The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Title: The Host

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Back Bay Books 2008

Genre: Paranormal

Pages: 620

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Paranormal -- Aliens; TBR Pile; Book to Movie; Bingo -- 3 rereads

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

A reread for me.  With the release of the movie this year, I wanted to reread the book and do a bit of comparison.  I remember that I enjoyed The Host more than the Twilight series, but I wanted to see if my memories lived up.  They do live up to my memories.  I really enjoyed this book.  The story of the aliens taking over Earth through body snatching isn't anything new.  But Melanie/Wanderer's story of understanding and identity is nice and unique.  I loved following their slow realization that neither of them are the enemy.  And watching the love triangle (or is it a square?) develop did not annoy me like in the Twilight series.  This one felt genuine.  I loved rereading this book.  And I'll even admit to ugly crying in parts.

Movie:

Overall, I quite enjoyed this adaptation. I'll admit that the voiceovers for Melanie and Wanderer's internal conversations were awkward, but the movie kept them to a minimum.  The actors actually portray their characters well.  The movie spent a lot of time following the searcher, but it added to the heightened fear of capture.  My favorite character was Jeb played by William Hurt.  He captured that exact mix of crazy and genius that I loved from the book.  I went into the viewing thinking I would hate the movie, but it turns out that I really enjoyed it.

The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide by Stephenie Meyer

Title: The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little 2011

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 524

Rating:   4 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library

Note: I finished another book (The Prestige) before this one.  However, that book is part of my page to screen challenge and I didn't have time before leaving for Disney to watch the movie.  So I decided to review this book first.

The Official Illustrated Guide gives fans of Twilight an indepth look the characters, sets, timelines, and insight into Meyer.  For the most part, I skimmed through this book.  I picked the sections that I wanted to read instead of reading every word printed.  My favorite parts:

• An in-depth interview with Stephenie Meyer by her friend Shannon Hale (Austenland, Rapunzel's Revenge, Princess Academy) -- Their friendship comes across loud and clear while giving readers more insight into Meyer's inspiration and process.  Did you know that Meyer originally wrote Forever Dawn (what would become Breaking Dawn) write after Twilight and her publishers asked her to expand the time in between giving us New Moon and Eclipse?  Or that Jacob was initially just a plot device and not intended to be a full character?  Learned a lot about Meyer.
• Playlist -- Meyer writes to music and so created a playlist for certain scenes throughout the four books.  Her song choices are very eclectic, but eerily similar to my choices.

The rest of the book gives us a lot of information about each of the characters, but it's a lot of rehashing if you actually remember the books.  Not the best parts, but good enough to skim.  Probably a must own book for Twihards.  Others, just skip it.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Title: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company 2010

Genre: Vampire

Pages: 178

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Vampires; Amazon - Customer Favorites; Support Your Local Library; A to Z Titles: S

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

I thought this would be a nice followup to Twilight: The Graphic Novel and I wasn't disappointed.  In Eclipse, we meet Bree Tanner for about five minutes and then she dies at the hands of the Volturri.  There's no backstory, no real insight into her character.  She's a soldier in Victoria's army.

In this novella, Meyer gives us a glimpse into the very confusing short existence of Bree the vampire.  She may be a newborn, but that doesn't mean that she a mindless eating machine.  With the guidance of Diego, Bree starts to question "the plan" that Riley's been feeding the army.  We get a look inside the inner workings of newborn vampire, the hunger, the fear, the blindness, the strength.  It's interesting to see the world from the other side.  I enjoyed the look through another's eyes.  Meyer points out in the introduction that throughout the series, the readers never really see the world from the eyes of a newborn (and Bella was never really a newborn, she's very different).

Bree's short life is filled with some interesting characters.  We see Riley from a different perspective than we get in Eclipse. We meet Diego, a newborn, but one who seems to have a much better handle on reasoning.  We meet Fred, who has a special talent, not completely unlike Bella's.  And of course, we have the other soldiers, whose only thought is of the thirst.  Best of all, we get to view the Cullens and the Volturri from an outside perspective.  I definitely enjoyed this other look at the Twilight series.

I wasn't expecting to finish this books today.  Now I have to go revise my February wrap-up post and pick the next book to start.  Aww... such is the life of a compulsive reader.

Twilight: The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim

Title: Twilight: The Graphic Novel

Author: Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim

Publisher:Yen Press 2010

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 224

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Vampires; Amazon - Customer Favorites; Support Your Local Library; A to Z Titles: T

I'll admit it right away, I liked the Twilight series.  Some of my former students shoved them at me until I finally read the entire series in about a week just in time for the release of the first movie.  I saw the graphic novel listed on the Amazon Customer Favorites list and thought I would check it out.  I didn't expect it to be good.  I expected it to be a cartoon, a kid comic book, with kiddie style graphics and text.  I was wrong.  I loved it.  It was a great reimaging of the novel.  More in line with how I saw the characters and scenes (not the movie's interpretation).  Specifically it included my favorite scene in the first novel, where Bella faints in biology class and is "rescued" by Mike than intercepted by Edward.  I was so disappointed that the movie cut that scene out.  As to the style, I didn't think I would like the black and white scheme when I first started reading it, but it really grew on me.  And reading the book, spots of color appear in the most unexpected areas, appropriate but still surprising.  I loved it.  My only problem: it ends right after Bella finds out that Edward is a vampire.  The ending seems too abrupt...