So, I just finished YA novel, I Am Number Four (a friend lent it to me, we have a sort of informal book club going right now). Annnnd if you haven’t read it but want to, you probably shouldn’t read this post because it’s gonna be one big SPOILER (also spoilers for The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Star Wars).
Oh hey, there's a movie version too.
The book ends with a cliff hanger, or at least, a non-resolution. WTF. You can’t end the FIRST book in a series with a cliff hanger. The first must stand alone! Right? You have to make Star Wars before you can make The Empire Strikes Back. Or do you? I recently read and loved Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, and the first book also ends with a bit of a cliff hanger, and yet, that didn’t annoy me. Why is that? Am I just biased against James Frey? Isn’t a cliff hanger a good idea? I mean, I’ve stressed act breaks when writing TV to hook your audience to stay tuned…isn’t ending your book on a cliff hanger just another way to hook people? And what about Star Wars, anyway? Luke doesn’t defeat the Empire or even Darth Vader in A New Hope…so if you look at it that way it ALSO has a cliff hanger.
So...what was my problem again?
Ah yes, the problem with I Am Number Four is that there is NO SENSE of ANY resolution in the book because the book doesn’t set up anyone/thing to defeat outside of what will most certainly be the MAJOR EVIL of the entire series. In other words, the book doesn’t have a Death Star. While the Rebels in Star Wars haven’t defeated the entire Empire by the end of that movie, the audience feels satisfied that the Death Star has at least been destroyed. That’s because destroying the Death Star was the main goal in that movie, NOT destroying the entire MAJOR EVIL. In the book, I Am Number Four, we meet number four/John Smith, and learn he’s on the run from this race of super evil alien guys who want to kill him. Then, some stuff happens which ends with a big fight against some of those super evil bad guys…and…John doesn’t die…and then leaves town. That's THE WHOLE book.
Now, I’m not totally knocking the writing in the book (I actually found it very entertaining as I was reading) but, come on! I think if you want to write a series of books where the protagonist will eventually have to take down a MAJOR EVIL you have to have them take down some Death Stars first. Otherwise, at the end, your readers feel taken for a ride where your characters pretty much accomplished nothing. Sounds lame to me, but hey, what do I know?
Looking away from Star Wars, let’s compare this book to book 1 of The Hunger Games which unlike Star Wars, DEFINITELY has a "to be continued" ending. In that book, the Death Star is the Hunger Games themselves. Katniss must survive/defeat the games while she is in them before the story can move onto the bigger business of taking down the entire dystopian government. And how about another popular series of YA books…Harry Potter? Harry faces weakened/lesser versions of MAJOR EVIL aka Voldemort in each book before he gets to his final showdown.
Oh, and that’s another thing...while the evil alien race gets a name there are NO individually named bad guys in I Am Number Four. There is no Darth Vader, no Voldemort, just a mass of nameless evil aliens.
Anyway, just some things to think about if you're writing your own YA novel since YA is so hot...just ask James Frey.
Beyond that, I guess what annoys me most about the lack of resolution at the end of the book is that when I looked up info on the sequel to I Am Number Four, I discovered that book is going to focus on ANOTHER character not seen in the first book. So…was the protagonist of the first book even the protagonist of the series? And when will I get to find out what ultimately happens to the characters from the first book? And more importantly, will I even care by then? Considering that I have pretty much no interest in seeing the film version of I Am Number Four, I’m gonna guess no.
No comments:
Post a Comment