Book review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Cover of The Host: A Novel

I have to start this post by saying that I highly recommend this book! No matter how you feel about the Twilight-saga - read The Host! I might add that this book has nothing to do with the Twilight vampires. Okay, I'm going to say this out loud: I personally think this book is better than the Twilight-saga(even though I loved it when I read it).

The Host is a book in the science-fiction genre, the first sci-fi book I have ever read or to be more precise listened to(the audiobook is read by Kate Reading). I didn't think that sci-fi was a book genre I would enjoy but I was badly mistaken in my presumption. If you don't enjoy the genre don't let that stop you, if you do then you're going to miss a great book.

The Host is an adventure of a story as well as a story about important things like learning to accept others for who they are, compassion, love and the feeling of being alone and finding you're place in the universe.

Product description from Amazon:

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.

Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.

The "souls" in The Host isn't like small green men, no they are tiny beautiful silver creatures. The "souls" are parasites and they are living inside other creatures. They have taken over the earth, the humans didn't desreve a great planet like the eart. Humans only ruined it and were violent and evil towards each other.

When the human, Melanie, is being captured she is in Chicago looking for her cousin, Sharon, who she thinks might still be human. When Melanie understands that the "souls" have found her she throws herself into an elevator shaft hoping to die instead of having her body taken over by a "soul". If her body is taken she fears that her mind will reveal the place where her little brother, Jamie, and her boyfriend, Jared, are hiding. Melanie dosen't die and one of the "souls" heals her body and places a female "soul" named Wanderer inside Melanie's body.

Melanie refuses to give up her own mind and body and through memories and feelings she somehow manges to effect the "soul" a little. Wanderer knows she shouldn't let herself be effected by this and that she ought to swap to a new body, but after awhile she to longs for Melanie's family. Is Jared and Jamie still alive? Can Wanderer the "soul" be trusted?

Melanie and Wanderer starts a search and they find what they are looking for, what they haven't considered is the hate humans nurture for the "souls".

The main character in this book, Wanderer, is hard not to fall in love with. Wanderer is a peace loving "soul" and she shares the body with Melanie a really tough girl who dosen't mind using violence to protect herself. It goes without saying that there's going to be some conflicts inside their head.

I feel that the characters in The Host has got more depth(more multi layered) than the characters in Twilight. It seems to me that Stephenie Meyer has taken her writing up a level with this book. I loved the book and the way the characters in it were described.

My rating of this book:

5 points out of 5 possible.

If you have reviewed this book let me know and I'll post a link to your review below.
Want another opinion on this book? Check out these reviews below:

• One fantastic book for your HEART and soul - Stephanie's Confession's of a BOOK-A-HOLIC.
• Book review: The Host-Stephenie Meyer - Shooting Stars Mag
  

Book review: Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

I want to start out by repeating my warning from my review of Ink Exchange:
If you haven't read Wicked Lovely [my review] or Ink Exchange[my review] yet don't start with this one(and don't read this review cause it will contain spoilers from the first two books)! This series has to be read in order to make sense to the reader.

First let's take a look at the book trailer:

First line:

Seth knew the moment Aislinn slipped into the house; the slight rise in temperature would've told him even if he hadn't seen the glimmer of sunlight in the middle of the night.

Product descripton cortesy of Amazon:

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone—but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.
Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her—but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.
In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.

My opinion:

This is the best book so far in the Wicked Lovely series. When I finished this book I wished I had number four in hand but of course it is not released yet and won't be either for awhile.
Fragile Eternity evolves much around Seth and what he is willing to sacrifice to be with Aislinn. A royal fairy could make him immortal but non of his friends in the fairy courts wants to help him. They know it's not easy being a fairy and having your mortality taken away from you. Seth is acting like a young boy in love and tries his best to figure out a way that he can have forever with Aislinn. He doesn't want to let Aislinn go for anything in the world, especially not to the summer king, Keenan, who is right by Aislinn's side all the time, waiting for Seth to disappear from her life.


One of the strongest dark fey, Bonanach, is thirsting for war among the fairy courts. Bonanach does what she can to ignite tension between the courts.
Does Seth have to let Aislinn go? Will there be a war? I guess you have to read the book to get these questions answered.


My rating of this book:

4 points out of 5 possible.

Book review: The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde

Book description:

Two weeks before Christmas, Diana Duprey, an outspoken abortion doctor, is found floating in her pool, a bruise the size of a golf ball visible through her dark curls. A national figure, Diana inspired passion and ignited tempers, never more so than on the day of her death.

