Dual Review: The
Host: A Novel, by Stephanie Meyer
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| Source: Amazon.com |
First off, I'll cover The
Host in novel form, and then move to the movie.
From the book’s cover:
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.
Featuring one of the
most unusual love triangles in literature, THE HOST is a riveting and
unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the essence of what it
means to be human.
The book review:
The good parts: it
was interesting (as many things I read are, in my opinion). The point of view was more fresh than many that
cover the same subject. The issues of
rights of body and spirit/soul as applied in the argument of abortion (when
does a person become a person?) was simmering underneath in the subtext. Between subtext and content was the issue of
the right to die, and the conflict of assisted suicide. In the content itself were issues tackled
such as humanity's inhuman treatment of each other, and the way we tend to not
follow the doctrine of Christ when He said "Love thine enemy/Turn the
other cheek." Also there was the
idea of the need humanity seems to have for conflict, and more so the need some
people have for it above even making peace and forgiving and forgetting (mother
and daughter - Sharon - duo who couldn't forgive Melanie/Wanda and were ever
suspicious of them).
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| The author, Stephenie Meyer. / Source: Deadline.com |
The way Meyer approached a rather well-trod topic was
interesting to me. Alien invasions of
Earth are certainly nothing new. But I
liked the fact that much of the conflict was on a personal, rather than a
global level. I found much of her approach
to be refreshing, which either says there is too much of the other "alien
warfare and intergalactic conflict on an epic scale"-point of view in our
society, or else I'm just seeing too much of that sort of thing lately. In this regard, I did like the book.
I also liked that the villain "seeker" was still a
bit of a twit even in her regular human form.
That was a refreshing approach.
Instead of putting it all on the alien presence, we get the truism that
some people are just obnoxious, however you take them.
On the other hand, I found Meyer to be too preachy in
places. It wasn't too heavy, but there
were times when Wanda was grousing about how barbaric humans could be, and it
seemed that the author was speaking, rather than the character. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that
was how I saw it.
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| Shiprock, a stone formation in the New Mexico high desert plain. Of course this particular rock formation has nothing to do with the novel that I recall (yes, it is in the movie, as I noticed in the trailer), but I use it because a prime point of the plot revolved around Melanie's search through the desert for her loved ones in hiding. This was one of the more engrossing sections of Meyer's book, in my opinion. / Source: written-in-stone-seen-through-my-lens.blogspot.com |
Also, I didn't like the pacing. The book was very thorough, but at times I
felt she could have edited herself down and still got the point across. The whole book had this problem. Forgive me for borrowing a cinematic term to
express this idea, but there were very few times when Meyer used effective
"jump cuts." One instance I
can think of was when the boy Ian got his leg cut and infected, and the chapter
ends with him just sick, and the next chapter begins and he's at death's door,
and real tension is felt. But this was a
rarity. Most of the time, the build up
is everything for Meyer. Maybe some
people love this approach, but for me, I thought she could have slimmed it down
some and gotten away with it.
I also didn't like the transformation of Melanie at the
end. I see the author's need for a
happy/hopeful ending, but I didn't much like the change from Melanie to
"Pet." The girl replacing our
heroine was... well, kind of annoying to me.
Maybe a lot of it was due to the love triangle Meyer was spinning along
quite full tilt by that point.
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| Some good soul took the time to draw what a "clawbeast" should look like. Though Meyer's various extraterrestrials often left me wanting, the image she paints with the clawbeast scene in which Melanie/Wanda divulges the secret of removing the symbiont from the host organism is another one of the higher points of The Host. / Source: deviantart.net (artist credit: biofauna25) |
Now I must say, I've seen all the Twilight films with the exception of the last one (and yes, I still
claim my masculinity - sometimes you just have no other choice than to watch
what your wife is watching). Either I
gave up by then and wouldn't be pulled along, or she gave up, knowing I was no
convert. And no, I won't be
reading those books. I have my wife's
word on those, and I don't think I'll miss anything significant in this life if
I forgo the opportunity to partake of those particular pieces of fiction. But from what I've seen of those films, and
now The Host, I think Meyer has a
one-trick pony for the love triangle, and I don't like it. It's too formulaic for me. Maybe its because it is such a heavy crutch
of the Twilight series and then also The Host. But it left me somewhat annoyed. I think there was too much emphasis on the
love triangle. I'd have been just as
happy if it had been a subject, but not a founding pillar of the book.
The ending was... so/so.
