Reviews tagging 'War'

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

13 reviews

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Colonisation, Genocide, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War, Cancer, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol, Self harm, Gun violence, Mental illness, Body shaming, Suicide, Torture, Dysphoria, Grief, and Bullying

depmythmoon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

“Love simply is where it is.” (pg. 44)

“You never know how much time you’ll have.” (pg. 80)

“Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached.” (pg. 141)

This story follows our (2) main character(s) Wanderer/Wanda and Melanie. Wanda is a species called “souls” who require a host species for them to live. Wanda’s special because she’s lived on more planets than most other souls all the way back to The Origin, which is like their home planet. They have mostly invaded Earth, but there are some rebel groups and lone humans that remain, which is where Mel comes in. Her body is captured and given to Wanda, but the procedure doesn’t go as planned. We follow them and see the struggle of which alien will win out over the other; who will get to keep the body?

This book really felt like a blast to the past, when Twilight and Divergent were still popular. It is just the kind of story that younger me would have eaten up and developed an obsession with similar to the chokehold Twilight had me in as a kid. I’m kind of glad I didn’t read it at that time because I wouldn’t have had any rest from Wattpad and Fanfiction dot net. I also really liked Wanda as a character, overly self-sacrificing nature aside. This story does a good job at showing how complex—and sometimes hypocritical—we can be as humans as well as the intensity and illogical ways of love. 

Now, my biggest gripe with this story has got to be the age gaps, lying about ages, and the abuse. Of course, you expect there to be some hostility when there’s an alien parading around in the body that belongs to the love of your life, but there are some things you just don’t do. Strike 1 was the fact that they’re 17 and 26 when they meet (I get there are some age gaps like this in real life, but tell me what a 17 y/o could offer to a 26 y/o?? End of the world be damned.) Strike 2 was the way Wanda was treated and collecting bruises and injuries like they were infinity stones just because she’s an alien. Strike 3 was the second underage relationship where the girl happily lies about turning 18 just so her man doesn’t feel guilty… and she’s proud of it. She’s not even 17 technically because her birthday was coming up and she added a year. That just ruined it for me cause there really is no reason Ms. Meyer couldn’t have made them AT LEAST 18 or even 21. Yuck.

I’m still going to watch the movie to see what was changed (their ages, hopefully) and what was kept. I’m genuinely kind of bummed that I can’t fully see where this story goes due to Ms. Meyer shifting her focus to the Twilight franchise, but the ending and epilogue were a decent stopping point if she chose not to go further. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Medical content, Physical abuse, Suicide, War, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Kidnapping

Minor: Toxic relationship

mollymadworld's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This is one of the worst yet compelling books I have ever read. I enjoyed it but it was awful.

The main characters are ridiculous charicatures of people whilst the sci-fi elements feel like an alien was told to write science fiction. The worst part is the Stephanie Meyer brand of lolita that she slips into every book. WHY is the character at the end 17 but pretending to be 18 so that her new boyfriend doesn't feel weird.

The ending is literally the worst and I probably should have DNF'd this at page 80, I read 600 pages of almost no plot development or character development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

Moderate: Violence, Death, Sexual assault, War, and Torture

kaybeehome's review against another edition

Dragged on for too long. Thought it’d be more adventurous than this. Also, the fact that

nearly everyone believed that Melanie was still alive inside her body was anticlimactic. I thought they would stay hostile towards Wanderer the whole time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Colonisation, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and War

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Suicide, Child death, Medical content, War, Violence, Blood, Terminal illness, Gore, Xenophobia, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Colonisation

thelilgriffin's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Medium pace for me. Sometimes slow moving, but enjoyable. Predictable but still a good read. Reads like a fanfiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Death of parent, Colonisation, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Medical trauma and War

refrejarator's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favourite romances at the moment - tense and mysterious in all the right places, and a tear-jerking, emotional whirlwind. Plus the love triangles are so fun, and have an interesting dynamic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Gore, War, Self harm, Medical content, Alcohol, and Death

messica's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It’s very clear this book is written by the author of Twilight. There’s even a weird sports interlude.

There’s also a pretty big age gap for no reason. You could remove the sentence that mentions their ages and it would have no impact on the book whatsoever. Weird choices, Stephanie.

Also, turns out I’m not into reading about people dying of thirst in a desert. 

The plot is meandering and the pacing is chaotic. But I think if you enjoyed reading Twilight you would enjoy this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, War, Body horror, Violence, Self harm, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, and Confinement

jodiemarie_xox's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Cancer

Minor: Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

aribook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Medical content, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship