There were no blog posts yesterday as I was drowning in Stephanie Meyer’s The Host. Started reading it in the morning and finished it by 10 at night. Like I said in the previous post, it’s one big gulp. If the book is really good, after a few months I read it again, though this time I read more slowly savoring it thoroughly. Here follows my opinion on the book.
Breaking Dawn is my all time favorite from Stephanie Meyers. It’s just too good for words. She set an very high standard for herself with that one. I felt that The Host despite being a very good read doesn’t match up to the Twilight series. That’s just my personal opinion. It’s unbelievable how these authors come up with such out of the world themes and stories. I salute these extremely imaginative and creative minds.
The Host is one such story of pure creativity and imagination weaved in such a way that you just cannot put down the book. It keeps you spell bound from the beginning to the very last page. It can be called a science fiction novel since it involves an alien conquest of the earth. But these are the the most unexpected kind of aliens. Wanderer, the feminine soul that has taken over the human host body of Melanie is unable to suppress Melanie’s consciousness. Meyer’s is able to fascinate you with the two separate entities in one body with distinct personalities, strong passions and willpower of their own and when Wanda falls in love with someone else, the it becomes amazingly complicated. Like the human-werewolf-vampire love triangle in Twilight, creating the most complex and unexpected love triangles of humans and non-humans seem to be Meyer’s specialty. Her female leads seem to have unrealistically self sacrificing natures. I don’t understand why Melanie is portrayed as a 17 year old, when mid or late twenties would have made more sense.
Meyer’s book seem to better suited for female readers as she explores feelings and emotions in depth with a lot of internal dialogues. I had found the first book Twilight a little too dragging and the the heroine Bella to be a pathetic and colorless character, but the the sequels kept getting better. New moon was good, the Eclipse was great and like I said Breaking Dawn was just stunning. Twilight might have been aimed at a teen audience since it started as a high school romance, so you can’t really expect a 30 something woman or man to enjoy it at the same level. But like I said the subsequent sequels had a mass appeal and my husband also enjoyed reading them. I am sure my husband will find the Host an interesting read. Females leads in The Host, Wanda and Melanie are definitely more likable as characters than Bella. As the story progresses it’s hard to know who you like better, Wanda, the alien or Melanie the human. There very imaginative descriptions of other planets and life forms in the universe
No one can please everybody. Meyers has a huge fan base. Reviews will always remain mixed. For every person who loves a book, there will be someone who didn’t like it. Taste and liking are something very personal. Anyone can find fault with anything, even if its something that’s perfect to someone else. So, if its a debate with me on the negative side, I can point out plenty of negatives. But then, who or what is perfect? So don’t be too critical. Just lie back and enjoy a good book of fiction for what it exactly is. An enjoyable time pass.
Julie Joy 