I know, I know, probably the best way to get people to quit reading your blog is to do a book review first thing on a Monday morning. But...I gotta do it now before I lose my thoughts on this book. I'll say it again...if you don't like book reviews...just come on back tomorrow for something new, fun and exciting!
A couple days ago I (finally) finished reading The Host by Stephenie Meyers. That is the same author who wrote the Twilight series. I really liked the Twilight series so I was a little curious to see how she'd do with another book...different story.
I'm not going to give away anything about the book, but by reading the inside flap you'll get the basic story line...aliens have taken over earth by being "inserted" into human bodies. I know it sounds hokey--kind of is--but she did a pretty good job with this aspect of it. Basically the humans are "hosts" for these aliens and take over their brains. These aliens have zero violent tendencies, can't lie, share equally, etc. So basically earth is changed because there is no need for money, police, etc. This is the part of the book that I think would've been really interesting if she would have expanded on it. What would it be like if there basically was no economy? But she just mentions those types of things here and there.
Her main character, Melanie, is taken over by an alien...but Melanie is a fighter and doesn't completely give way to the alien and the alien can hear her in her head. Talk about being of two minds.
Without giving away too much, the story then is then basically 600+ pages of how she is brought into a cove of humans who are hiding in caves and how she (the alien) comes to have human emotions and how those emotions and the way we (humans) interact with each other is what makes us a superior species and makes our love and/or hate for each other or anyone who might hurt us the strongest species in the universe.
There definitely some very hokey parts...when Melanie the Alien (Melanie the person couldn't make her body talk--only the alien could hear her) would talk about the other worlds she'd been on. That part seemed a little silly to me, but I guess you needed that part to realize how complex and wonderful humans are.
It was a good story...a little long, and I guess I'd recommend it to others. It doesn't have that captivating component that the author's Twilight series had. You certainly wouldn't stay up all night reading this. It wraps up nicely at the end, but is also definitely left open for the possibility of a sequel.
So, on my scale so of 0-5 stars, I'd give this one a 3 1/2, maybe a 3.75 (can you do that)?
This is just one of the reasons I don't go shopping on Black Friday. I don't like shopping with crowds. I do love to shop, but I have very specific rules. One of the main ones being, shop on my schedule and pace. And there's no way I'm getting up at 5:00 a.m.