For myself, I would have been happy with a bad ending. But the author did build these aliens quite
effectively in the plot, so the human resistance under their nose was ok, I
suppose. I just was sure than Meyer
would have the guts to throw us a curve ball somewhere in the form of the alien
body-snatchers coming in and mucking stuff up.
I suppose this also might be seen as a downside to the book by
some. It is so much about relationships
and people, and the conflict is just the structure the story is hung on. I didn't mind this completely, but it did
kill some of the tension Meyer could have built in to make the plot more
compelling. But this is a gray area.
The alien worlds were interesting, but I found them too
one-dimensional. Except for the story
about how Wanda/Wanderer gets another alien into the body of a huge clawbeast
monster after the previous bear-creature host is cut in two, (that was a pretty
exciting little snippet) much of Meyer's depiction of the alien worlds feels
too human-biased. Why? Not because they are all humans on other
worlds - far from it - but because the depictions given seem too much like she
was stretching. Look at Earth. A really complex place. The alien worlds Meyer describes seem too
much like what a sci-fi writer in need of something exotic would come up with
to fill in the plot. Sorry, but they
weren't deep enough for me. The burden
of suspending disbelief was lost when Meyer started telling about them. That was my take on it.
Movie review:
When an unseen enemy
threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories,
Melanie will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about,
proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world. Short synopsis of The Host taken from IMDb/com
The film was fairly satisfactory, though some of the novel's
most emotionally connecting material (for me at least) was absent. For one thing, much of the story was
simplified for the conversion. We lose a
few fairly important characters, like Melanie's cousin [was it a cousin?] that
she was in Chicago in the first place to find.
And [the guy's name I forget] , whose slow death from cancer made for
truly interesting and emotionally bonding content.
Some of the visuals didn't fit either. For one, actress (what's her name from
National Treasure) did not fit the description, nor the particular resonance,
of the seeker villain.
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| Diane Kruger stars as the seeker Lacey in 2013's The Host. Nothing to disparage Ms. Kruger's performance specifically, but she didn't fit the role for me. Of course, part of that, if I remember right, is that Lacey is described as a brunette in the book. I know, it's a petty thing. But just the same. And hey, there's one of them alien shiny silver things again. I think it's called a "car." / Source: thelotusforums.com |
I also didn't like that the potential scene of the clawbeast
and Wanda telling how to remove the hosts was completely absent. That was one of the more exciting moments of
the book for me. The silver vehicles were
also somewhat hokey to me. What, aliens
from another world all like silver for all their stuff? And the simplification of the healing
technology also seemed a bit "glossed over" to me.
Anyway, the point of the story is still there, but much of
what made it interesting was lost. It
was a temporarily thought-provoking - though ultimately quite forgettable -
viewing experience. The book is
better. Yes, they managed to excise the
slow parts of the book, but lost some of the punchy parts in the process. And the part about "lichens that look
like stars" was silly, as was the movable mirrors in the caves where the
survivors hide. Could have done without
them. Seems to me that some elements,
like the seeker shooting another of her kind in her blind pursuit of
Melanie/Wanda and the human resistance, were added just to give the film more
emotionally impact and be more exciting.
Yes, the book was slow in places, but instead of adding content, couldn't
they have just emphasized what was already good about the original story and
then ignored the drawn out stuff that made the book stilted at times?
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| Saoirse Ronan, playing pre-probed-by-an-alien Melanie, and Max Irons (you're telling me that's his birth name for real?) as Jared Howe, the lady's future love interest. Is he checking to see if she is sober, you ask? No, apparently aliens who have all this super technology can't manage to adequately disguise that they are hiding inside a human being with some helpful contact lenses. Go figure. / Source: news.moviefone.ca |
I guess I'm saying that the film was good, but it seemed a
bit clunky, as many adaptations do, and was something of a disappointment in
the end. My gripe would be that this is
Hollywood-ized. Mainstream movie
entertainment can get a bit too much that way, and The Host is no exception.
Worth the Redbox rental, but only just.
A cheap seats showing probably would also have been worth satisfying my
curiosity. In the end, I'd say that the
book is pretty decent, despite its flaws, and the movie didn't do it true
justice.
Do they ever though?
P.S. What a stupid last name. "Stryder." Is it too much to ask that our heroine have a
mundane name like "Smith" or "Johnson" or
"Snagbottom?" But
"Stryder" sounds like she is the protagonist in a bad graphic novel
series. Sheesh. Very subtle, Meyer.
The parting comment:
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| Source: LOLSnaps.com |
They say turn-about is fair play.
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