I enjoyed I Am Number Four enough at the beginning. I love a good "I've got a secret" high school tale. But, as we continued on the adventure, nothing of import seemed to happen. The book went through the motions (befriends likeable outcast, defeats bully, gets girl) without anything really happening. As this sank in, a number of other problems became evident. 
 The characters are not particularly well crafted. Four's name is John Smith. And he didn't have a different name at home. That's about as bland as it gets. His one "quirky" feature seemed to be he played video games once. John Smith's romantic interest used to be the head cheerleader, but dropped out of the squad when she realized it, and her romance with the top football star (see bully), was impacting her negatively. She's still popular though. I wanted to like her. I wanted to like her so much. She seemed to have good intentions. But she was so bland. And John kept saving her. It's been a while since I've read a sci-fi/fantasy book with a male protagonist, so I was excited. But this utterly let me down in regards to its male and female characters. John's guardian Henri was the most compelling character for me, if only because he seemed to be the only one with common sense. 
 The fact that the novel is ghostwritten under the name for an elder of the world is somewhat laughable, if only because it seems to imply a level of thought about that world that did not communicate itself to me. If the characters aren't well crafted, the world is worse. At least we've met those character types before and know how to interact with them. This is sci-fi only in as much as there are "aliens." John develops powers. Why? 'Cause it makes him a superhero. But, why were the Mogadorians coming after them again? If it was mentioned, I don't remember, which is almost as bad. The final stand-off seems to go on forever, for no real reason. 
 Basically, everything feels very arbitrary. Whether John and Sarah pass their home-ec test seems to have as many stakes as John's "survival." There are no real stakes, mostly because John doesn't really seem to feel the stake. He just wants to hang out in Ohio okay? We've been here. And we've seen it better.