Her husband, Frank, an attorney in the D.A.’s office for more than twenty years, had fought bitterly with her on the day of her murder. Yet to reveal the nature of their fight would cost him not only his career but something greater still—a relationship he will go to any lengths to protect. Diana’s daughter, Megan, a college freshman, had also quarreled with Diana that day, and her role in her mother’s murder will prove more significant than she ever could have anticipated. The Reverend Stephen O’Connell, founder of the town’s pro-life coalition, obviously had issues with Diana, but his anger extended beyond the political to the personal—namely, Dr. Duprey’s involvement with his own troubled teenager. Meanwhile, the detective on the case grapples to make sense of it all. His investigation implicates many in this town and reveals a series of gross miscalculations, each one challenging what we know, or think we know, about community, fidelity, justice, and love.

And so the book begins:

The problem was. Megan had just taken the second half of the ecstasy when her father called with the news.

The history in this book takes place in a small town in Colorado, USA. Like in any other town in this world many of the towns inhabitants has got their own dark little secrets. One of these dark secrets has lead to a fatal obsession. We meet 19 year old Megan and her father, Frank. Once upon a time they belonged to a family of four, now Megan and Frank are the only ones left of their little family. Megan once had a little brother named Ben, he died very young, and now her mother, Diana, is killed. Diana was running her own abortion clinic, a job that guranteed

My opinion:

It was kind of weird opening up the newspaper the day after I started reading The Abortionist's Daughter see an article about an abortionist being killed in Kansas, USA.

I'm going to be completely honest, I didn't have a clue to what this book was about when I bought it. The cover was the main reason for me picking it up, yes, yes, I know it is shallow of me. I was a bit surprised when started reading and found out that this was a suspense/mystery book.

The abortionist's daughter touches several hot topics, such as abortion, pornography and drugs. For me it was the use of the topic abortion that made this book to something more than just a suspense/mystery novel. The reader gets a little insight in the medical procedure around an abortion, I''m not working in the health care sector but the information seems believable to me.

It is heartbreaking to see how the different characters in this book analyzes their own their choices and who they perhaps somehow could have done something to prevent Diana from being murdered. Elisabeth Hyde makes this feel very real, I believe that this kind of soul searching comes naturally in these kind of situations.

I really enjoyed Melanie as a character, even though I couldn't relate much to her, except for the quarreling with her mum part(I love my mum, but of course we had some feuds when I was in my teens but nothing big). Still I know that there are girls out there who has experienced many of the same things or at least has similar experiences as Melanie; being persuaded to do stupid things while in love and trying out drugs.

Overall this book was okay, I passed it on to another Norwegian book blogger who I knew wanted to read it and after reading the book and throwing the dice she gave the book a fiver. I didn't enjoy the book as much as she did and I'm giving it 3,5 points out of 5.

If you have reviewed this book let me know and I'll post a link to your review below.
Want another opinion on this book? Check out these reviews below:


For more information about the author and her books visit:

• Think 360 Art(it was really difficult to find information about Elizabeth Hyde online - feel free to make suggestions if you have a better one!)
  

Saturday Steam - Rude comments

I was about to post a bookish link post but then I came across a comment over @ Books and Movies. It quite frankly got me a little mad, even though it's not a comment made to me. I'm probably a bit over agitated because it's way past bedtime LOL but I felt like sharing. CarrieK wrote a nice review on the book Wings by Aprilynne Pike towards the end she writes the following:

I devoured this book. I just started it yesterday – and I couldn’t put it down! I made my daughter gasp in horror when I told her I thought it was better than Twilight, which we both loved.

That comment obviously upset a reader, who also claims to be a librarian, so much that she felt like being very rude in the end of her reply to CarrieK:

Obviously your taste in books is very unlike the typical reader’s. Maybe you shouldn’t be writing reviews…

I think that most book bloggers will agree with me when I say that one of the things that is great about book blogging is the many different views and reviews one can see of one and the same books. I value all the different opinions, even if my personal opinion on a book isn't always the same as the one on the review that I read. I feel that it is possible to say that that you personally disagree in a way that's not rude, mean or offending.

This comment also reminded me that a little while back Rebecca over @ Lost in Books, got a rather rude comment from the author of a book she reviewed(not that the two cases are connected in anyway apart from the rudeness of the person leaving the comment):

I have been blessed with my first review by an illiterate! Thank you.

Here is her post about it: Authors overreacting to negative reviews - Disturbing trend?

So here's my bookish links for this Saturday, a real positive post.

To Rebecca:) and CarrieK: Keep up the good work, reading and reviewing!

How long is your wishlist?

This thought came over me as I answered a comment from Teddyree. Do you keep a list over books you want to read(for example a wishlist on Amazon or something like that)? How many books are on your list? I have my main wishlist on Amazon and right now there's exactly 200 books on my wishlist.

Here's some of the books from my wishlist:

• My Most Excellent Year
• The Catcher in the Rye

• Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

• Twilight of Avalon
• The Dark Divine

By the way what is the correct way: Wish list or wishlist? I've seen both being used.