Book Review: The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies #4) by Pittacus Lore

Again, it bothers me that I didn't review the first three books, but it can't be helped now.

Summary (as seen on Goodreads):

The Garde are finally reunited, but do they have what it takes to win the war against the Mogadorians?

John Smith—Number Four—thought that things would change once the Garde found each other. They would stop running. They would fight the Mogadorians. And they would win.

But he was wrong. After facing off with the Mogadorian ruler and almost being annihilated, the Garde know they are drastically unprepared and hopelessly outgunned. Now they’re hiding out in Nine’s Chicago penthouse, trying to figure out their next move.

The six of them are powerful, but they’re not strong enough yet to take on an entire army—even with the return of an old ally. To defeat their enemy, the Garde must master their Legacies and learn to work together as a team. More importantly, they’ll have to discover the truth about the Elders and their plan for the Loric survivors.

And when the Garde receive a sign from Number Five—a crop circle in the shape of a Loric symbol—they know they are so close to being reunited. But could it be a trap? Time is running out, and the only thing they know for certain is that they have to get to Five before it’s too late.

The Garde may have lost battles, but they will not lose this war.

Lorien will rise again.

Yays:

• Like that a member of the Garde died. As bad as it is, plot armor is really unrealistic, so this added realism to the piece. Also, it makes other possible prophecies very interesting.
• The story behind Ella is very intriguing, looking forward to learning more.
• Glad that they found Sam and his dad, and that it was a really important element in this piece.
• Adam seems like an interesting character. Looking forward to seeing the role he plays.
• On the whole for this series, I like that there's action moving it forward. (In contrast to a series I recently read.) It's nice to get a bit outside of my comfort genre and poke around.
• I'm trying to make sense of all the titles. Previously I thought there was a dual meaning but now I'm not so sure. I guess I'll have to find out the hard way. Poor Eight, who never got a book...

So-sos:

• As much as I dislike Five, at least his powers are kind of cool.
• Having so many characters who are so different from each other was really cool. However, it was hard getting back into this story because it's been a while and I was also, like Sam, overwhelmed with a ton of characters that I was suddenly meeting and it was kind of chaotic.
• I feel like the title gives away a major secret, which, while it's a cool way to play with words is kind of unfortunate. Then again, I accidentally ruined that with Wikipedia, so it's not really fair for me to say when I started suspecting Five as a traitor.

Nays:

• Five's betrayal felt a little too predictable, like something like this happens too often in other books like this.
• The Garde spent too much time in the "safety" of Nine's place. Not that it was completely safe, but so much of the novel revolved around them being there that while a lot of things happened, it was a bit boring at times as well.
• The POV changes made my head hurt, although it was cool to have Sam's POV. Then again, it didn't serve as much purpose in the latter part of the story.

Overall, I considered docking a star due to the whole annoying POV thing, especially considering that it was hard to tell who was who and voices didn't have much distinction,  but in the end I've been kind of mean lately so I'll let this one have 4 jellyfish.

By the way, freaking out waiting for that last book to eventually come out. And crossing my fingers that I can get my hands on The Revenge of Seven soon.