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archimedesfudge's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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? No
5.0
marieeee_v's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
kathydavie's review
4.0
This was good! Very unexpected after her Twilight series. A paranormal romance with alien possession in an invaded-Earth. I enjoyed the twist on the alien occupiers. I'd like to follow this story on...
becca_themoodreader's review against another edition
5.0
It’s not right to play with my emotions the way this book did.... I was crying real tears throughout especially over my Wanderer but Meyer saved me the heartache I would’ve had if the book finished the way I thought it was going to. Thank God it didn’t by the way.
lizzycatslibrary's review
2.0
Where to even begin with this book?
*Sigh*
At first I was excited and intrigued at the fairly unique alien invasion story Stephenie Meyer put together. I had hope that this could all be interesting and unique!
Then it hit Twilight world... hard.
Why is every female character Stephenie Meyer writes a meek, scared, clueless, self-sacrificing, annoying child. Why?
Of course the female character couldn't think for herself. Of course she was obsessed with an asshole guy who was once again violent, controlling, and demeaning. Why is every interaction with men in these books the most demeaning annoying interaction ever? If I have to hear someone call her "Sweetheart" one more time I am going to vomit. If one more person holds her chin and looks into her eyes and blah blah blah I just can't. It was awful. Why?
Really there weren't any characters in the book I liked. I hated Wanda. I hated Jared. I hated Ian. I even hated Jamie... who to me seemed really confusing. Sometimes he was a "man" and other times I felt like he was 5 years old. It was just dumb.
This book had lost me early on but I pushed through. It wasn't until the final bit, when Wanderer of course convinces herself to self-sacrifice (surprise surprise) that I just couldn't take it anymore. Really? She makes out with Jared and she comes to the conclusion that her body isn't hers or Melanie's, it is HIS. WTF does that mean? WTF?! WT F F F?
I can't take it. This was just so bad. Not to mention predictable. Not to mention pathetic. Not to mention nothing happens for a good chunk of the book aside from Mel/Wanda hiding in a corner cringing at everything that is going on around her.
Boo. I will NOT be reading the sequels. Nope nope nope. I can't even believe there are going to be sequels...
*Sigh*
At first I was excited and intrigued at the fairly unique alien invasion story Stephenie Meyer put together. I had hope that this could all be interesting and unique!
Then it hit Twilight world... hard.
Why is every female character Stephenie Meyer writes a meek, scared, clueless, self-sacrificing, annoying child. Why?
Of course the female character couldn't think for herself. Of course she was obsessed with an asshole guy who was once again violent, controlling, and demeaning. Why is every interaction with men in these books the most demeaning annoying interaction ever? If I have to hear someone call her "Sweetheart" one more time I am going to vomit. If one more person holds her chin and looks into her eyes and blah blah blah I just can't. It was awful. Why?
Really there weren't any characters in the book I liked. I hated Wanda. I hated Jared. I hated Ian. I even hated Jamie... who to me seemed really confusing. Sometimes he was a "man" and other times I felt like he was 5 years old. It was just dumb.
This book had lost me early on but I pushed through. It wasn't until the final bit, when Wanderer of course convinces herself to self-sacrifice (surprise surprise) that I just couldn't take it anymore. Really? She makes out with Jared and she comes to the conclusion that her body isn't hers or Melanie's, it is HIS. WTF does that mean? WTF?! WT F F F?
I can't take it. This was just so bad. Not to mention predictable. Not to mention pathetic. Not to mention nothing happens for a good chunk of the book aside from Mel/Wanda hiding in a corner cringing at everything that is going on around her.
Boo. I will NOT be reading the sequels. Nope nope nope. I can't even believe there are going to be sequels...
commedesenfants's review
3.0
Minor spoilers
The Cover
This cover is terrifying. HUGE face with a HUGE eye. And someone needs to learn how to use the blur tool in Photoshop properly. But I think this cover is supposed to be scary and the eyes play a big role so...in any case it's better than the covers of the Twilight books.
The Story
I know, I know. This is written by Stephenie Meyer. But let's not jump to conclusions yet, okay?
The world has been invaded by alien body snatchers and humanity is on the verge of extinction. When one of those aliens, Wanderer, takes over the body of Melanie Stryder she didn't expect that she had to share her body and mind with Melanie. You see, when the aliens take over a body the original human is supposed to fade away. Melanie however refuses to give up her body and also refuses to expose the whereabouts of her boyfriend Jared and her little brother Jamie. Due to unforseen circumstances Wanderer and Melanie end up having to work together and search for the ones they love and for the last human bastion.
