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vampirekiki — The Host Rant part 3
Published: 2010-02-15 17:28:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 1641; Favourites: 4; Downloads: 2
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The Host rant part 3Even I myself can't believe it, but I'm going to rant about The Host again after reading the translation of the book.
You might wonder why on earth I was re-reading this book again. here're a few reasons: (1) I found the translated version of the book in library so I decided to take full advantage on public resource, (2) I can read faster when the book had been translated into my first language, (3) since I skipped parts and sometime chapters to make it through the English version, I decided to give The Host the benefit of doubt.
So, after reading The Host from page to page till the end, here's my opinion.
*plot-spoiler warning*
1. The translator, whoever he or she is, had done a fine job to transform the originally dry and dully English writing by Stephenie Meyer into some pretty descent writing. Yes I had done the comparison, so………good job Translator! Even though it is not the best translation ever but I still appreciate the effort.
2. Despite the translator's effort, still nothing can redeem the tiresomeness and boredom of this overly lengthy novel( the translated version contents 622 pages).
3. Jared, now I noticed that the first time he met Melanie, the very first thing he did after realizing she was a human, was to kiss her on the lips, without consent. Such a nice way to greet a (frightened) girl whom you barely know. What a jerk.
4. since in the past I tended to skip whenever Mel's flashback about Jared came up, now I noticed that during one of those flashbacks, Jared said he would not give up Mel if it meant saving the entire human race. It's a line that bound to make people LOL, right?
5. Ian, when he was first being introduced to us readers, he was actively assisting his brother Kyle to murder Wanda/Melanie. But once Kyle left the hideout, and after only five chapters later, also after Wanda spent sometime getting familiar with everybody else and did some helping. Ian admitted that he thought it was okay to have an alien wandering around in the hideout and he started being nice to Wanda, to a point that he was concerning himself whether she felt pain or not. The transformation of Ian from a would-be murderer into a nice guy is just too rapid, that's just not believable. His sudden change of heart isn't quite believable.
6. Sharon and Maggie, Melanie's cousin and aunt; who hated Wanda from beginning to the end even after the others slowly changed their view toward the all good, self scarifying *throws up* alien Wanda. The two of them were presented as two mean bitches, but we are never given the reason to explain their hatred toward Wanda. Unreasonable hatred is just as tiresome/boring as unreasonable love.
7. the ending: I noticed for the second time that Mel and Jared's resolution of saving Wanda is to capture a girl, removing the 'soul' within her body and offered the now empty body to Wanda to hack into; claiming that there was no one to claim the girl's body back so it's right to give it to Wanda. Argh, I wonder can they sleep well at night after doing this to the girl.
8. the alien race was being described over and over as good and peace-loving, to a point that I really started to think SMeyer wrote this as a satire; unluckily she wasn't.
9. Back then I thought that the aliens in the story could be written into more interesting characters. But now I realized I was wrong. Despite still being two dimensionals, most of the alien supporting characters(Wanda doesn't count) are indeed more vivid and interesting than all of the human characters in the book. Still Wanda had claimed that humans have more personality and emotion than her own race. That's strange.
10. To be fair, The Host has its bright spots e.g. interesting (if not original) setting and ideas on describing the alien's race, a little touching moment of sibling love between Mel and her younger brother here and there. Still it can not cover up the boredom, the lack of suspense and true crisis, and the cheesy romance that haunt the entire novel.
*end of plot spoiler*
Okay…I swear that that will be the last time I rant about The Host, tomorrow I'll return the book to the library and forget about it.
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Comments: 76
thank you! But I seriously hope S.Meyer not publishing anything else in the future. I'd rather miss the fun of teasing her books apart than to suffer reading through them.
