In response to the many, many, many, many comments I have received about my harsh review of Twilight, I decided to read and review The Host by the same author.  I expected, from the first few pages, to be bored with melodramatic actions and clingy heroines.

I was almost right.  The melodramatics are very present in The Host, but the characters are real enough to distract me from that.  I read over 200 pages in an hour and a half, and came up for air breathless.  I was shocked to find that, as hard as I pretended that I didn’t, I was enjoying the book.

It is long.  It is very long.  619 pages, a full 2.5 days to read, and really no good place to put it down to pick up in the morning.  Even the boring parts (and there are long stages of boring parts) have an undercurrent of electricity running through them, just enough to make me keep turning the pages.

I finished the book this morning, after staying up past 1 for the last 2 nights to read.  Needless to say, I am very tired.  However, I am not too tired to point out the book’s flaws.  Meyer has grown as a writer since penning Twilight, but she is still overly dramatic and emotional.  In this book, that works, because when a book is over 600 pages long, a little excitement is necessary to keep the reader interested.

The pretense is interesting enough, and her character development is superb.  I’m not turning into a Stephenie Meyer über fan, but I am willing to suspend my doubts about her for the time being. 

The Host was good.

:-)