The Protagonist
Wanderer is part of an alien race that is incredibly gentle and peaceloving. She's terrified of aggression and obviously weapons too. This can lead to extremely passive behaviour, i.e. she wouldn't even defend herself in life threatening situations. This can be extremely frustrating (I can't even count the times where I wanted to shake her) because while I understand her aversion to attack someone offensively, I just cannot understand how she doesn't even have a little bit of a survival instinct and defend herself (more about that later) but she'd defend and protect others, that just doesn't make sense to me. I love strong female characters, those who can defend themselves if not physically then at least intellectually. Wanderer is neither. The thing is, it's part of her nature so it didn't bother me as much as it would have if it were a human protagonist.
Melanie on the other hand is the opposite. She can be a bit impulsive but she's strong. She doesn't back down. She can and will defend herself and those she loves, whatever it takes. While I'm nothing like Melanie, I could identify myself with her better, probably because she's human and has a wider range of emotions. Wanderer has some moments where there are outbursts of emotions but for most of the time she's just too nice and self-sacrificing for her own good. It takes her awhile before she learns how to be human and even then she can't fully shed her ingrained behaviour.
The Heart Rate
This book has an interesting love...well, I guess you could call it triangle. Melanie loves Jared and thanks to her memories of him, Wanda loves Jared too. Jared loves Melanie but Melanie's body is now inhabitated by Wanda. You see the problems here?
To be honest, I don't know how much Wanda really loves Jared and how much of it is just residual feelings from Melanie and her body memory. It's said later on that Wanda really does love Jared but I still doubt it. Jared treated her terribly for most of the time and for the other half he was pretty much indifferent towards her, at the most he saw her as a friend and someone who is useful to him in the end. In contrast, I could totally understand why Wanda loved Jamie, Melanie's little brother so much, it was not only because of Mel's memories but also because Jamie was totally devoted to Wanda, it might because she had his sister's body but he treated her like a human from the very beginning, so I can see how she came to love him on her own, independent from Mel's emotions. So yeah, I don't buy Wanda's love for Jared.
What I do buy is Melanie and Jared's love for eachother. They found eachother when most of humanity has disappeared and through their struggle for survival have formed a bond that can't be broken easily.
The Good
- Aliens: I thought the concept of the "Souls", i.e. body snatchers, was interesting. Especially body snatchers without evil intents (well unless you count them wiping out all of humanity), at least it is not their intent to destroy earth but to make it a better, peaceful place (they see humans as violent barbarians who are slowly destroying the planet). Yes, it's been done before but I quite enjoyed their tales of other planets. I'm not a big science fiction fan but aliens invading earth is one of those themes I like (Mars Attacks anyone?)
- Interesting questions: The question of what makes someone "human" is asked in this book. The humans see the aliens as monsters who are killing off humans while the aliens see the humans as aggressive and uncivil barbarians. When Wanda arrives at the caves the first reaction of the humans living there is to kill her, without any remorse. She is after all not their species. It's an interesting question really. Who is more human? Are we humans because we feel different emotions? Is anger and aggression really so bad? Or isn't that what makes us human afterall?
There is also the question of good and bad. Who are the bad guys here? Also, how do we appreciate goodness when there is no badness to compare it with? Or rather, is something really that "good" when there is no "bad"?
- Cave life: The safe haven for some of the remaining humans is a cave in the middle of the Nevada desert. I thought it was really cool to imagine the different rooms in the cave. I guess it's rather unbelievable that one of them accidently found that cave and spend his life building an underground bunker so to speak just in case and that bunker is big enough for a little human colony AND has fresh water...but oh well, it was still quite fascinating.
- Double personality: Melanie and Wanda have some interesting conversations in their mind and it's interesting to see how each of them affects the other. I just wished we could've seen Mel being more active, i.e. being able to take control over her body from time to time instead of being only the voice inside of Wanda's head. I thought it was weird how some of the humans believed Wanda when she said that Mel was still there without any proof.
- Movie: Well, it's not really a plus point for the book but I kind of look forward to the movie adaption. I love Saoirse Ronan since Atonement and Max Irons is a hottie and I think the story would translate well on the big screen, at least visually. Though I'm also curious to see how Saoirse is going to play to different characters at the same time, but if any actress can portray it believably it's her.
