Sunday 14 August 2011

Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Hi there!
Today I have finally a book review for you again! Yay, I know :D In this book haul *click* I already told you that I started reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Now I finished it and wanted to tell you how I liked it. I'll try to do this without any spoiler parts, but I don't know if that'll work once I start talking about it ;) But I'll mark these as spoilers.
Now, for some information, it has about 900 pages and there are, at least in my edition, a few extras at the end of it, like a bonus chapter, an interview with Stephenie Meyer, her playlist to the book and some questions you could think about.
I'm gonna try and recap the content for you in a few sentences. I hope you won't find any spoilers ;)
This book's about a "soul" called Wanderer (btw, this is a German word! Yay for that :D) who is supposed to live in the body of Melanie, a human girl. A "soul" is basically a little living thing, that has to have a body, a host, to live in. The souls have invaded a lot of different planets, and on earth they are almost everywhere. But there is still some resistance, and Melanie is one of the rebels. Normally, when a soul gets into a body, they take over everything and the old person's extinguished. But Melanie is still resistant and keeps talking to Wanderer. She shows her memories and stuff like that, and due to these things, Wanderer falls unintentionally  in love with the 2 people that are the most important things to Melanie: her brother and her boyfriend. And they go and search for them.
This is the content of the first few chapters I guess, and everything you need to know for now. It's getting way more interesting later, we're only at page 100 or something with this ;)
Everything is described very very detailed in this book, and that makes it way more vivid and realistic. There are a lot of things happening in her thoughts and stuff, and there also a lot of feelings.
The "souls" are well-described, and it kinda makes you like them. Even though you might think you would identify with the humans, you don't all the time. In fact, human beings are sometimes even described as bad persons and stuff, and this book definitely gives them a negative image. But you'll understand that when you read it.
Something really new is a lot of other planets and stuff, and they are all really special. Stephenie Meyer was really creative with them, I liked it!
When I first heard of this book, I imagined totally different things, but it surprised me in a good way. Everything is special, but it seems to be matching. Sometimes in the story there are little cuts or breaks, and it confused me a little sometimes, especially in the beginning, when the whole topic's so new to you. But it definitely works, because there are no unanswered questions or whatsoever.
It's, of course, a love story, but I don't feel like it's too soupy. The love story's not even present all the time, and that's good. It's not too obvious, but it's still one. And with 3 persons in 2 bodies, it's really interesting ;)
I personally don't feel like this would make a good movie, because there are a lot of scenes with just internal action, and also a lot is happening in the dark, and I don't feel like you should change that. In the interview at the end of the book, however, we find out that a movie is already planned. I don't know whether I wanna see it, let's just hope it's not as disappointing as the Twilight movies.
When we're already talking about Twilight, how about similarities to it? Pretty much none. Yes, they're both love stories, and they're both about species different than human beings, but that's it already. Maybe also that the main character tends to like to sacrifice herself ;) But nothing else, luckily!
I found on Wikipedia that Stephenie Meyer might write a sequel, and I'm curious about it! I personally can't really think of how the story really should go on, but it leaves some possibilities and maybe she'll surprise us with something really awesome :D
The extra material at the end of the book was nice, but not totally needed. You could live without it ;) But I really liked the extra chapter.
So after all, I really liked book a lot! It's a good one, and if you like love stories, or you liked the Twilight series, give this a try! It's really exciting, because most of the time the chapters end with something really thrilling. This book literally made me stay up and read till 2 am every night! But that makes is a good book, right?! :D Even though this is 900 pages, it feels way shorter. Stephenie Meyer describes it as "Science Fiction for people who don't like Science Fiction", and that's true. Other than this is like "aliens", there is nothing else Sci-Fi in this book. Here *click*, on the homepage, you can also read a recap of it, btw.
I'm sorry this post is so long, but I just couldn't leave anything out.
Does anyone like this book, too? I really wanna read it a second time :D
I'll see you later!
xoxo, Misch

4 comments:

  1. Great review! I am not a fan of Twilight and I thought this story made no sense at all, but your review is changing my mind. I will have a look to my library and take it if it is available.
    Thanks!

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  2. @Salander: thank you :) let me know how you liked it! and if you borrow it at a library, you don't have to pay that much money for it, and it won't hurt as much if you don't like it ;)

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  3. @Salander: me too, but unfortunatelz the one in my town isn't that great...

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