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I read this book in about an hour- so the prose and the length never really got to me. it was 50 cents I was bored and I finished reading all the other books I had with me at the time (road trip). This may be why I found it interesting. To be honest, I didn't even know it was supposed to be romance. Ian changed s fast i never even saw him as a possible romantic interest. o.0
I will never know why I actually found this book entertaining. Or any of SMeyer's books. I really really don't know and i wish I did. o.o
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I understand, it's a bit like a guilty pleasure thingy, sometime i got hooked with silly anime/manga/books too.
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*Nods* Exactly. Lol, I'm glad someone understands. XD
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as long as you know excatly what you're reading, you're fine.
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Although I worry for my cousin.
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your cousin likes Twilight too but doesn't know better that it's only a fictional story?
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She one of the diehards who doesn't see what's really wrong with it.
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poor her, but when she grows up and maybe she would know better.
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well, she is younger than me and does read other books of a higher caliber so she'll probably be fine.
She just has a history of boyfriend issues.
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i hope that she'll be fine in the end.
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Strange that I should find this about "The Host". I like sci-fi, though I'm not an avid reader, I had read "2001 Space Odyssey," "Strange Attractors," "Halo-Ghosts of Onyx," "Contact," "The Time Machine," "War of the Worlds," "The Sphere," and other small sci-fi's. Yeah, a few are Michael Crichton, H.G. Wells books. LOVED ALL OF THEM! Also read some short stories like from Asimov's or the Analog mag... enjoyed quite a few. I do have a tiny idea about some stories. Love Sci-Fi movies...crave them. And I've read the whole Bible. So I've had exposure to sci-fi and things that concern the soul. I'm no expert and I'm sure I've written my share of Mary Sue's in my fanfics & they're probably populated in my novel I'm trying to write.
BUT... "The Host" I hated and was infuriated. No Action! And these two species were at war? All the action was driving in a car, walking in the desert, escaping a factory, and being beat to a pulp by some vigilantes (well "wild humans").
My taste for Kyle turned to sour with his stupidity and over violence. Kyle's redeeming factor went out the window. And that alien's pov was suffocating, boring, and too nice. I kept on waiting for confrontation with the other race or even security guards when they were in the city. Dang! We got NOTHING! And when the group's scouting team came back frazzled from a trip getting food & supplies, we didn't experience that! Nothing! We were stuck in that alien's pov suffocating in that dark, stupid cave! 
Notice that Ian, the brother, has the same name and appearance as the actor (Ian Somerhalder) that plays Damon Salvatore on Vampire Diaries TV show. Hint, she wrote The Vampire Diaries that the show is based on. Figure that! I wonder if it's just a coincidence.
I hope with all my heart, my characters won't be soooo boring! Soooo stupid, and one-dimensional. But I can only hope because everyone won't see things the same way.
The prose was rich with purple flowers, ferns, greenery, shrubs, bushes, green puffy clouds... just kidding. I didn't like it at all and was happy that I didn't buy the book just because I enjoyed Twilight! Oops, sorry guys, I really enjoyed Twilight, though I thought Bella was kind of silly and yes I agree that she had deep purple prose. Yep, I'm the hopeless romantic!
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I am not that big of a Sci-fi fan, especially not to those old school space opera stuff. But i enjoy sci-fi horror such as H P. Lovecraft and some cyberpunk, still I deed myself well-read enough to know what’s good and what’s bad.
The Host, like you might already notice, is a total mess and doesn’t deserve to be called a Sci-fi at all.
First of all, the lack of action---no, the lack of even tension and suspense really drives me to the wall. I mean, it really can’t be serious that humans and aliens are at war, NOT A SINGLE HUMAN HAD BEEN KILLED OR HARMED BY THE ALIENS ANYWAY! That totally sucks. Do you know? Even the brooding, slow-pace and heavy-on-description-and-suspense H P. Lovecraft’s stories have ACTION (though these are mostly people fighting back in vain or fleeting from evil deities) before the author called it a day and ended his stories.
A lot of people had already summarized the failure of The Host already: It’s simply a story wrote by someone who doesn’t know a darn about Sci-fi for those who don’t know or read Sci-fi at all.
