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desiree333's avatar

Is "The Host" By Stephenie Meyer a Good Book?

Asked by desiree333 (3241points) June 24th, 2009

I LOVED the Twilight series, and now that its summer I need a good book to pass the time while I’m at the beach etc. I’m not really a big science fiction fan, I think its too corny. So is The Host really sci-fi or is it more Twilight and less like star trek? Also does it have romance? (please no spoilers I don’t want to know what happens in the host, I might read it!)

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27 Answers

Randy's avatar

I haven’t read it and can give no first hand account but I was told by a friend to avoid it. He said it’s not very good. REMBER his words, not mine.

syz's avatar

Sci-fi is too corny but you loved the Twilight series??

desiree333's avatar

@syz yess, I also loved the movie and can’t wait for the next

veganpeanutbutter's avatar

I highly doubt it.
Though, if you “loved” Twilight, I’m assuming you would think “The Host” was similarly “brilliant.”

Tink's avatar

I loved the movie too
Go Team Edward!!! And Team Jacob!! I’m both :)
The Host is not like Twilight though

MacBean's avatar

@syz: ahahahaha That broke my brain a little bit, too.

Clair's avatar

@veganpeanutbutter I have no idea what “The Host” is about but your answer makes everything so much easier to understand.
Note to self: avoid ‘The Host’ until you revert to your second childhood.

Darwin's avatar

I tried to read The Host. I was unsuccessful. It is still sitting in my suitcase actually, looking almost like new. But then, I did not enjoy Twilight either.

markce's avatar

I haven’t seen or read Twilight.
But I have read the Host. It’s the only one of S Meyer’s books I have read.

My guess is you will love it; it has science (including an alien species) and it is fiction. But it’s not “sci fi” if you understand me?

From my impression of Twilight you might be disappointed if you’re looking for that level of romance! But there is love interest for sure.

I can understand why some people might have been put off S Meyer by the “I heart Edward” hype that surrounds the T series but since I read The Host before the film came out I am happy to recommend it as an unusual, thought-provoking, well-written, moral, tense and sometimes gripping read.

To give you some perspective, I’m a postgraduate educated 45 year old man!
But my 15-yr-old daughter leant me the book and she liked it as well.

Get it, take it to the beach, read it. You will love it.

lindseybree's avatar

@desiree333 I read it last summer and loved it! It was my one of my five beach reads on vacation! The other 4 were the Twilight series :D

I don’t think it was “sci-fi”, really. And yes, it does have romance, but nowhere like close to the level of Twilight. I say read it, you can always move on to something else if it doesn’t interest you. My 2 cents though, just go into reading it as its own entity. Don’t compare it to Twilight when you read it, because that may disappoint you. Just enjoy it for what it is.

Ria777's avatar

@lindseybree, “sci-fi” doesn’t mean space opera, you know. or put another way, sf does not always mean Star Trek or Star Wars.

desiree333's avatar

@markce I really hate the ” I heart Edward” hype. I had a couple friends recommend the book before the Edward bype/ movie came to be. The second she said “vampires” I decided it wasn’t for me and never had any intentions of reading the series. Once the movie came out my mum decided to be a follower and read them, I said I wouldn’t but she talked me into it. I read them all and I’m soo glad I did. People write off the series as stupid and only for gushing teenage girls, but they’re actually really good, well written books. I think I will read The Host after I read The Five People You Meet In Heaven.

MacBean's avatar

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

desiree333's avatar

@MacBean whats so funny?

MacBean's avatar

@desiree333: It cracks me up when people say the Twilight series is well-written.

Tink's avatar

@MacBean It was well-written :P

MacBean's avatar

@Tink1113: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

No, seriously, whether I like something or not has little to do with how well-written it is. For example, the Lord of the Rings series is beautifully written, and I hate it. On the other hand, J.K. Rowling is a mediocre writer, and I love Harry Potter. If Twilight were well-written, I would admit it. But it’s not.

tiffyandthewall's avatar

i have not read the host, and don’t know a thing about it, but my educated guess is saying “run; it is unlikely that meyer has figured out how to: write an even vaguely unique plot, create interesting/well-developed characters, or generally write better than she did less than a year ago”.

yes, i did read twilight, and i did so a few years before the nonsense hype, and it still did not keep my interest in the slightest.

kerryyylynn's avatar

The Host and Twilight have NOTHING in common. I liked Twilight, simply because that applies to my teenage girl ways of thinking. The Host, on the other hand, has nothing to do with the romance, characters and conflicts that the saga dealt with. The Host was boring as hell in the beginning, but in the long run it was a decent book.

bright_eyes00's avatar

all i have to say in regards to anythign s. meyer will/has written is “i would rather be blind that read anything she writes ever again”. twilight was horribly written (plot, characters, word usage, pretty much everything about the novel…i will give her props for creativity, even if everything else about the novel fails miserably) so i’m going to assume the same about anything else she creates. to all of those who think it was “well written”, you should seriously consider repeating sixth grade english and then tell me how “well written” it is.

mclaugh's avatar

I loved The Host. It was totally different from Twilight, but the story was good. It was a little hard to understand at the beginning, but by the end, I was sad that there wasn’t a second book to continue reading on.

ridicawu's avatar

I had heard from one of my friends (who likes Twilight) that Stephanie Meyer is just an awful writer. She uses a lot of the same words over and over and it’s just… bad. But for some reason she likes it? I don’t respect someone who uses vampires for romance and bloody sparkling. I love vampires and when I first heard about some new vampire thing I got excited but this isn’t my Nosferatu or my Bela Lugosi. This is Robert Pattinson sparkling in the sunlight and then brooding. Yuck.
If you want something you can’t put down with some great emotion in it and raw feeling, read Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. That’s some real intense stuff. Though his writing style can drive people nuts.

Seek's avatar

I screened the “Twilight” books for my niece, to make sure they were appropriate for a girl her age.

After doing so, I decided that from now on, I’ll happily allow her to read smut, just as long as I don’t have to suffer through that garbage again. Ms. Meyer, get a farcking thesaurus. Please.

ridicawu's avatar

Ack, I do have one thing “positive” for Twilight. Apparently Peter Murphy of Bauhaus is going to have a cameo or small roll in one of the upcoming Twilight movies. I will see that one because Peter Murphy is great.

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