The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore

Date finished: 30 August 2013

Series: Lorien Legacies, #4

Rating: 4*

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As per usual with this series, I feel really confused yet high on adrenaline straight after finishing The Fall of Five. It seems to me that every book is pretty relaxed, only with the occasional battle here and there, until the last thirty-or-so pages, when all hell breaks loose and I’m pretty much hyperventilating and curled in a ball by the time I turn the last page.

It’s a bit like Pittacus Lore is trying to blackmail me into reading the next book by saying, “Look, I guess this wasn’t my best, but let me just throw a couple of betrayals, deaths and major occurrences into the last few pages, and then end it on a cliffhanger, so that you re sure to buy the next book I write.”

It’s extremely annoying, and this book probably would’ve gotten three – or even two – stars were it not for that crazy, action-filled ending.

This series is a good one, and I’ve really enjoyed it since the beginning, but it really hasn’t been gripping me as much as it did in the beginning. The first book was excellent, but I sort of feel that it’s the reason that I keep reading the rest of the series: in the hopes that someday, Pittacus Lore will write another sequel as well as he wrote I am Number Four. Maybe I’ve just become more fussy as I’ve grown up.

The Fall of Five just wasn’t… “Sparkly” enough, if you know what I mean. Everything was there - the writing, the action, and the story – but it just felt a bit old and rusty. I had to push through the first few chapters to get into the book, because the writing felt stiff and forced. It also took a while for me to get used to the switches in narrative, because it wasn’t as though there was any indication as to whose point-of-view the story was taking place from at the beginning of each chapter (or at least on the Kindle edition there isn’t), and I found it a bit arrogant that the author felt it was beneath him to just write the name of the character at the beginning of each chapter, like in other books.

Speaking of arrogance, naming the great elder of Lorien after yourself is just soooo modest. In fact, I’m thinking of writing a novel in which I make all people on earth worship the great and powerful ruler, Amy Bouwer, who is the centre of the universe and demands… um… world peace. No, scrap that. I demand an endless supply of good books, tea, food and Titanic re-runs.

But anyway, back to Pittacus Lore. He is either an extremely arrogant man who feels that he needs to write himself into his novel to reach the pinnacle of self-importance, or is actually writing under the fake name Pittacus Lore, in order to create the illusion that his stories are in fact real. In the case of the latter, he/she is rather intelligent, and I apologize for calling him/her arrogant. However, if neither of those options is true, it is time for us to accept that aliens, both the Mogadorians and the Loric, have invaded our planet and we are all doomed, because the story of the Garde is true.

Overall, The Fall of Five was a great novel. I have been quite tough on it in this review, so it might seem as though it deserved three or less stars, but I actually really did enjoy it once I got into it. The Lorien Legacies series is definitely a good series to try out if you’re into young adult fantasy or even just the alien mumbo-jumbo, and I highly recommend reading at least the first book, I am Number Four.