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evanf's review against another edition
4.0
Compared to the other crap this author has dished out, this book was very, very, very good. Even compared to decent bits of writing, this book was good. I don't know what happened to Ms. Meyer's brain writing Twilight, but this book deserves 100 times more the credit than that series gets.
Interesting plot, likable characters, excellent all together.
Interesting plot, likable characters, excellent all together.
reydeam's review against another edition
3.0
Full Review:
http://ibeeeg.blogspot.com/2009/06/host-by-stephenie-meyer.html
The Host has a very intriguing storyline premise with a spunky girl who is not an easy push over for a body-snatching soul invader. For the most part, this premise kept my interest throughout the read. The reading was easy and had a nice and steady pace. It contained enough twists and turns to keep me reading, to keep me wanting more, to keep me wanting to know what will happen. Even so, it did have a few moments where the storyline dragged a bit and when it dragged - it dragged.
Even though, overall, I liked the story - I had a problem. My problem was with the characters. I felt a disconnect and disappointment with several of the characters. I need a strong connection to one or more of the characters in a story I am reading. This is a must for me to truly experience and become absorbed into the story. I found that The Host fell a bit flat in character development.
Overall, was The Host good? well...no....it was an OK read.
Did I enjoy the read? Well...Yes I did.
Is The Host an adult or YA read? It is classified as an adult read but honestly, I think this book should be put into the YA category. Seriously, it was a clean read meaning that there was no sex, no foul language, and the violence was not very graphic.
I will allow my older girls to read The Host.
http://ibeeeg.blogspot.com/2009/06/host-by-stephenie-meyer.html
The Host has a very intriguing storyline premise with a spunky girl who is not an easy push over for a body-snatching soul invader. For the most part, this premise kept my interest throughout the read. The reading was easy and had a nice and steady pace. It contained enough twists and turns to keep me reading, to keep me wanting more, to keep me wanting to know what will happen. Even so, it did have a few moments where the storyline dragged a bit and when it dragged - it dragged.
Even though, overall, I liked the story - I had a problem. My problem was with the characters. I felt a disconnect and disappointment with several of the characters. I need a strong connection to one or more of the characters in a story I am reading. This is a must for me to truly experience and become absorbed into the story. I found that The Host fell a bit flat in character development.
Overall, was The Host good? well...no....it was an OK read.
Did I enjoy the read? Well...Yes I did.
Is The Host an adult or YA read? It is classified as an adult read but honestly, I think this book should be put into the YA category. Seriously, it was a clean read meaning that there was no sex, no foul language, and the violence was not very graphic.
I will allow my older girls to read The Host.
lavdander's review against another edition
4.0
a quien necesito pagarle para que continúen esta saga?
nminst's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
domi9926's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
daphx00's review against another edition
1.0
Did not finish - made it to around 60%, did not like it, it didn't improve and I found it overall boring - not my kind of book at all.
Review to come.
Review to come.
noesbookishthings's review against another edition
4.0
This book was REALLY long. I enjoyed it, but it was REALLY long. I took a few things away from this book: I am ridiculously in love with Ian, I am very interested in apocalypse novels now and I want to buy Stephenie Meyer a thesaurus because she continues to use the same words OVER and OVER. I would go through the book and count how many times something or someone "hissed," but I really don't have time for that considering it's probably in the thousands.
My favorite characters in this book were Wanda, Jamie, Jeb and Ian. I wanted Maggie and Sharon to die with a passion. Especially Sharon. Mel and Jared were OK, but didn't do much for me. I would have liked to have a scene where Mel confronts Sharon for being such a nasty bitch. I mean, she did end up in the situation she was in because of her. But whatever.
It would be kind of cool if she wrote a sequel where they go a bit more into the other "tribes" of rebel humans. We shall see.
My favorite characters in this book were Wanda, Jamie, Jeb and Ian. I wanted Maggie and Sharon to die with a passion. Especially Sharon. Mel and Jared were OK, but didn't do much for me. I would have liked to have a scene where Mel confronts Sharon for being such a nasty bitch. I mean, she did end up in the situation she was in because of her. But whatever.
It would be kind of cool if she wrote a sequel where they go a bit more into the other "tribes" of rebel humans. We shall see.
paige87's review against another edition
4.0
My confession is that I watched the movie first, and loved it. So this was one of those rare occasions the movie inspired me to read the book instead of the other way around. But this book was a lot of fun! I wish I hadn't already known things based off the movie, but it didn't detract from the plot. It was a slow start, but it did pick up about 100 pages in. Seems to be a theme - I felt the same way with The Chemist. The story is character driven, which I love. And somehow the author took me from hating both Jared and Kyle to actually liking them. And I ended up sympathizing with the aliens! Good character development. Over all, an enjoyable story.
crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
Wanderer, an alien "soul", takes over Melanie's body - but unlike most other possessed bodies, Melanie doesn't disappear. Wanderer learns about Melanie's life - and other stuff happens.
What that stuff is, I won't know because I'm tired of falling asleep every time I put this audiobook on.
DNF at 28%.
The worst thing I think a book can be is boring. We all want a fun, exciting, gripping book - that is the reader's ambrosia. But even a truly awful, terrible, waste of paper book can be fun in its own way. Hell, people gather around the TV for bad movie night, what's so wrong about "Bad Book Week"? But a boring book - a boring book sits on the nightstand night after night, staring at you, telling you that you should read it but giving you NO REASON WHATSOEVER to pick it up.
