The Host (The Host, #1)

by Stephenie Meyer

[ladygrey]

I can't stand the way [a:Stephenie Meyer|941441|Stephenie Meyer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1269985304p2/941441.jpg] writes. I do not need her to observe every unnecessary detail, to chronicle every second of the narrative. It's pedantic. And maybe that part wouldn't drive me so crazy if she weren't so blunt. The woman wouldn't know subtlety if it jumped out of her computer screen and hit her with her own giant book. That's veering into a tirade, which I really don't want, but the first half of this book was almost painful to read. I think by the second half I was numb.

And once that happened, the story wasn't atrocious and the characters were pretty decent. I have to admit, I sort of like that SMeyer hates conflict more than I do, so there never is a reason to fear any bad moments or painful turns. Because in any other book when things are going along so nicely, inevitably something is going to go horribly wrong. In an SMeyer book, when you're just waiting for that painful jolt, its a tiny bump that isn't even worth a halfhearted, "oh no!"

But I can't stand her female leads (honestly, I won't deign to call them heroines). I almost never make judgments like this (if you read my reviews at all you know I'm generally objective and do my best to separate the narrative from the writing style from the author personally). But in the early days of my book club there was a question about where do you see the author in the story which was more interesting speculation than anything that could be concrete. SMeyer shows up in the unrelenting, inane passivity of her female leads. And it drives me crazy. Yes, of course, there is nobility in sacrificing yourself for someone you love when they're in danger! Throwing yourself in front of people who are obviously stronger than you and perfectly capable, running around saying, "Please let me die for you! No? ok. Can I die for you? hmm, really? How about now? Can I please die for someone!" it's not a virtue. It's stupid and Wanda is not Bella, but letting yourself get beat up and then insisting that everything is ok when people try to kill you is being a weak-willed martyr in the same, atrocious way. Grow a spine! The courage in sacrificing yourself for someone else is only interesting when you haven't been doing that exact same thing for the entire book.
That being said, I do have to give her a little bit of credit, in that even as she writes it into the depths of Wanda's character she also has someone else pointing out that it's not healthy and not a good way to live. But that barely changes the 619 pages she's written.

Oh and the immaturity! A 26-year-old man would never say things like that. And her female leads are so ridiculous in the conclusions they draw and the obstinate assumptions about people and refusing to believe anyone could genuinely love them for 400 pages. Again, I probably got numb to the immaturity of the dialog at some point but the irrational conclusions Wanda draws for the first two thirds of the book are like being trapped in the mind of a dim-witted 13-year-old girl.

Also I don't need you preaching at me how horrible humanity is. I know that. We all know that. If you're going to do some sort of dystopian future, do something interesting with it. Don't spend so much time pointing out the obvious.

Though, as much as I wanted to hate this book and give it one star and possibly not finish it, once I was really numb to her writing style I enjoyed the soft illusion of conflict and sort of liked the characters so I couldn't properly despise it.