this a five-star rating. It just didn't feel as though this was anything really new and different, plot-wise, and I'm tired of series. On the other hand, the fact that this is more boy-friendly than other series might be reason to purchase for work.