Review | The Host by Stephenie Meyer

2013 A to Z Challenge: Letter H = The Host

With the recent release of the movie The Host, I thought I’d share my thoughts about the book.

I’m a little conflicted about how I should review this book. Stephenie Meyer gets such a bad wrap in literary circles and sometimes to say you like her books is like social suicide. Though I don’t think Meyer’s writing is the best, I still think she’s a good story teller.  And the truth is, I couldn’t put The Host down. I didn’t feel that the book was very sophisticated, but it was definitely brain candy, and sometimes this girl just wants some brain candy.

The book is about an alien invasion that has happened on Earth. Human kind has lost the battle and the aliens use human bodies as hosts. In some bodies, the human has such a strong will and personality, that the alien invader can’t silence the thoughts of the human who originally had control of the body. The story is about one of these strong willed humans who becomes inserted with a relatively strong willed alien. The alien (Wanderer) and human (Melanie) end up working together to find the surviving humans that Melanie loves and cares about.

One thing I didn’t like about the book was the recreation of another weird love triangle (or actually a quadrangle in this story) by Meyer. What is it with her and a woman being love torn and conflicted about two great men? I also felt that Stephenie likes her characters so much, that she doesn’t really want to create too much conflict for them, because then their lives would be too hard, and who wants a hard life? It would have been so easy for her intensify the conflict in the story and make it more…interesting and action-packed, edge of your seat. I also felt that the writing could have been tighter.

Despite its lack of conflict, I confess that I also did like the book for that reason. In many respects, it’s just a feel good, happy ending book. Meyer has alluded to writing a sequel to this book, but as of now, there is no official release date for one.

All in all, the Host grabbed me pretty quickly from the start. It was interesting, sometimes thought-provoking, but also a bit corny in places. I recommend it primarily to women. With all its romantic-antics, I just can’t see many men reading it without a lot of eye-rolling.

I listened to the audio version of this book and I do not recommend it. I did not like the narrator’s voice, especially when she did the male voices. Ugh.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but would like to. Have you? I’d love to know what you thought of it.

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Overall Rating:  1/2

Parent’s guide:

• Sex: Sensuous kissing, some groping. Convoluted relationship in which a man is kissing two women at the same time.
• Language: Very mild
• Violence: aliens capturing humans, descriptions of aliens taking over/killing other aliens, a man hits a woman, a man grabs a woman and almost strangles her, some fighting scenes, attempts to kill someone, the death of someone
• Adult Themes: a suicide attempt, euthanasia of someone with horrible cancer,

 

Related articles

• ‘The Host’ premieres; Stephenie Meyer has the sequel in the works (herocomplex.latimes.com)
• ‘Twilight’ author Meyer plots another trilogy (dawn.com)
• Twilight Author Stephenie Meyer Hasn’t Read “Smutty” 50 Shades of Grey Books (contactmusic.com)