The Host -xpost from BookCyclePDX



Review posted over on BookCyclePDX for a crappy good Stephanie Meyer book.
Go check it out if you are interested.. it’s nothing special though.
The book or the review, both are mediocre.
REPOSTED -
My apologies in advance, but I am going to be a little bit negative for a few minutes. Not entirely negative though :) just a little bit.
?The Host? by Twilight series author Stephanie Meyer was a sham, an enjoyable sham, but a sham all the same. Touted as her first ?Adult Novel? (meaning not young-adult), readers will be left a wanting? wanting the adult aspect that is referenced in all the marketing material.
This was an adult novel only in the fact that it did not have teenage vampires and Werewolves in it. The writing style was juvenile and repetitive, it was completely lacking in difficulty. At most points, it felt like i was reading a really large 7th grade reader. But that aside, I have read a number of YA novels I have enjoyed, having even gone back and reread novels from when I was a kid.
Essentially, the book is about the human race, enslaved by a parasitic force that enters the body and controls the brain. The body lives on, slaved to the parasite until death. Most of humanity is inundated by these creatures, but a few ?Wild? humans survive.
Protagonist Melanie, is infected, and the secondary entity is having trouble keeping the human personality caged. Melanie fights for control and escapes to the wild to search out uninfected humans.
blah blah blah, The Puppetmasters, blah blah blah, The Faculty, blah blah blah, Red Dawn? Invasion of the Body Snatchers, V- the TV series? The Diary of Anne Frank (yup).
From an adult perspective, she managed to do what everyone else in Hollywood does, she ripped of a crap ton of ideas from other people, smashed them all together, polished the turd, and called it shiny and new. But people like this approach in their media, often referred to as ?Crappy good?. As a result, this blatant translucent storytelling cannot be viewed as a fault, only a symptom of our current culture.
With that said.. I enjoyed it.. A lot.
Its not for everyone, and it is trash fiction, but so long as you do not expect more than a shallow afternoon distraction, you may enjoy it too.
~~
Side notes
Am I the only one that thinks the book cover looks like an eyeball coming out of some chicks armpit? Yeah yeah, I know, it is a nose, a really big, out of focus, overly airbrushed nose.. But it looks like an armpit to me. a giant vitreous fluid filled slightly hairy armpit.
Also, the Korean movie "The Host" is awesome. not related to this book in the slightest, and something that you should go watch. This was a great monster movie, not in the "rawr rawr scary" sense, but in the evolution of characters and fantastic cinematography sense.
--
Click the unrelated movie poster for the wikipedia page.

Comments

  1. poofydooMarch 23, 2011 at 3:27 PM

    bout time you got around to reading it. if it's not your mug of ale then go back to your demon hunting soccer mom. i'm sure she will entertain you enough without teaser words like "adult"

    ReplyDelete
  2. erisianMarch 24, 2011 at 2:01 AM

    meh,
    to be honest, i read it about a year and a half ago and have had my review partially written :)

    just found it and decided to finish it

    and yes, Julie Kenner (JK Beck) entertains me quite well :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. jennMarch 27, 2011 at 2:48 AM

    Oooooo, I love Kate the Demon Hunting Soccer Mom! I want there to be another book in that series!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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