Becky's Book Reviews: It's The End of The World--Let's Share Our Reviews!!!!
So far for this challenge, I've read The Host by Stephenie Meyer.
Showing posts with label The Host. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Host. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge
I have completed the Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge. I have read all of Stephenie Meyer's books:
--The Host
--Twilight
--New Moon
--Eclipe
Sunday, June 29, 2008
My First Chunkster Challenge
I have finished my first reading challenge: The Chunkster Challenge. This challenge called for reading one book a quarter that is over 450 pages (regular type) or 750 pages (large print text).
Here is my list of books and the page counts:
1.) Twilight - 512 pages
2.) New Moon - 608 pages
3.) Eclipse - 640 pages
4.) The Host - 624 pages
5.) The Six Wives of Henry VIII - 656 pages
6.) The Other Boleyn Girl - 672 pages
7.) The Boleyn Inheritance - 528 pages
8.) The Queen's Fool - 512 pages
9.) The Virgin's Lover - 448 pages (this book was 2 pages short of the guidelines, but I figured several of my books were way over 450, so I decided to count it.)
And to think, I still have six more months to go in this year. So many books, so little time. Happy reading!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Host
Stephenie Meyer, bestselling author of the Twilight series for young adults, proves she can write for all audiences with her first adult novel, The Host. This book opens up a whole new world and set of characters and we learn from them what it really means to be human.
The human race has been invaded by alien beings called "souls", spectral essences that take over and reside in the human body, basically erasing the human's existence. With access to all their emotions and memories, souls don't die so much as move from planet to planet and gain new healthy bodies. When the soul Wanderer arrives on Earth, she takes hold of the body of Melanie Stryder. The only problem is Melanie won't back down easily and eventually, Melanie is trapped within Wanderer's mind, the literal "voice in her head". With Melanie's memories of her lover Jared and brother Jamie, Wanderer seeks out Melanie's desires and in turn starts to desire them as well.
While the heart of The Host is essentially a love triangle story, there's a lot more underneath the surface that let's it stay in your mind a lot longer than just being simply about a great cast of characters. The idea of alien takeover will obviously bring about resistance and people wanting to fight back and yet we find the Souls are actually way more peaceful and even more courteous than most humans are. The love triangle is also better handled and doesn't seem so forced or childish. The characters are also quite endearing and even though some of them don't get as much prominence as some of the others, they add a bit more depth and character to everything.
Undoubtedly the best character in the whole thing is Wanderer herself who has more conflicting emotions and feelings and in some cases, way more humanity. Melanie - one of the few characters I can recall that's just simply a disembodied voice - is also well handled. As far as the book itself, the pacing of it doesn't really have a climax to it in an action sense where there's lots of activity and moving around and some parts of the book don't so much drag the book down but keep it level. We spend a lot of time within a certain place for practically the whole book and there's only so far you can go before it starts to feel claustrophobic, but it still maintains your interest.
Although this book was slow going for the first 100 pages - getting to know the environment and the characters - when it picks up its pace, the book reads very quickly. In recent interviews, Ms. Meyer has stated that a sequel to The Host is planned for the future. I am very interested in the world of this book and I look forward to reading more about this new "Earth". I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love of science fiction or supernatural fiction. If I had to label this book, I would describe it as a combination of Love Story and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
P. S. One thing to mention to others reading this book; make sure you read the end of the book. This book has a "fake" ending. When you think the book is finished, there are several blank pages before the actual ending of the book.
The human race has been invaded by alien beings called "souls", spectral essences that take over and reside in the human body, basically erasing the human's existence. With access to all their emotions and memories, souls don't die so much as move from planet to planet and gain new healthy bodies. When the soul Wanderer arrives on Earth, she takes hold of the body of Melanie Stryder. The only problem is Melanie won't back down easily and eventually, Melanie is trapped within Wanderer's mind, the literal "voice in her head". With Melanie's memories of her lover Jared and brother Jamie, Wanderer seeks out Melanie's desires and in turn starts to desire them as well.
While the heart of The Host is essentially a love triangle story, there's a lot more underneath the surface that let's it stay in your mind a lot longer than just being simply about a great cast of characters. The idea of alien takeover will obviously bring about resistance and people wanting to fight back and yet we find the Souls are actually way more peaceful and even more courteous than most humans are. The love triangle is also better handled and doesn't seem so forced or childish. The characters are also quite endearing and even though some of them don't get as much prominence as some of the others, they add a bit more depth and character to everything.
Undoubtedly the best character in the whole thing is Wanderer herself who has more conflicting emotions and feelings and in some cases, way more humanity. Melanie - one of the few characters I can recall that's just simply a disembodied voice - is also well handled. As far as the book itself, the pacing of it doesn't really have a climax to it in an action sense where there's lots of activity and moving around and some parts of the book don't so much drag the book down but keep it level. We spend a lot of time within a certain place for practically the whole book and there's only so far you can go before it starts to feel claustrophobic, but it still maintains your interest.
Although this book was slow going for the first 100 pages - getting to know the environment and the characters - when it picks up its pace, the book reads very quickly. In recent interviews, Ms. Meyer has stated that a sequel to The Host is planned for the future. I am very interested in the world of this book and I look forward to reading more about this new "Earth". I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love of science fiction or supernatural fiction. If I had to label this book, I would describe it as a combination of Love Story and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
P. S. One thing to mention to others reading this book; make sure you read the end of the book. This book has a "fake" ending. When you think the book is finished, there are several blank pages before the actual ending of the book.
Page count: 624
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