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salex's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-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
4.0
adeleinwanderland's review against another edition
5.0
Hostitel!
Jedna z mých nejoblíbenějších knížek. Příběh mě bavil strašně! Pamatuju si, že když jsem knížku dočetla, asi ještě patnáct minut jsem zůstala ohromená tím příběhem a to se mi často nestává.
Prvních sedmnáct (!) kapitol se sice táhne děsně pomalu a téměř nic zajímavého se neděje, ale pak se objeví Jared a Ian... BUM. Víc mám ráda Iana pokud jde o Wandu. Jared touží jen po Melanie, což je fajn, ale tenhle příběh je z pohledu Wandy, na čem dost záleží, protože se s ní rychle seznámíte.
Totální odpočinek od upírů a jiných bytostí. Tihle byli sice z vesmíru (?), ale přesto ... bylo to jiné, a originální!
Jedna z mých nejoblíbenějších knížek. Příběh mě bavil strašně! Pamatuju si, že když jsem knížku dočetla, asi ještě patnáct minut jsem zůstala ohromená tím příběhem a to se mi často nestává.
Prvních sedmnáct (!) kapitol se sice táhne děsně pomalu a téměř nic zajímavého se neděje, ale pak se objeví Jared a Ian... BUM. Víc mám ráda Iana pokud jde o Wandu. Jared touží jen po Melanie, což je fajn, ale tenhle příběh je z pohledu Wandy, na čem dost záleží, protože se s ní rychle seznámíte.
Totální odpočinek od upírů a jiných bytostí. Tihle byli sice z vesmíru (?), ale přesto ... bylo to jiné, a originální!
emily4reads's review against another edition
4.0
This book was quite slow but i love everything about it. I loved Ians and Wandas relationship.
emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, this book was so much more than I expected. The Host is just all around a great book. The characters are well described, the world is ours but so much more. I expected it to feel the same as the twilight books, but am so pleasantly surprised. It had the same 'don't want to put it down' feel, with none of the broody teenager angst. I need another like it to help me stay awake through all night feedings.
jadaleigh's review against another edition
5.0
“This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds - the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions... the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds."
"There was no bond greater than one that required your life for another's."
This book lives rent-free in my heart.
Majority of my love for this book is from reading it several times as a pre-teen, but I was not expecting it to still hold up ten years later. I was SOBBING towards the end, knowing full well what was going to happen. Something about this book just does it for me. It is by no means fast-paced but I think the critique that 'absolutely nothing happens' loses sight of the fact that, despite the sci-fi setting, this is a character-driven book. You're essentially seeing the characters go from violent hatred and fear of each other to becoming family, and so most of the book is dedicated to those shifting dynamics. For me, this book earns its 600 pages, and I could read 600 more about these characters.
What I didn't love was Melanie and Jared's age-gap, even though I can acknowledge that Melanie has had to mature a lot faster than other people her age, with it being the end of the world and all. Ian's possessiveness was annoying at times. I also didn't love a huge decision Jared made for Wanderer at the end of the book, even though I understand what Meyer was trying to illustrate about their relationship. I just always want the best for her because she's just such an admirable and noble character.
I think this book is written five times better than Twilight, which even ten-year-old me thought was badly executed.
Now, if you really want a piece of media in which 'absolutely nothing happens' watch the movie lol. I still love the movie though because it's so un-cinematic to the point of being soothing.
"There was no bond greater than one that required your life for another's."
This book lives rent-free in my heart.
Majority of my love for this book is from reading it several times as a pre-teen, but I was not expecting it to still hold up ten years later. I was SOBBING towards the end, knowing full well what was going to happen. Something about this book just does it for me. It is by no means fast-paced but I think the critique that 'absolutely nothing happens' loses sight of the fact that, despite the sci-fi setting, this is a character-driven book. You're essentially seeing the characters go from violent hatred and fear of each other to becoming family, and so most of the book is dedicated to those shifting dynamics. For me, this book earns its 600 pages, and I could read 600 more about these characters.
What I didn't love was Melanie and Jared's age-gap, even though I can acknowledge that Melanie has had to mature a lot faster than other people her age, with it being the end of the world and all. Ian's possessiveness was annoying at times. I also didn't love a huge decision Jared made for Wanderer at the end of the book, even though I understand what Meyer was trying to illustrate about their relationship. I just always want the best for her because she's just such an admirable and noble character.
I think this book is written five times better than Twilight, which even ten-year-old me thought was badly executed.
Now, if you really want a piece of media in which 'absolutely nothing happens' watch the movie lol. I still love the movie though because it's so un-cinematic to the point of being soothing.
faithtrustpixiedust's review against another edition
4.0
This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds—the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions… the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached. Were the souls the exception to that rule? Could they have the light without the darkness of this world?
The Host by Stephenie Meyer is one of my favorite books. I first read it way before I read Twilight. It was the first longer book I ever read, and I knew my copy so well that I could flip to my favorite spots to re-read easily with no bookmarks. I just knew the feel of it, memorized the pacing of the plot. It influenced me a lot, reinforced concepts like forgiveness, patience, sacrifice, and hope. It subverted so many of the usual alien invasion plots and stood out to me, invited me into the genre without the army jargon or edge lord drama that so many others have. There’s no big battle at the end, no undeniable human victory, just hope. Hope for humanity, hope for the future, despite the circumstances. Crazy hope, unreasonable hope, but hope nonetheless. And that really struck a cord in me.