This is a boring book.
It's a shame to say that after Twilight, because in many ways, I do think it is a stronger book than Twilight. I feel the writing is better, the characters are better, the STORY is better. And yet, I don't think Meyers has learned enough, has pushed her craft far enough to leap from "one hit wonder" to an author a person returns to again and again. She can't seem to figure out a pace that keeps the story moving forward while also building a world around her.
Twilight was pretty awful, but at least it was memorable. "Host" is that book you read and two days later, you will wonder what was going on. I mean, I've been listening to this on audiobook for two weeks, listened to about 28% and still can't really tell you anything substantial that has happened. I used every excuse to get out of listening to this and I had to force myself to listen to it on audiobook every time.
The characters couldn't draw me in. The worldbuilding couldn't draw me in. The story didn't draw me in. The pace sure as hell didn't draw me in - the pace is slower than a snail, crawling, wriggling, inching along so slow that molasses pours faster than the pace in this book.
And the romance! GOOD GAWD, the romance! Because goddess forbid we have a novel without one! And goddess forbid we have a romance that isn't the same old Girl wants sex, Boy tries to preserve Girl's "purity". What happened to two adults having a conversation about sex that doesn't involve 1) hinting that sex is paying the guy back for something or 2) excuses for not having sex including someone not being old enough (why did Melanie have to be 17 and Jared much older than that? Does the 1 year age REALLY matter in a post-apocalyptic world?)? (Though I will shout out that Meyers did address birth control. And while Jared does tackle Melanie when she tried to evade him, I never saw any creepy Edward-stalker behavior in Jared)
And still I kick myself! Because this is truly an intriguing idea - what happens when the alien takes over a person's mind? That's the other side of the "Body Invasion" equation and this could be absolutely enthralling! And yet, Meyers couldn't make it interesting in the slightest.
Also, before I forget: Kudos to Meyers for setting this in the Arizona desert, her homeland. I think that was a good call, because I could actually FEEL the desert surroundings.
So, I throw in the towel at 28%. I know, I made it throw the awful "Breaking Dawn" but couldn't manage this. But again: Rule of Boring. This certainly isn't the worst Meyers has ever done, but neither is it anything that makes me think she's an author I need to follow and read everything she's done.
"Twilight" started an era of my love for Young Adult Urban Fantasy; "Host" marks the bookend of that era.
What that stuff is, I won't know because I'm tired of falling asleep every time I put this audiobook on.
DNF at 28%.
The worst thing I think a book can be is boring. We all want a fun, exciting, gripping book - that is the reader's ambrosia. But even a truly awful, terrible, waste of paper book can be fun in its own way. Hell, people gather around the TV for bad movie night, what's so wrong about "Bad Book Week"? But a boring book - a boring book sits on the nightstand night after night, staring at you, telling you that you should read it but giving you NO REASON WHATSOEVER to pick it up.
This is a boring book.
It's a shame to say that after Twilight, because in many ways, I do think it is a stronger book than Twilight. I feel the writing is better, the characters are better, the STORY is better. And yet, I don't think Meyers has learned enough, has pushed her craft far enough to leap from "one hit wonder" to an author a person returns to again and again. She can't seem to figure out a pace that keeps the story moving forward while also building a world around her.
Twilight was pretty awful, but at least it was memorable. "Host" is that book you read and two days later, you will wonder what was going on. I mean, I've been listening to this on audiobook for two weeks, listened to about 28% and still can't really tell you anything substantial that has happened. I used every excuse to get out of listening to this and I had to force myself to listen to it on audiobook every time.
The characters couldn't draw me in. The worldbuilding couldn't draw me in. The story didn't draw me in. The pace sure as hell didn't draw me in - the pace is slower than a snail, crawling, wriggling, inching along so slow that molasses pours faster than the pace in this book.
And the romance! GOOD GAWD, the romance! Because goddess forbid we have a novel without one! And goddess forbid we have a romance that isn't the same old Girl wants sex, Boy tries to preserve Girl's "purity". What happened to two adults having a conversation about sex that doesn't involve 1) hinting that sex is paying the guy back for something or 2) excuses for not having sex including someone not being old enough (why did Melanie have to be 17 and Jared much older than that? Does the 1 year age REALLY matter in a post-apocalyptic world?)? (Though I will shout out that Meyers did address birth control. And while Jared does tackle Melanie when she tried to evade him, I never saw any creepy Edward-stalker behavior in Jared)
And still I kick myself! Because this is truly an intriguing idea - what happens when the alien takes over a person's mind? That's the other side of the "Body Invasion" equation and this could be absolutely enthralling! And yet, Meyers couldn't make it interesting in the slightest.
Also, before I forget: Kudos to Meyers for setting this in the Arizona desert, her homeland. I think that was a good call, because I could actually FEEL the desert surroundings.
So, I throw in the towel at 28%. I know, I made it throw the awful "Breaking Dawn" but couldn't manage this. But again: Rule of Boring. This certainly isn't the worst Meyers has ever done, but neither is it anything that makes me think she's an author I need to follow and read everything she's done.
"Twilight" started an era of my love for Young Adult Urban Fantasy; "Host" marks the bookend of that era.
sunnysettoon's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5