To cap EW’s run of three (strangely, not four) exclusives for the upcoming YA novel I Am Number Four, we present to you an early glimpse at the book’s first nine (again, not four) pages. The alien saga is set to hit bookstores Aug. 3, and aims to be only the first entry in a planned Lorien Legacies series. Pittacus Lore, the pseudonym of authors James Frey (yes, that James Frey) and Jobie Hughes, told EW that he’s working on a sequel titled The Power of Six, and a movie adaptation from producers Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg is already in the works. So, click on the link below to read the prologue and first chapter and let us know what you think.
Click here to read the first nine pages of I Am Number Four.
Is all this pre-publication hubbub justified? Do you want to read more? Do you want to read less, presumably via some alien-technology time machine?
Sounds awesome!
Why would anyone publish, let alone read, let alone make a movie of, anything by that liar, hypocrite James Frey?
He is an unforgivable, talentless piece of crap.
That’s a bit harsh, Sheila.
He made a mistake, an embellishment that sort of snowballed out of control – coupled with Oprah’s ridiculously hard reproach I happen to think everything was blown way out of proportion.
He’s a great writer and I’m glad he’s still at it.
How about you get your story straight before you blast someone that you have no idea about?
The real crime in that entire Oprah-led spanking of Frey is that Frey was accused and convicted of a writing tool EVERY SINGLE MEMOIRIST employs: Embellishment.
There is not a single memoirist who hasn’t taken creative license to exaggerate, combine or isolate real experiences to improve narrative flow. Frey took one for the team there – Random House, Nan Talese, his agent, his editor, his marketing team at RH – they all stepped back and let him burn for something they do multiple times every season. Shame on them. And shame on readers who let Oprah’s ridiculous grandstanding, face-saving, finger-wagging admonishment of Frey fool them.
Frey wrote an amazing book. He’s a fantastic writer.
He was good enough to fool a LOT of people, including Oprah Winfrey.
Yeah. How dare he make you read! Shame on him. It kills me the number of people who stopped reading what was a page turner when they found out it was mostly embellished. That doesn’t make the book any less of a page turner. For God’s sake, people acted like they actually had something in stake over this guy. “How dare he be creative! I want my money back!” Stick to “reality shows”. I’m glad he’s back. You need a gimmick in this age of b.s. Don’t be mad that he found one. Bravo to him.
Forgive much? I’m surprised you don’t want to burn him at the stake.
I don’t know Frey but I do know Jobie and he is a good writer and a good person. Even if you don’t like Frey you should give the book a chance.
Does anyone think for themselves any more or do they just bow to the almighty Oprah?
^
Glad someone other than me is aware of it.
James Frey is an awesome writer! Fact or fiction,I will read anything he writes! Sure,he made a mistake,but nobody died,so can we please get over it already? Being human means nobodys perfect!
Who cares whether he lied or not? It won’t make me like the story any less if I was told that the actions didn’t happen, you know? As long as I’m enjoying the book and as long as he knows how to write correctly (unlike the authors nowadays), he can write whatever he wants.
I won’t deprive myself from something I like just because the others didn’t like it.
You can’t even tell what’s real these days, anyways.
Well, I think all the promotion is working. It does sound interesting.
I do hope they fix the spelling error on page 5 though, “blew” instead of “bxlew”.
But everyone knows that “bxlew” is the past imperfect of “to blow.” One could have “bxlew chunks” after reading James Frey, for example.
In the actual book it says bxlew also so it’s not an error for this copy. And haven’t really read anything else by him but like how the word is something he made up.
I find it odd that they are planning a movie version before they even get reader response to the book. Is that common?
That would be why many people are considering that this will be a great book. It’s not common whatsoever
It’s actually fairly common these days, especially with established authors. A lot of times studios will pick up the option to adapt a book into a movie shortly before or after it’s published, although not all adaptations hit the theaters. That happened with Justin Cronin’s The Passage; it was picked up for the movies before the book hit stores.
I think it’s clear that Frey is a talented novelist, as the success of A Million Little Pieces shows.
I think it’s kind of funny that you’re asking if the pre-publication hubbub that you are helping to create is justified. Clearly somebody at EW thinks it’s justfied, or you wouldn’t be running excerpts.
Is this the new Twilight for EW? You keep on pimping this book, and it’s a bit overkill already.
Hmmm. It’s not working for me. Seems forced, cliche, as if it were created by a committee of executives trying to come up with the next Harry Potter or Twilight. Nah. And blah.
My thoughts exactly!
I’m a bit annoyed that EW.com is bothering to pimp a YA novel that obviously needs no pimping. How about promoting some quality YA fare by unknown authors who could actually use the publicity?
On iBooks you can even get the first 60 pages
Thanks for the excerpt.
Tired premise, familiar plot, trite characterizations, stilted dialogue, and hack writing.
I’d call it crap, but crap can make the grass grow. I don’t know what purpose I Am Number Four serves.
At least James Frey’s keeping busy.
Funny, it has that “making it up as I go along” quality like his “memoirs.”
Roswell tv series rip-off. It’s the same plot with some changes, the same concept with some changes. Nothing new and nothing better.
Yes, I agree. all I could think of while I was reading it was Roswell. Such a good series — esp. season one. But I really like this kind of story, so I’ll probably read it. Maybe there will be some twists or innovations – you never know.
I just finished the book. I would recommend reading this story. You’ll find yourself wanting to be right in the middle of what is happening.
I think I am number four is an amazing book. What I like the most is when you reading or watching the movie you can’t tell what would happen next which is why I’m desperate to watch the power of six and the rise of nine. I will do whatever it take for me to find those movies and the series Lorien Legacis