The Bad
- Super slow start: Many people have given up on the book because in the first 10 chapters or so nothing interesting happens. It's mostly inner dialogue and memories. While the memories are kind of important to understand Wanda's motivation to find Jared and Jamie, it was just too long and the desert episode is just plain boring. So as a tip, skip the first ten chapters and it gets better after that.
- Lengthy: The book is overall too long. It would've been better if it was 100-200 pages shorter (see redundant first 10 chapters). Alternatively, the book could've spend more time on the back story of other people than just Melanie's and Wanda's. I know it's their story but we don't need 10 different memories of Mel and Jared on the run and how much they love eachother and how Jared is so awesome. I'd rather learn more about the past lives of other characters like Jeb, Doc and Ian and Kyle for example because that would've given more dimension and depth so we could understand their motivations better.
- Damsel in distress and "Alpha males": Wanda is the story book damsel in distress. I know it's part of her nature but her tendency to rely on others (mostly men) to defend her is aggravating. This leads me to the portrayal of the love interest(s). While they are by no means creepy like Edward Cullen, they do have a tendency to be very possessive. I don't know. Maybe it's just my personal preference but I was never attracted to over protective men and the words "You belong to me" was never a romantic gesture to me but rather a turn off, but to each their own I guess. So yes, it did bother me how the men are always the rescuers and at one point Mel and Wanda even thought about how Mel and her brother couldn't have survived that long without Jared. And as a proof, the moment Mel separates from him she's caught. I call BS. Melanie is incredibly strong and tough. She was able to protect her brother for years before Jared and she could've done so without him. I like Jared, despite his faults, but Mel and Wanda put him on this incredibly high pedestal and the way he's described as this super human who can't do any wrong and can save them all makes him unrealistic.
Mel defends Wanda a great deal too...but well, nobody can hear her but Wanda so it doesn't matter. The females in the book never really come to Wanda's defense which is kind of sad. I love Wanda and Mel's friendship but I wished Stephenie Meyer had shown more of Wanda's friendship with the other women instead of focusing mainly on her relationship with the men.
- Not really science fiction: This book has been described as "Science fiction for those who don't like science fiction" but it would've been better described as "A novel with Aliens in it" because the science fiction aspect is not really there. I'm definitely no expert on this genre but to me science fiction means that the science behind everything is explained. In this book most of the advances, e.g. medicine or even space travel is never fully explained. I'm sure die hard sci-fi fans would be very disappointed, to me this is only a small minus point because as I said, I'm not that into sci-fi usually.
The Rating
★★★☆☆
This book was by no means a masterpiece and won't end up as a classic but you have to give Stephenie Meyer credit for being a rather good story teller, even if she's not the best writer out there. I had my problems with certain aspects of this book but overall it was an entertaining read and it made me care about the characters enough to want to read until the end (and yes, shed a few tears). It is definitely a big step up from the Twilight series (no sparkly vampires afterall) and many people like me, who dislike the Twilight series, have enjoyed the book. I'd say give the book a chance if you find the time and are in the mood because it's more entertaining than you'd expect. It also ends in a way that is rather satisfying but the possibilities of a sequel is there too and I'm not going to lie, I'd read it.
The Cover
This cover is terrifying. HUGE face with a HUGE eye. And someone needs to learn how to use the blur tool in Photoshop properly. But I think this cover is supposed to be scary and the eyes play a big role so...in any case it's better than the covers of the Twilight books.
The Story
I know, I know. This is written by Stephenie Meyer. But let's not jump to conclusions yet, okay?
The world has been invaded by alien body snatchers and humanity is on the verge of extinction. When one of those aliens, Wanderer, takes over the body of Melanie Stryder she didn't expect that she had to share her body and mind with Melanie. You see, when the aliens take over a body the original human is supposed to fade away. Melanie however refuses to give up her body and also refuses to expose the whereabouts of her boyfriend Jared and her little brother Jamie. Due to unforseen circumstances Wanderer and Melanie end up having to work together and search for the ones they love and for the last human bastion.
