Review: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

Review: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

Publishing Date: August 21, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins 

Pages: 360

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

Until the day I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive.

Together, we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others. . . .

I went to Spain to find Seven, and I found even more, including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive. Ella is younger than the rest of us, but just as brave. Now we're looking for the others--including John.

But so are they.

They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They caught me in New York--but I escaped. I am Number Six. They want to finish what they started.

But they'll have to fight us first.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Note: This review may contain spoilers if you have not read the first two books in the series, I Am Number Four or The Power of Six.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book.  

There were the awesome, the good, and the crappy.  I'm not really certain which one won out, because it all seemed about equal to me.  

Let's work backwards and start with the crappy, working our way up.  

JOHN/NUMBER FOUR.  YOU ARE SUCH A GIRL.  I swear, he is ten times more emotional than I am.  And I am actually a girl.  Can it be sweet for guys to show their emotions sometimes? Yes.  Absolutely.  But when it is an entire, unending onslaught of insanely annoying feelings for a certain human girl *cough.. SARAH.. cough*, it begins to seriously irk me.  And, basically, I never really liked Sarah in the first place.  I've always favored Six in that whole deal.   

Next on the scale, Marina/Seven.  She is MUCH less agitating that John (thank goodness).  But still, she tended to get on my nerves.  I think because she depended on her Cepan to teach her and she never learned anything, and the fact that she lived in a convent for many, many years, she deserves a little bit of a break.   But seriously, if I had been her, I would have explored my powers SO much more, and she just kind of let them be.  Plus, she's had so little experience in the real world, that her emotions and descriptions of it are very child-like, which can also tend to be annoying at times.  But, for being so new to the outside world and traveling, I can see that she handled it fairly well.

Now, the good.  Ella/Ten is an awesome character, but she just hasn't "blossomed" yet.  You can tell she has tons of potential to be awesome in the books to come, but The Rise of Nine seemed to be more of a transition for her from a shy little girl to a surviving Loric Guard.  She's good in this book, but you can tell that she'll be great in the books to come.

And now, the awesome.  Three words (or numbers, I guess): Six.  Eight.  Nine.  

Six: As kick-butt as usual.

Eight: YES.  I was so excited to meet Eight in this one.  He was awesome, kept a pretty cool head in tough situations, and was also pretty kick-butt.

Nine: We met him in The Power of Six, but didn't really get a look at his personality.  We definitely get to know him as he travels with Four in this book.  He has a quick temper, can definitely handle himself in a fight, is pretty relaxed and playful, but knows when to step up his game.

Those three were pretty much the highlights of the book.  They kept me interested and reading.  What made it a bit of a downer, though, was that of those three people, only Number Six was a narrator.  

"But Maggie!" you say, "Why have you not mentioned Number Five?"

Well, I would love to mention him, but I have no freaking clue who he is.  The suspense is killing me.  If he (or she) doesn't show up in the next book, I may pull my hair out, because the mystery is seriously getting to me.   I'm dying to know who it is.  

Anyway, as far as plot goes, I'd say this one was just about as action-packed as the others.  It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat at times, but there were other times when I'd hit a lull and had to set the book down for the sake of my sanity.  It was a good book, but it was definitely clear that it was a bridge book in the series.  I think all the best parts will begin in the next book, after we've (hopefully) met everyone and can finally get a little closer to the finish line.

The Rise of Nine was a good read, just not the best.  I still eagerly await the rest of the books and cannot wait to see this story continued.

Favorite quote from the book:

"We will not conquer our obstacles by running away from them.  Speed does not matter, just that we do not stop."

Peace out Girl Scouts!

-Maggs