The Host: A Novel
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of The Host: A Novel
Book Review: Blown Away
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephenie Meyer is an author with a clear voice, a great grasp of storytelling, and the ability to put a *love* into her writing that transcends anything I have ever seen before. Her maiden voyage series, the Twilight saga (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and soon-to-be-published Breaking Dawn) has been one of my favorite young adult series ever, and I have never been ashamed to be seen reading them, though I am 22 and have graduated from college with a degree in English: Professional and Technical Writing. I'm an *English Major*. I love to read, and I love to read good books. Until last night, I would have sworn that Stephenie, as wonderful a writer as she was in my mind, could not have done anything to top my love for the Twilight series.
The Host utterly, completely, and indisputably blows the three published Twilight books out of the water.
I love the Twilight series, I always will. But The Host is... something else entirely. Something so much deeper and broader that it is... incredible to see the development of Stephenie as a writer. If she has come *this far*, from the sweet and lovely Twilight to the stunning level of The Host, in just a few years... I truly cannot wait to see how her talents as an author will grow and continue. I have no doubt that the journey I will travel with her, as a devoted fan of her work, will be exquisite and breathtaking, heartbreaking, wrenching and beautiful and tragic - just as it has already been. She is incredible, and she will only continue to improve with time and practice.
The Host is a science fiction story, yes. But it is science fiction in the way that dissembles past all the blasters, X-wings, and space battles to return to the heart of what science fiction is: the answer to the question "What if?", using the conventions of science fiction to explore humanity in a way that would not be possible without looking at ourselves from the eyes of a sentient being who was not human.
WHAT IF a race of benevolent, altruistic, beautiful parasites invaded Earth, taking over human bodies and experiencing all the joys and pleasures and beauties of humanity while removing all sickness, all evil acts, all war and tragedy, violence and hate?
WHAT IF some human hosts were stronger than the aliens expected, stronger than the "souls" had ever encountered before? The souls were not used to our overload of senses, our physiological makeup, the power of our emotions; what if some humans, as humans must... resisted?
I cannot tell you more, because this is a story that should be savored piece by beautiful piece. Any way I tried to condense it, to *explain* it, would invariably ruin this book; I will not do that to anyone. Stephenie Meyer needed over six hundred pages to tell this story, and not a word is wasted - I cannot tell it in a paragraph, or even a page.
I am trying not to praise The Host too deeply, because I would not want anyone to read it with too high of expectations and come crashing down because it wasn't as good as the impossible, perfect novel they had thought it would be.
But I find it difficult to restrain myself, since I consider The Host pretty close to perfect.
Book Review: Book Review: The Host
Summary: 3 Stars
The Review
I must be the only person left in the book review blogging community who didn't read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series. However, I'm not sure that I really want to read it as my children have read the series twice, each. They could most likely recite the story to me. A little part of me is, however, curious. When I saw that Hachette was doing a TOUR of The Host, I wanted to get involved. Well, I didn't make the tour (but, you should definitely check it out...), but I figtured that maybe I'd find my love for Stephanie Meyer in this book, a non-related entity to the Twilight Series.
Let's start with the things that I liked about this 600+ page novel... There were some great creative ideas in this book. The premise of the story is intriguing and has the makings of a really great movie. In fact, the book almost reads as if it were an actual movie. It's filled with tons of dialogue that carries the story along. Wanda, the alien within Melanie's body, has lived on 6 or 7 other planets (I can't remember which). This gives Wanda the ability to share lots of great stories of the other planets and their species with the remaining "pod" of humans that she's living with. Wanda touches on these planets and experiences as she develops her unique relationship with the humans.
Another concept that I really liked within the covers of this novel is the one of human love is so unique and different from anything else. The book suggests that the way humans love one another remains within us, down to the cellular level. Love is a memory, a feeling, and is irresistible to fight. Further, the story suggests that the way that humans love their offspring is so completely unmatched in any other species. I can, most certainly, agree with this!
What made this novel my "not-so-favorite?" Well, I truly believe that this book would have presented better had it been condensed. I think that many aspects of this story could have been introduced in a shorter fashion and the story-line streamlined. I believe that Meyer could have achieved a stronger piece of literary fiction had she attempted to do this. Another suggestion that I would have provided as an editor to this book is expanding upon the description of the other worlds and alien species that Wanda was once a participant in. As a reader, I would have preferred these tales to the overly present verbiage throughout the book.
