I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (nom de plume of James Frey and Jobie Hughes)
One of my guilty pleasures is a Michael Bay movie. In high summer, when it's 105 in the shade, there is nothing like going into a dark air conditioned theater watching things blow up. I picked this book primarily because it tapped into my love of that genera. I Am Number Four didn't disappoint. It may have felt a lot like Superman, but Frey and Hughes did enough tweaking to the plot to make the story seem fresh. However, the book clocks in at 430 pages. I honestly think with the help of an editor the book could have been clipped down to 250. The book kept repeating itself over and over. Plot points were impossible to miss because they were summarized in every third chapter. I Am Number Four is a book that doesn't trust it's audience, and for that I'm not going to by the rest of the series. It was a frustrating endeavor, whole chapters could have been cut out.
I feel for authors like Frey and Hughes. They must have work like this dictated to them via publishers. Reworking soulless exposition over and over again must have been maddening. Also, not putting your own name on a project has got to hurt! I mean, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan writing The Strain series together has to burn. Look, I'm not trying to be a high and mighty reviewer here. What I am trying to do is get Frey to write a better book. Understanding that A Million Little Pieces had its controversies, but even though that, Frey is still really talented. He shouldn't be forced to write the book version of Michael Bay movies.
Moving on, for my Required Reading Revisited book club our March pick is Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I am really not a fan of Salinger's most famous book The Catcher in the Rye. We'll see if I throw this book across the room.
One of my guilty pleasures is a Michael Bay movie. In high summer, when it's 105 in the shade, there is nothing like going into a dark air conditioned theater watching things blow up. I picked this book primarily because it tapped into my love of that genera. I Am Number Four didn't disappoint. It may have felt a lot like Superman, but Frey and Hughes did enough tweaking to the plot to make the story seem fresh. However, the book clocks in at 430 pages. I honestly think with the help of an editor the book could have been clipped down to 250. The book kept repeating itself over and over. Plot points were impossible to miss because they were summarized in every third chapter. I Am Number Four is a book that doesn't trust it's audience, and for that I'm not going to by the rest of the series. It was a frustrating endeavor, whole chapters could have been cut out.
I feel for authors like Frey and Hughes. They must have work like this dictated to them via publishers. Reworking soulless exposition over and over again must have been maddening. Also, not putting your own name on a project has got to hurt! I mean, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan writing The Strain series together has to burn. Look, I'm not trying to be a high and mighty reviewer here. What I am trying to do is get Frey to write a better book. Understanding that A Million Little Pieces had its controversies, but even though that, Frey is still really talented. He shouldn't be forced to write the book version of Michael Bay movies.
Moving on, for my Required Reading Revisited book club our March pick is Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I am really not a fan of Salinger's most famous book The Catcher in the Rye. We'll see if I throw this book across the room.
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