Book 9: The Host

The Host

By Stephanie Meyer

Yes, I have TWO other book reviews to do. I’m a bit behind and really it’s unfair that I would review THIS book first. However, I loved this book, read it in two days, and felt like reviewing it first. So here goes.

First, stop it.

Those of you scoffing the fact that I would read Stephanie Meyer. To you I say; “I also loved the Twilight Series”.

So there.

I am in no ‘Edward’ or ‘Jacob’ camp, I’ll take any guy who spends the majority of his waking hours vexing about how I’m doing, what I’m feeling, and if I’m eating enough.

Unfortunately (especially for those who read these books not yet old enough to know better) these guys don’t actually exist. Everyone has a life and whether you are with someone or not, you need to get on with it. A guy who obsessed like these characters would most likely be in an unhealthy mental state.

However, this is why I love reading her books, and probably why lots of reasonable, thinking women do to (though most will not admit it). They are love stories without excessive clothing casualties, and the guys DO obsess about the woman, all the while remaining effective in every-day life, and the woman is usually in need of some sort of protecting (because she is forever helpless), and there are lots of really cool details about everyday life in a world we don’t exist in.

In this book, much like in the Twilight series, the main character Melanie, or rather, Melanie’s parasite – named Wanderer; is so blah and plain that you can instantly step into her as a reader. I do get a little exhausted with how weak, and scared, and silent, and helpless, and ‘silently strong’ Wanderer is. Much like I got a lot exhausted with reading about how golden Edwards eyes were.  

Still, that’s allright.

Because it’s the END of the WORLD! (in the book)

There are very few humans left, and the parasites are called SOULS and they live inside humans and make everyone peaceful. However, the original Melanie is still in her brain, and she’s not going down quietly, and she’s still in love with Jared. What fun! So there is a body, with essentially TWO  consciousnesses in it, and it drags Wanderer to this human colony where Jared is dwelling. Who is still in LOVE with Melanie but who HATES Wanderer (because only Wanderer can talk) and another guy who falls in LOVE with Wanderer but isn’t so keen on Melanie. TWO guys hopelessly in love with the same body, but two different people!

Yep. Lots of fun. Hardly makes sense to type it out, but it was very well executed. Well, OK, it was very well executed if you hadn’t read Twilight. If you HAD…well, then it was all very predictable because very nearly the SAME character transformations happen in each book. But that doesn’t really make it any less enjoyable, much like eating one delicious brownie doesn’t really ruin you on ANOTHER delicious brownie. You just need to space them out a bit.

It was mind candy. It was wonderful. I would recommend it, especially if you need to tune out and head somewhere else for a couple days.

Book 7: Tick Tock

Tick Tock

By Michael Bennett

Attempting to introduce balance into 2011’s reading, I decided to do a quick thriller to tune out for a few days and catch up a bit on my backlog. I am so very sad that I did. This book was pathetic. Warning, I didn’t finish this book and so it hardly counts as book 7. Still, I did get halfway thru and devoted 3 days to reading it so I decided to count it anyways. It was, seriously terrible. Before reviewing the book, let me introduce you to two types of genres that I love.

The first is Mindcandy. Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt stories are an example of this type of story. The plot line is wildly unrealistic, the characters are deliciously cheesy, the villains are appropriately villainous, and the guy always gets the girl and/or good always triumphs over evil. I love it! It is as Mindcandy should be and I very much enjoy it. Just as I don’t expect a McDonald’s cheeseburger to delicately introduce me to the wonders of fine dining, but enjoy it very much nonetheless…that’s how I feel about Mindcandy books.

On the other end of that spectrum there are fabulous thrillers that are so horrifying to read and so well written that you just. can’t. put.  them. down. And night after night you lose increasing hours of sleep trying to get to the end hoping and praying that everything turns out all right. ‘Hannible’ is an excellent example of this type of book.

I like both genres, though the latter is a bit more suited to plane-rides and vacations as I can quickly become obsessed with them.

This ridiculous book fell way before the Mindcandy spectrum attempting to meet the qualifications of the ‘Fabulous Thriller’ category. The result was dismally-written dialogue with a copycat plot line and seriously brutal murder scenes that took all pleasure out of reading the rest of the book.

I draw certain lines in books. I don’t like reading about a certain variety of scenes, and top on that list are when kids get hurt/abused/killed, even if it is just fiction. The world can be cruel enough to kids without exploiting them in storylines as well. I despise books that utilize that kind of emotion to illustrate just how bad a character is. It’s ridiculous. A well-written author need not stoop to that level as a well-written book simply doesn’t need it. The scenes are tense and the reader’s vivid imagination is fully utilized. THAT is art in writing. Michael Bennett clearly doesn’t have that kind of skill. He killed off a 4-year old girl halfway thru the book, committing a cardinal sin of writing.

So I shut it down. Nope, didn’t finish the book. Don’t want to. At halfway thru, someone else would have had to take over the writing in order to finish it off in any sort of decent matter but to be honest, I just wasn’t interested enough to persevere. So don’t read this book. Avoid it and apply your time to a Crichton book you haven’t read yet or even a Cussler book you haven’t read (he cranks out 1-2 a year so you have plenty to choose from).

I’m heading back into the world of science for another book or two, reading ‘The Elegant Universe’ by Brian Greene. More to follow shortly…