On Sher's "Out of Ten Scale:"
Overall, I liked this book. It may be an interesting read for my twins and they may enjoy it more than I did. However, I did talk to Lisa's munchkin about it recently. I think that she agreed with me that the book was too long. She seemed to like it. I also discussed the book with my friend, Danielle. She old me that she did finish the book, however liked it less than the Twilight Series. She expressed to me that it was just too "wordy."
In summary, this book would make a good sci-fi movie, or made-for-tv-movie (or mini-series). However, as a read, I think the book needed some improvement. For the genre Fiction:Science Fiction, I am going to rate this book a 7 OUT OF 10.
Book Review: Wonderful story by Ms. Meyer!
Summary: 4 Stars
THE HOST is Stephenie Meyer's first foray into the adult world, a futuristic novel set on Earth after a massive alien invasion. These aliens take over the bodies of humans (called "hosts"), but leave their minds intact.
Wanderer is the alien who has been implanted in Melanie Stryder's body. And while this alien is thrilled to experience earth for the first time (she's been to several other planets, such as the See Weeds), it's with great dismay and shock that she realizes Melanie hasn't evacuated the body--she's still in there, and she's not willing to leave.
Overwhelmed by Melanie's memories and her desperation to find her still-human family, who are hidden somewhere out in the desert, Wanderer finds herself also longing for these people--especially Jared, the love of Melanie's life. Together, they form an uneasy alliance and flee threatening outside forces, heading into the deadly desert to find these people.
The back cover of the ARC (from which I based this review) describes this story as "what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies." Both Melanie and Wanderer (nicknamed Wanda) are in love with the same man, causing tension and conflict between them as they war for control over both Melanie's body and Jared's love and attention.
I found the first part of this very large book slow to start (the novel weighs in at almost 650 pages). Ms. Meyer takes her time setting up the characters' feelings, histories, and stories. She lets the tale unfold at a leisurely pace, showing Wanderer's acclimation to Melanie's body, her realization that Melanie is still in there and is unwilling to let go, and Wanderer's eventual decision to pursue Melanie's family.
Eventually, though, THE HOST picks up and captures your attention--there aren't a lot of plot elements in here, and there are relatively few scenes/locales, but the characters' emotions are gripping and compelling to read as they interact with each other. Ms. Meyer has a talent for writing strong, gritty, fascinating characters who etch themselves into your mind, and I found myself turning page after page, unable to put the book down.
Because Ms. Meyer laid the groundwork so thoroughly by digging deeply into her characters, showing their pasts and how they evolve over the course of the story, you feel every emotion across the spectrum--severe hatred, selfless love, intense fear. Both Wanda's and Melanie's enraptured love of Jared illuminates their struggles and conflicts as they learn to care about each other, and I couldn't flip the pages fast enough to find out what would happen. The climax was unbelievably gut-wrenching for me to read (yes, I actually cried while reading it, it had sucked me in that deeply).
Even though the last part of the novel felt a little anti-climactic in comparison to such a climax, I'd still highly recommend THE HOST. A warning, though, to those expecting another story like the TWILIGHT series: this is a very different kind of tale. But if you accept it at face value for what it is instead of trying to compare it to her young adult material, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. For me, it was definitely worth the time.
Book Review: A Fascinating Story!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the future Earth has been taken over by a unique alien species. The infiltration was slow and undetected until it was too late. Now these aliens, known as Souls, live inside human bodies, which act as hosts for the invading parasites. Usually when a Soul is placed in a new host it is able to take full control of the body, pushing aside any remnant of the human consciousness that once lived inside.
After a Soul named Wanderer is inserted into her new host she soon realizes something isn't right. It seems the human who once inhabited this body refuses to give in and die. Melanie Stryder wants no part of Wanderer and is doing everything she can to fight back. Even though Wanderer controls the body, nothing she does is able to quench Melanie's spirit. She is always there, in her head, so to speak.