So instead S.Meyer once again focused THE ROMANCE, which unluckily is just unrealistic and unbelievable and bloodless. So guys beat the crap out of girls, and girls still love them no matter what? Oh, thank, but no thank.
Not to mention it angers me when Kyle tried to MURDER Wanda (it’s such a stupid name!), Wanda still lied for him! ARGH! and some idiot even has the nerve to tell me I’m wrong to relate the event with domestic violence, it’s about human harming an alien, not a man beating a woman up. Oh great, so down-playing violence against women is okay when we dehumanize the woman and put an alien label on her, very helpful, isn’t it?
Ian, the brother, has the same name and appearance as the actor (Ian Somerhalder) that plays Damon Salvatore on Vampire Diaries TV show.
really? REALLY? I wonder why it hasn’t been more widely noticed.
I usually don’t notice people giving bad prose, only when things go extremely bad only then I’d notice something goes wrong. But in my opinion, the writing is too dry, too sandy to allow any prose to grow. That’s what I think.
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Yes! Yes! Yes! To all the above. I was soooooooooooooooooo ticked at Kyle's action. It reminded me of my mom being beat up by my dad until one day she hit him over the head with a frying pan! I don't know where SMeyer gets off in causing uncalled for violence to her lead females. She did that to Elena getting publicly whipped. That totally turned me off. I've seen too much domestic violence through the hands of my dad and his relatives... my auntie being pistol whipped for instance. So you're not the only one that felt that way.
And we the readers were supposed to side with Wanda in the girl's body so that made the incident intolerable. Romance--the only good part of the book was the ending. THE END. The body take over wasn't as critical as THE BODY SNATCHERS. I mean, the people were still alive and they could be rescued. Duh??? I hated that there was no action, no spaceships, no real aliens you could touch... just a psychological soap opera, as you mentioned, dry, sandy, burned toast, tasteless book.
Sadly, it was so bad, I haven't read any books since about a couple of years. Now that's bad.
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Wait, SMeyer isn’t responsible of Elena’s whipping, it’s L J. Smith’s doing.
Plus Kyle's attempt murder isn't the worst part, it's Wanda's lying makes the whole thing all wrong. it's alright to describe violence against women in your book, but please don't sugarcoat the victim’s reaction of Stockholm syndrome like this.
I’m sorry to hear you had suffered alongside your mother through the horror of domestic violence, the fact that unlucky women and children around the glob have to suffer DV makes it even more outrageous that someone else can have such twisted opinion about love relationship (beating=love) and expresses it so freely without any critical thoughts. To tell the truth, I like--love writing about abusive relationship in my fanfics, but I’d always be careful that readers get the idea that some of the characters’ behaviors aren’t right.
The body take over wasn't as critical as THE BODY SNATCHERS.
The fact that The Host ends happily tells me that SMeyer is so much of a chicken to write/do anything mature and daring, like, killing off important characters for the story’s sake.
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Sorry, sorry! hehehe... my boo-boo! LJ did the Elena whipping. SMyer did the Wanda whipping!
The lying part is the most dangerous. And that is what lots of abused victims do... they end up protecting their abuser. And that part of the story condones that negative behavior. I hated it too when I read that how Wanda kept defending him. I felt abused myself. That's probably why I haven't gone back to reading.
Yeah, that domestic violence is horrible. He ended up leaving, living with another woman, and dying of a heart attack. I was chosen to go his funeral. Mind it was beautiful, 21-gun salute, beautiful US flag, lovely day, had some delicious food. All in all, I didn't dwell on the betrayal, though I had to stay with the woman he ended up with. I don't think it's affected me in a bad way. I'm okay, went through it. Kept living and loving my family.
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Comparing your reaction to Twilight and The Host, i can guess why you like Twilight and dislike the latter.