Whenever I read reviews or watch YouTube reviews about any of Stephenie Meyer’s works, it is an unavoidable fact that one of the biggest issues people will have with Meyer is her religion. It isn’t always obvious what they’re doing; people will often be vague about it. They draw attention to something, give a knowing look to the camera, and let the comment section fill in the gaps. Edward is a virgin because Mormon. Ian is lovesick with an alien because Mormon. Jacob imprints on a baby because Mormon. Bella does her laundry because Mormon. Wanda overworks because Mormon. Male love interests are significantly older than the boring teen girl because Mormon.
Can anyone tell me where in the Book of Mormon it says anything like that? Because I’ve read it 4 times and I’ve never seen any of those things mentioned. Especially not the soulmates idea of imprinting. Doesn’t soulmates kind of take away the idea of free agency, and isn’t that like a major aspect of the doctrine?
Speaking of souls and their respective mates, The Host by Stephenie Meyer is a story about an alien invasion where the aliens might be the good guys and the humans might be the bad guys, or the other way around, because life isn’t a polarity, it’s a spectrum, and there is opposition in all things.
See, opposition in all things actually is in the Book of Mormon. Funny how no one ever brings that up when discussing the Stephenie Meyer Mormon Mind Control Agenda.
The People in the Desert
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian denomination headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the surrounding area making up a significant portion of the membership. The land there is arid and empty. No one really wanted it, so finally those Mormon heretics could live somewhere where no one would bother them, hunt them, kill them and their children for existing. In fact, the reason why there are so many of them in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada was because it was outside of the United States at the time following the assassination of Joseph Smith, the leader of the church, and the members were just plain tired of being killed. What do you do when your country turns its back on you? You become a refugee. Does this make them paragons of moral perfection? No, because they were still human beings.
Not unlike the ragtag band hiding out in the desert we read about in The Host. Jeb’s caves are the backdrop for most of the book, with few ventures outside until the humans trust their resident body snatcher enough to let her outside. She earns this trust by being herself, a self that is loving and kind, willing to bend over backwards to please them, even though she knows some of them will never like her simply because of what she is.
How Dare A Mormon Write a Book!
I recently binge-read the 5th Wave trilogy. I was shocked to discover that the books aren’t so much about aliens as much as they're about being Catholic. In the discourse of the series, I had never really seen it mentioned anywhere. The movie obviously downplayed that aspect, and people tend to focus on the apocalypse when discussing it. But this series is about religion, through and through. It starts quietly, some pontification about God here and there—but quickly came the priest, the quotes from the Bible, the hymns sung, the prayers recited. Religion was a major theme in the 5th Wave trilogy. Almost every single character is Christian, with only some being agnostic or vaguely atheist, but no other religion has representation in the series whatsoever.
See, I don’t have a problem with this. What I have a problem with is people hating Meyer for being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but Rick Yancey doesn’t get any crap for being Catholic (I don’t have any solid confirmation that Yancey is Catholic but he calls this † a crucifix instead of a cross and that’s a very Catholic thing to do). I also don’t think Yancey should be getting crap for being Catholic. In fact, I don’t think anyone should get crap for being any religion. I didn't know that was a controversial opinion.
And I think people who claim to speak up for human rights and dignity should do a little more research before falling into the same bigoted trap of anti-Mormon sentiment.
All the hateful “Mormon” problems in Meyer’s books are always things that aren’t Mormon in any way. Sure, I bet some people in the church have some ideologies in common with certain characters in her works, but, for example, Edward is clearly Catholic-coded (for soooo many reasons, I feel like I shouldn’t even have to point this out), and a woman being capable of doing her own laundry and cooking food isn’t a Mormon thing (at least I hope not or there’s got to be a lot of dirty, hungry women). Don’t even get me started on the Jacob imprinting stuff. I already said how wrong that is earlier. I am in no way excusing Meyer for that, I’m just making it clear that her religious beliefs had no precedent for it.
The aspects I have seen in Meyer’s writing that I found have connections to LDS doctrine are usually never mentioned when people harp on her. Ideas like souls, sacrifice for the greater good, free agency, redemption. The only one that is mentioned are the eternal marriage vampires. But that’s a really hollow point considering that “converting” to vampirism is kind of a scary horrible thing and I really don’t think woe-is-me-eternal-damnation-emo Edward is bemoaning his baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even in a vaguely coded way. His ideas of damnation are entirely different from LDS doctrine (hence, Catholicism). If he’s Mormon, he’s a pretty confused one.
But this review isn’t about Twilight. It’s about The Host. And The Host isn’t about religion. Neither is Twilight. They’re about fantasy and aliens and vampires and unreasonable love. The Host is about what it means to be human. It's about loss and resilience. And what if ideas close to Meyer’s heart find their way in there somehow? Who are we to judge her for it?
suttonhowell's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ian o'shea proves it's possible to still love your girlfriend, even if she was a worm 🫶 ngl stephenie kinda ate with this one. my only gripe is that stephenie meyer had to stephenie meyer and make a weird age gap at the end for no discernable reason but i can hardly let the last 15 pages dissuade me from rating this book based on how well it had me hooked the entire time. i am but a simple woman; i love a good ~yearning~ and this book was FILLED with it.
hannnahscottta's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0