The Protagonist
Wanderer is part of an alien race that is incredibly gentle and peaceloving. She's terrified of aggression and obviously weapons too. This can lead to extremely passive behaviour, i.e. she wouldn't even defend herself in life threatening situations. This can be extremely frustrating (I can't even count the times where I wanted to shake her) because while I understand her aversion to attack someone offensively, I just cannot understand how she doesn't even have a little bit of a survival instinct and defend herself (more about that later) but she'd defend and protect others, that just doesn't make sense to me. I love strong female characters, those who can defend themselves if not physically then at least intellectually. Wanderer is neither. The thing is, it's part of her nature so it didn't bother me as much as it would have if it were a human protagonist.
Melanie on the other hand is the opposite. She can be a bit impulsive but she's strong. She doesn't back down. She can and will defend herself and those she loves, whatever it takes. While I'm nothing like Melanie, I could identify myself with her better, probably because she's human and has a wider range of emotions. Wanderer has some moments where there are outbursts of emotions but for most of the time she's just too nice and self-sacrificing for her own good. It takes her awhile before she learns how to be human and even then she can't fully shed her ingrained behaviour.
The Heart Rate
This book has an interesting love...well, I guess you could call it triangle. Melanie loves Jared and thanks to her memories of him, Wanda loves Jared too. Jared loves Melanie but Melanie's body is now inhabitated by Wanda. You see the problems here?
To be honest, I don't know how much Wanda really loves Jared and how much of it is just residual feelings from Melanie and her body memory. It's said later on that Wanda really does love Jared but I still doubt it. Jared treated her terribly for most of the time and for the other half he was pretty much indifferent towards her, at the most he saw her as a friend and someone who is useful to him in the end. In contrast, I could totally understand why Wanda loved Jamie, Melanie's little brother so much, it was not only because of Mel's memories but also because Jamie was totally devoted to Wanda, it might because she had his sister's body but he treated her like a human from the very beginning, so I can see how she came to love him on her own, independent from Mel's emotions. So yeah, I don't buy Wanda's love for Jared.
What I do buy is Melanie and Jared's love for eachother. They found eachother when most of humanity has disappeared and through their struggle for survival have formed a bond that can't be broken easily.
The Good
- Aliens: I thought the concept of the "Souls", i.e. body snatchers, was interesting. Especially body snatchers without evil intents (well unless you count them wiping out all of humanity), at least it is not their intent to destroy earth but to make it a better, peaceful place (they see humans as violent barbarians who are slowly destroying the planet). Yes, it's been done before but I quite enjoyed their tales of other planets. I'm not a big science fiction fan but aliens invading earth is one of those themes I like (Mars Attacks anyone?)
- Interesting questions: The question of what makes someone "human" is asked in this book. The humans see the aliens as monsters who are killing off humans while the aliens see the humans as aggressive and uncivil barbarians. When Wanda arrives at the caves the first reaction of the humans living there is to kill her, without any remorse. She is after all not their species. It's an interesting question really. Who is more human? Are we humans because we feel different emotions? Is anger and aggression really so bad? Or isn't that what makes us human afterall?
There is also the question of good and bad. Who are the bad guys here? Also, how do we appreciate goodness when there is no badness to compare it with? Or rather, is something really that "good" when there is no "bad"?
- Cave life: The safe haven for some of the remaining humans is a cave in the middle of the Nevada desert. I thought it was really cool to imagine the different rooms in the cave. I guess it's rather unbelievable that one of them accidently found that cave and spend his life building an underground bunker so to speak just in case and that bunker is big enough for a little human colony AND has fresh water...but oh well, it was still quite fascinating.
- Double personality: Melanie and Wanda have some interesting conversations in their mind and it's interesting to see how each of them affects the other. I just wished we could've seen Mel being more active, i.e. being able to take control over her body from time to time instead of being only the voice inside of Wanda's head. I thought it was weird how some of the humans believed Wanda when she said that Mel was still there without any proof.
- Movie: Well, it's not really a plus point for the book but I kind of look forward to the movie adaption. I love Saoirse Ronan since Atonement and Max Irons is a hottie and I think the story would translate well on the big screen, at least visually. Though I'm also curious to see how Saoirse is going to play to different characters at the same time, but if any actress can portray it believably it's her.
The Bad
- Super slow start: Many people have given up on the book because in the first 10 chapters or so nothing interesting happens. It's mostly inner dialogue and memories. While the memories are kind of important to understand Wanda's motivation to find Jared and Jamie, it was just too long and the desert episode is just plain boring. So as a tip, skip the first ten chapters and it gets better after that.
