I picked this up because our local library's adult summer reading program asks us to read books that meet certain criteria. This fit both "a book set in your home state" (Ohio) and "a YA bestseller," but even being set in the Buckeye State wasn't enough to make I Am Number Four awesome. 
 There were two things I didn't like about the YA aspect of the book: first, I felt like the stereotypical portrayal of high school (even an Ohio high school) as football-obsessed, where the jocks rule the school and act like bullies, was just lazy writing. Even [spoiler]having the main football player eventually help our protagonist[/spoiler] wasn't enough for me to feel like this writing choice didn't suck. And that lack of nuance spilled over into the rest of the YA portion of the plot, centered as it was around falling in love. Which isn't to say that a book about high school shouldn't include a romantic plot line, but come on. There really is more to high school than jocks-as-bullies and falling in love with a beautiful, smart, nice girl who used to be a shallow cheerleader but now saves puppies. 
 There were also several plot points that bugged me, things that just didn't seem realistic. [spoiler]Like when John uses his super powers to save Sarah and the two dogs and the local reporter is doggedly trying to get him to admit that he's actually got supernatural powers? Top to bottom stupid. First, a reporter should understand the inherent unreliability of eye-witness accounts, especially when your sources are drunk teenagers under the stress of a house burning down, and therefore be particularly skeptical about a supernatural explanation. Second, if the reporter did think he had supernatural powers, wouldn't he be a little more cautious about pissing this young man off? And the whole thing was largely unnecessary because of the video that the plot introduced soon after: if the reporter had the video when he was questioning John, why not bring it up? And since there was the video being posted, why did the writers even need this unbelievable side plot with the reporter? Just to make him anxious about being discovered, so that he can be relieved, and then the hammer falls? Um, okay.[/spoiler] 
 There's also nothing terribly interesting about the fantasy (with a window dressing of sci fi) plot here: there were some cool elements to it, but it didn't really grab me.