As time goes by Melanie's memories become Wanderer's and soon she finds herself longing for the people that meant so much to her host. Melanie left behind her brother and the man she loves, and now Wanderer has developed those same feelings. Soon Wanderer and Melanie begin working together to track down Melanie's loved ones, all the while being careful that they don't lead the other Souls to the humans who are in hiding. When they finally do find them, they must figure out a way to live peacefully with a group of humans who have grown to hate Souls. Emotions flare and relationships are tested in agonizing ways as two lives must share one body and as enemies must learn to co-exist and survive.
Stephenie Meyer has taken the publishing world by storm with her groundbreaking young adult Twilight series. The Host is her first stand alone adult novel and millions of readers are anxiously waiting to see how it stacks up. Having never read any of the Twilight books, I didn't know what to expect from a Stephenie Meyer novel. What I found was a fascinating story that is really unlike anything I have ever read.
While this story certainly has sci-fi elements, it is not what most would consider hard-core sci-fi. Meyer focuses more on the relationships of the characters and the intriguing dilemma of two lives sharing one body. Much of the book deals with Melanie and Wanda's complicated love triangle with Melanie's old flame and Wanda's new love interest. There is action and suspense laced throughout, and Wanda's relationship with the surviving humans is tension filled to the max. The novel's real strength lies in the character of Wanda as she is constantly pulled between her duty as a Soul and the compassion she develops from her connection with Melanie and the other humans. Indeed, Wanda is the most human character of them all.
Meyer's writing is top-notch throughout and never lags despite the massive page count. Readers who expect a fast paced storyline wrapped up in a mere 100,000 words may be disappointed. However, those who enjoy a steady paced tale that slowly builds into a powerful and emotional ending will love The Host. In the end we are left with just the right amount of closure, but also with a little taste of what is to come. I can only hope Stephenie Meyer will continue this incredible saga she has begun.
Book Review: A Very Pleasant Surprise
Summary: 5 Stars
I was more than pleasantly surprised and shocked while reading this book. I have the first three books of the Twilight series and I will admit that I am not really a fan of them. The writing in those books is not very well done, plus I have problems with the storyline and the characters in general. Plus with all the hype surrounding them, it just makes the reading seem more tedious. Therefore I approached The Host with rather low expectations and prepared myself for another Twilight except with aliens. Boy was I in for a shocker.
When I started reading, I was amazed at how I got sucked into the book. I really didn't expect to, because my experiences at reading Twilight had been more like let's get the book over with quickly. This time I found myself drawn into the story, wanting to savor every word. I didn't speed through this book like I normally would, instead I read the book in snippets every day. It's not the type of book to rush through as it pull you in and you find yourself engrossed into the story. I found the storyline very interesting and I'm not a sci-fi or fantasy fan at all. The invasion of aliens on Earth, the takeover of human bodies as hosts and the struggle for the remaining humans for survival was believable and not done in a cheesy sort of way. It's a plot that one could see actually happening and the underground network of humans very much like a bomb shelterplot line.
The relationship between Wanda and Melanie is very unique because it's like having a two headed monster, without the second head. At first Wanda is kind of unlikable because she isdoing things the way her species is used to, by taking control of everything with no regard for their human hosts. However as the story progresses she soon learns more about the human species and even falls in love with one of them. The whole love triangle bit was a bit weird and took a while to comprehend, but it's written very well. It's more developed dare I say than the Bella/Edward/Jacob storyline.
There are just two qualms I have with this book. The first is that I didn't really like the way of how both Melanie's and Wanda's thoughts are in the same italicized font. It would have been better if Melanie's thoughts had just been italicized or if Wanda's had been put in a different font. As it stands, it gets confusing when the two are "talking" to each other and there's no distinction between the two voices. My other qualm was that I felt the ending to be rather disappointing. I felt that the story had built up to an intense level and then just dropped off. I'm not sure if this is because there is going to be a sequel to the book or what, but it felt like a cop out at the end of the story.
Still I will say that I really enjoyed reading this book. For a change it wasn't a fast read for me. Instead I had a savor it, a little bit at a time each day. Thus it took me longer to finish this book than I normally would. However, I felt that this was the best way to read the book as it's not one to devour in a span of a few hours. If Stephenie Meyer continues writing in this fashion, I will definitely start picking up her books now.