'The Rise Of Nine' Reading Response

In the book The Rise Of Nine by Pittacus Lore, the remaining citizens from the planet Lorien are looking for each other. The Mogadorians have come and invaded, forcing everyone to leave and go to planet Earth. The teenagers are now being hunted down and are desperately trying to find the next Garde (Loric citizen). Throughout the series, I notice that a lot of the characters change and so do their relationships with each other.

I feel that Four, or John was the most different from the other characters in the book. He has made friends with Sam and Sarah, two humans he met a while ago. Now, he’s willing to do or sacrifice anything for them and to get them back, even if it means putting off going back to Lorien. I feel that this was a huge sacrifice that he stood by because there were tons of thoughts that Four had had, wondering about Lorien and him feeling homesick, and to just postpone that while he rescued his friends, I felt was a huge and brave move.

Also, I feel that him and Henri, his guardian or Cêpan, had a strong relationship, even though Four realizes Henri’s choices weren’t the best for him later on. On page 152, Four and Nine are talking about their experiences with their Cêpan’s and how they were different. Like, for example, how Henri preferred to moved around a lot and to stay smaller towns, whereas Sandor, Nine’s guardian, liked to hide in plain site in one of the biggest cities and buildings in the world.

“And that’s why Sandor was the best Cêpan that ever lived. He had rules of course. First and most important, ‘don’t be stupid.’ Nine sighs. Amazingly, he has no idea how infuriating, how insulting this talk about Sandor is.” This shows that Four is very defensive about Henri and doesn’t want to think that anyone was better than the only person he could ever look up to. However, this changes slightly after Four and Nine are settled in Nine’s apartment and he’s explained everything him and Sandor have done. “Suddenly, I’m resentful about Henri moving us around so often, not giving me the kind of training I clearly needed to do my part. If we had made a place like this, then maybe I would be as confident and strong as Nine. Maybe Sandor really was the better Cêpan.” Here he’s kind of realizing what he missed out on. He’s second guessing even though I think he doesn’t really want to.

In conclusion, the relationships characters have with each other is important and can always change. John does seems be becoming more compatible with Nine and even though Henri will always be the main figure of a guardian for him, there are some things John wishes could’ve been different. And I felt that Sandor to Nine was always more of idolization than a family member, but they still meant a lot to each other.