I'm not trying to play Doctor here. But it seems to me you dislike The Host because you can see through the fake-stuff Smeyer had tried to sell as true love. From your own experience you know that guy beating up woman doesn't mean he loves her and it's not right for the woman to cover for her abuser up. So, poop! no way in hell it's a romance and we all know it! Smeyer, you had became so fake that people can't buy into your stuff anymore!
But as to Twilight, the Bella-Edward realstionship isn't so obviously abusive (to me, it's still an abusive and controlling relationship, just not a physically abusive one). And we got the 'perfect-guy' Edward to drool on, and Bella, she has hard any personality so every reader can allow themselves to step into her shoes; i guess it's part of the reason why Twilight works for you.
That's just a bit of my thoughts, please don't be angry if i get something wrong!
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There's no problem on how you see why I hate The Host and love Twilight. You've worded it very well, even gave me a closer look as to "why" I'd like one and not the other. It's true. Host wasn't believable for romance and Twilight was. You've given spot on comparisons.
You know what? I can understand why you mentioned me not to be angry. Because I've come across folks that felt intimidated or talked down to if I tried to "walk in their shoes" or even to help. I got that experience from working in Customer Service area. Mean, mean people. I don't even want to go there. I'm too sensitive! hehehe.
Now I've digressed! It's great talking to you. And thanks for understanding how I feel about the books. You're a sweetheart!
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The series just got from bad to worse. Twilight as a standalone is just a not so finely written escapism material. But do you see what happen in Breaking Dawn? Jake got freaking turned into a damn pedophilian!!!!!!!!!!! that freaked me out.
Well, I dun mind abusive relationship being written in novels. Hell, Anne Rice had written a lot of prombletic things in her novels too. But I think what bugs me and many other people about Twilight is that Bella never called Edward out for his controlling behaviors, she never really tells him to back off, she just protests once or twice and then just sits back and takes it. That's not good.
Plus the same goes to Wanda, she got beat up, and she thought it's nothing wrong in it. ARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Smeyer had just put women back into the Dark Age.XDDDD
PS: some amount of consideration never hurts anyone.
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You know what? If I get through writing my book, I'm going to think really hard on that abusive, controlling type of behavior. I think my main girl in the story has been abused, but she's finding a way out. And she'll "bite" back if anyone gets on her nerves. Well, I'm mousy to a certain extent. But if you push me too hard, watch out! So I wanted that attitude in her. She's strong and thinks before taking action. She stronger than a regular human, but was taught to show no signs of that... honey, those signs come out after her being repressed. And she is no where near like Bella, Wanda, or even Elena.
That was the strangest thing I ever heard of... Jacob imprinting on Bella's baby. And he'd do anything for the child, and the child would do anything for him. I've never heard of anything like that before.
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Jake imprinting upon the baby is a ploy to let Bella have Edward and Jake at the same time even after she had already chosen Edward. Why would she have to have them both? It's becoz Bella is actually the self-insert of Smeyer herself and it's Smeyer who wants to have both Jake and Edward, argh! that's just greedy.
If Smeyer doesn't want to use the imprinting plot to allow Bella having the best of both worlds, then it's even worse, becoz that woman is promoting child-grooming and sugarcoating child-grooming as TRUE LOVE. *throws up*
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That is an interesting outlook on the child-grooming theory vs. True Love. I didn't see it as that. I thought it was cute... BUT I was happy Jacob wouldn't be pining after Bella. I wonder where she got that imprinting idea from. I never heard of such a thing. It sounds very controlling too. Like they're zombies. I felt a tiny bit put back and threw that over my shoulder.
The story would've been more interesting to have Jacob fall in love or imprint on Leah because Leah was very, very interesting... more conflicting... more story to that.
Nessie (Bella's baby) doesn't need Jacob, she could've grown and had another love interest after she grows up.
