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| The Host: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephenie Meyer
Creator: Kate Reading
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $49.98
Buy New: $24.49
You Save: $25.49 (51%)
New (35) Used (14) from $21.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  764 reviews
Sales Rank: 20488
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 20
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 5.3 x 2.1
ISBN: 1600241662
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781600241666
ASIN: 1600241662
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Awful May 25, 2008
38 out of 53 found this review helpful
I didn't like the book. Yeah, I know that Stephenie Meyer's books are popular, but her characters are two-dimensional. I want to read plausible dialogue with honest emotions, not Soap Opera speak. This book also needs a good editor: bigger is not always better; entire chapters need to be cut out. And if you think that Bella* is self sacrificing, just wait till you meet the Wanderer. The Wanderer is a parasitic alien that lives in the body of a human host, a 20-year-old girl named Melanie.
The aliens take over planet Earth by surgically inserting themselves into the brains of humans. (Once implanted, the human soul dies.) The aliens then live human lives: they shop, watch TV, play sports, eat Cheetos, etcetera. The only thing that is different about them is that they are super nice...in a Stepford Wives sort of way. They are also very altruistic creatures (except for the fact that they've killed off creatures from 9 worlds); they live in Communist-like communities, are very naive, and incredibly boring. At the Olympics, everyone wins a medal; movies always have a happy ending; and there are never any conflicts--well, except for those pesky humans that don't want to die...
*Bella is a character from Meyer's Twilight series.
irritating August 31, 2008
33 out of 41 found this review helpful
I just finished The Host and I'm glad that I did. I have to admit it was really a chore, reading this book. The flow of it was, at best, sluggish. I agree with the critical reviews, the first third of the book was BORING, at times it became exciting but after a few pages, became tedious and irritating again and again.
Her syntax remained the same whether it was Jeb (over 60) or Ian (about 25). They all basically spoke the same....like a 17 year old.
It irritated me that whenever any of the characters in this book were surprised, they would "lift an eyebrow", whenever they were angry they would "growl" and when they were annoyed they would speak in a "flat voice". I think the Thesaurus (book of synonyms) would've been helpful to Ms. Meyer...since it appeared that she had no imagination whatsoever in distinguishing between the characters.
There were many times while reading the dialogue between characters that I had no idea what they were trying to communicate to each other. Meyer's style of writing is so choppy and not descriptive, I found myself literally lost in the dialogue.
At other times, she would write what a character was thinking AT LEAST 20 times. She would harp on "it"as if her readership were too dumb to figure it out for theirselves.
How many times do we have to hear from Wanda's thoughts that, no matter what, she was going to die? And does she in the end? So what was the point on harping on this subject??
I am done with Stephenie Meyer's books. Sadly I realized that she really doesn't have any writing talent. Her characters/themes are exciting but Diana Gabaldon or even Audrey Niffenegger would've written a much better book!
 Who wants a whimper when you need a bang? May 17, 2008
32 out of 36 found this review helpful
No Stephanie Meyers books seems complete without a few things; A beautiful heroine, a moderately (to very) controlling male lead, and a martyr. On those counts 'The Host' doesn't disappoint. Set in a world invaded by aliens, our heroine 'Wanderer' finds herself in an odd predicament, the original owner of her body just wont leave! So here comes 400 pages of inner monologue. Seriously the book was MUCH longer than it needed to be. Kind of like the roaming in the woods part of HP 7. I don't know about you but 600+ pages of a book with very little action got to me. Also, much like the 'twilight' series the climax happened not with a bang, but a whimper.
It's not a bad book. It does have it's touching moments. Obviously it was good enough for me to get through the whole thing. The last book I read that was that long was Deathly Hollows. It just seemed to take a very long time to get to the exciting parts. I found myself skimming whole sections where 'Wanda' (I found it very hard to take her seriously with that name) fought with the inner trappings of being human. The sad part was that even the exciting parts weren't all that exciting. There never seemed to be any big threat. No real antagonist. Everything just seemed far to easy. Maybe she's setting it up for sequels, maybe not, I don't know. It left me feeling very unsatisfied in the end. Like eating a salad when you really want a big mac.
In the end, Stephanie Meyers has become literary crack to me. I know it's bad, and I KNOW I should just walk away,but I keep coming back.
BORING!! May 12, 2008
29 out of 66 found this review helpful
It took me a total of three days to read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. I loved this series and I was very excited for this book to come out thinking it would be another great read.
Far from it! I have spent the last six days forcing myself through the pages of this book. I love reading and have not enjoyed a book less than this in a very long time.
I would not recommend this book to anyone.
Too many pages, too little content July 6, 2008
29 out of 39 found this review helpful
Honestly, I read the first 100 pages and the last 100 pages. The basic story was somewhat interesting, but the filler was way too tedious to stick with through 600+ pages. I don't get what all the fuss is about Stephanie Meyer. Having read the Twilight Series (again, way too much filler), I feel this book is still young adult fiction with a smaller typeface.
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