- Lengthy: The book is overall too long. It would've been better if it was 100-200 pages shorter (see redundant first 10 chapters). Alternatively, the book could've spend more time on the back story of other people than just Melanie's and Wanda's. I know it's their story but we don't need 10 different memories of Mel and Jared on the run and how much they love eachother and how Jared is so awesome. I'd rather learn more about the past lives of other characters like Jeb, Doc and Ian and Kyle for example because that would've given more dimension and depth so we could understand their motivations better.
- Damsel in distress and "Alpha males": Wanda is the story book damsel in distress. I know it's part of her nature but her tendency to rely on others (mostly men) to defend her is aggravating. This leads me to the portrayal of the love interest(s). While they are by no means creepy like Edward Cullen, they do have a tendency to be very possessive. I don't know. Maybe it's just my personal preference but I was never attracted to over protective men and the words "You belong to me" was never a romantic gesture to me but rather a turn off, but to each their own I guess. So yes, it did bother me how the men are always the rescuers and at one point Mel and Wanda even thought about how Mel and her brother couldn't have survived that long without Jared. And as a proof, the moment Mel separates from him she's caught. I call BS. Melanie is incredibly strong and tough. She was able to protect her brother for years before Jared and she could've done so without him. I like Jared, despite his faults, but Mel and Wanda put him on this incredibly high pedestal and the way he's described as this super human who can't do any wrong and can save them all makes him unrealistic.
Mel defends Wanda a great deal too...but well, nobody can hear her but Wanda so it doesn't matter. The females in the book never really come to Wanda's defense which is kind of sad. I love Wanda and Mel's friendship but I wished Stephenie Meyer had shown more of Wanda's friendship with the other women instead of focusing mainly on her relationship with the men.
- Not really science fiction: This book has been described as "Science fiction for those who don't like science fiction" but it would've been better described as "A novel with Aliens in it" because the science fiction aspect is not really there. I'm definitely no expert on this genre but to me science fiction means that the science behind everything is explained. In this book most of the advances, e.g. medicine or even space travel is never fully explained. I'm sure die hard sci-fi fans would be very disappointed, to me this is only a small minus point because as I said, I'm not that into sci-fi usually.
The Rating
★★★☆☆
This book was by no means a masterpiece and won't end up as a classic but you have to give Stephenie Meyer credit for being a rather good story teller, even if she's not the best writer out there. I had my problems with certain aspects of this book but overall it was an entertaining read and it made me care about the characters enough to want to read until the end (and yes, shed a few tears). It is definitely a big step up from the Twilight series (no sparkly vampires afterall) and many people like me, who dislike the Twilight series, have enjoyed the book. I'd say give the book a chance if you find the time and are in the mood because it's more entertaining than you'd expect. It also ends in a way that is rather satisfying but the possibilities of a sequel is there too and I'm not going to lie, I'd read it.
ggreeley's review
3.0
I borrowed this audiobook from the library. I am a fan of the Twilight series and wanted to know what Stephenie Meyer could do for an adult audience. I don't think I would have finished it, if I were actually reading it. I found the first few chapters too sci-fi for me. However, listening to it allowed me to get a little deeper into the characters and relationships that were built.
Borrowed from another review. She NAILED IT:
If someone were to ask me, "Was it good?" I'd have to think for a long time and then say, "No.... Well... yes, sorta.... No... It was ok." But if someone were to ask me if I'd enjoyed it, I'd instantly reply, "Yes!" Would I read it again? Probably not. Was it exciting? On occasion. Was it interesting? Very much so, in my opinion. Was it weird? YES! Were the characters well-developed? ... After the first half of the book, yes, I suppose.
I don't know exactly what I think of this book. It was enjoyable! I'm not sorry that I read it! But it was weird and not normally what I would pick up.
Borrowed from another review. She NAILED IT:
If someone were to ask me, "Was it good?" I'd have to think for a long time and then say, "No.... Well... yes, sorta.... No... It was ok." But if someone were to ask me if I'd enjoyed it, I'd instantly reply, "Yes!" Would I read it again? Probably not. Was it exciting? On occasion. Was it interesting? Very much so, in my opinion. Was it weird? YES! Were the characters well-developed? ... After the first half of the book, yes, I suppose.
I don't know exactly what I think of this book. It was enjoyable! I'm not sorry that I read it! But it was weird and not normally what I would pick up.