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Imprinting, according to my wiki research, is something that animals, e.g. wolves do to mark another fellow pack member as their own mate, the purpose of imprint is purely reproductive. Plus according to Smeyer, it’s always male werewolves shapeshifters doing the imprinting and the women---no, little girls have no say in any of it, and everyone just expects the girl to love her ‘mate’ back when she grows up. If such thing doesn’t scream child grooming than I don’t know what else is.XDDD
Plus do you think Smeyer has a kink about young girl in love with an older man? don’t get me wrong, but a four years girl with a teenage boy (the little girl Claire and whatever his name is in Eclipse) just looks odd to me.
Nessie (Bella's baby) doesn't need Jacob, she could've grown and had another love interest after she grows up.
That's so true.
Let's say we believe (the fact is, i don't) that Nessie and Jake are in love, but this love is based on magic and the imprinting idea more than reality---so Jake sees the baby girl Nessie, and POOP! he's in love with her!That's just so unreal.
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Yeah, you're right--that "magical" imprinting has no human value or conflict. It's an easy option.
Okay, I'm thinking this mentality is from Smeyer's upbringing in the Mormon culture. There's a lot of control over women. I'm thinking she's in the sect that supports single marriages, not a man having multiple women.
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i guess what happened to Jake play a part in why so many ex-fans being pissed off by Breaking Dawn.XD
PS: Mormon's upbringing or not, man having muliiple women can not be sugarcoated into 'romance'; thax god.
PSS: maybe some Mormons would be offended if we seriously think Smeyer's Mormon's unbringing is the excuse for her to promote anti-woman message. Because it would also puts Mormonism together with stalking=romance, etc...
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Mormonism & stalking... yeah, they'd get mad! hehehehe!
And that multiple woman case is bad, bad, bad! No romance there.
Well, I gotta see how Breaking Dawn works out. I just saw Vampires Suck movie. Lots was funny, but some violence and Edward's butt scene went over the top. I would've enjoyed the movie sooo much until the werewolves tore apart Laraunt and they did that Edward butt scene...totally disgusting!
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i kind of want to see how Breaking Dawn not working out. For example....how would they sugarcoat the Jake-imprinting-on-a-baby crap?
Vampires Suck...its trailer looks a lot of fun but i didnt watch it. and i don't know they had done the butt scene.
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Ohhh, that butt scene is NASTY. He bent over and they showed his backside ope... yucky... can't even type it out. I changed the channel... and returned after a minute. 
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rated PG-13? my ass!
but i think i would enjoy the werewolves' gay dancing scene in Vampires Suck.XD
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Last time I checked! Oh then you'd enjoy it.
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i saw on some anti twilight group that the pictures of Breaking Dawn is out already!
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Oh honey, I believe that! But I'm gonna wait till the movie or DVDs come out.
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i dread looking at that trailer and the movie itself even though i know it'll soon be unavoidable.....twilight posters everywhere. and edward looks no good in those stuff....esp in the Breaking Dawn shots.
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Ahhh, you'll make it through... don't worry, take some Tums and that gassy feeling will go away!
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it's okay.......becoz by the time the movie comes out there'll be some amzing rants and reviews out there.XD
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wow, those roses are lovely!
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I have read this entire rant and I must say that I agree for the most part. I did enjoy reading the host, but the plot line was pretty ridiculous. The most redeeming quality was the setting where the humans hid out. Although, Meyer was pretty boring when describing it.
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but the plot line was pretty ridiculous.
*sighs* that's so true.
But i heard that SMeyer had planned to write two sequels for that story... argh such an insult to Sci-Fi.
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I am going to read the sequels out of curiosity. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll actually be good!? Yeah, I doubt Meyer could write anything competent.
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Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll actually be good!?
This's what i've been saying to myself when i read The Host then the Twilight series. No, it isn't happening.
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I agree. I was just being optimistic.
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only after Smeyer gets herself a writing lesson, we can start hoping she'll write better novels.
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Exactly. If someone competent wrote those Host sequels they could probably have potential.
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i bet some of the The Host fanfics can do better than the original story.
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*sighs* or that woman can start reading, really reading good novels; and go reading a few online articles that teaches people to write, then we can be assured that she might write better in the future.
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