The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Overall Rating
I was very happy with this book. I knew that I would enjoy it, but I have to admit that reading how the story unfolded was heartwarming. I loved the writing and the character development.
Originality/Creativity:
This sort of story has been done before. Jet back in time, and some can remember the story of the Bodysnatchers, and this was the same sort of idea. The one thing that got me was the fact that the race of aliens, although brutal in their takeover of the human race, are powerful and yet docile at the same time. Most are not violent and they take great care to protect the earth and their “hosts”. That was a different sort of a take on aliens I think. I loved the idea of the Cave system as the setting, that was unique as opposed to where most stories would have had the characters running like crazed Nomads all over the place. I found the elements of creativity in this story refreshing.
Complexity of Characters/Storyline:
The main character is very complex I think. Her name is Melanie. Melanie is a strong and loving young woman that is fiercely protective of the ones she loved. The alien (Wanda, nickname short for Wanderer) a very calm and loving personality herself, you see her start as one of the aliens that believe in what they are doing. Then she forms these relationships with the ones that Melanie loves and it begins to change her. And she forms a deep relationship with her host body Melanie. That was a relationship that was strong by the end which had your heart wrenching for the both of them facing the dilemma of sharing the same body and loving each other. The characters around them and the relationships were complex as well. You have two men in love with two different girls, and those girls are in the same body. That is some Jerry Springer material right there, huh?! The villains indeed live up to that title. This book has a great balance of it all!
Quality of writing:
Although this author is extremely popular, the quality of writing is not mind blowing to me. However, the writing is clear and concise, I felt the story was easy to follow with no huge flaws. It bet it was tricky to correctly explain the detailed layout of the setting for which the story took place, but the author does well to throw in the details you need to get the picture flowing in your mind as you read.
Action/Suspense:
The action is pretty well spaced out. I like how it jumps right into the story. The book leaps straight into the action, Melanie running for her life and then doing the unthinkable. Read the book to find out what she does! I did enjoy the fact that not only do you have the physical action going on, but there always seemed to be some sort of conflict going on within Melanie and Wanda in their mind. That definitely keeps the story interesting. The action isn't all super overwhelming, nor did I find myself squirming with anticipation very much, but the book had a few intense moments. There may have been a part here or there that I felt dragged on a bit, but the book held my interest and I was a tiny bit sad when it ended.
BOOK VS. MOVIE
In my opinion, most books are going to be way better than the movie of course. I take into consideration the fact that the producers and script writers cannot fit all the elements of the novel into the movie. But I really felt like they changed a few big points of the movie. Points that would not have taken much more time to add. And they changed a lot of things that made no sense. Like how Melanie chose to try and get away from the aliens at the beginning. Really? You had to change that? And they shortened the trek Melanie/Wanda took into the desert dramatically as well. What about when Wanda began to teach everyone about other worlds, that was so important for how she formed her relationships with the people who hated her at first. I don’t get it. But if I separate the book from the movie and pretend that I didn’t read the book first, the movie was pretty good. My boyfriend has not read the book and he was able to follow it and said that the movie was great. I would recommend that you go see the movie. If you have not read the book, go see the movie before you read the book, otherwise you will feel a bit robbed as I did.
Would I recommend this book? Yeah I would! It is a pretty good book that will make you love the villain in the end. You will be wishing you had an alien friend by the end of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment