The Host by Stephenie Meyer

The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Published by Little, Brown and Company
Pages 619
Genres: Action, Adult, Adventure, Science-Fiction, and Romance
Reviewed by Kate

The world has been taken over by an unseen force, aliens now inhabit human bodies. The world has only a handful of humans that are still themselves left. Melanie Stryder is one of them until she becomes a host for an alien that is eventually named Wanda. Normally the alien would just take over the host bodies and the humans would disappear within themselves, but not Melanie. She isn't going down without a fight. Melanie and Wanda can sort of talk to each other and Melanie shows her some things that just sort of slip out of her memory. The problem is that the invaders are supposed to tell others so they can go find them and have more of their kind come and takeover the "wild" humans bodies, however Wanda is having a difficult time not becoming attached to the humans in Melanie's life. So Wanderer and Melanie set out to find the man that haunts their memories. It's a dangerous road to get there and there will be no turning back, for either of them.

I think it's time to put The Host in the spotlight. After reading this book a second time, I realized that this book is so much better than Twilight. I love this book! It is brilliant and beautifully written, this is Meyer's true master piece. The plot and storyline are so unique. I would like to start by saying that this is totally not an alien book. I used the word alien reluctantly. They aren't green with light bulb looking heads, they aren't ET's species either. I can't really describe what they are it's like they're a flowy ribbon type thing, but not. Okay so i have no idea how to describe them but the point is this is not some Star Wars alien book. These invaders are actually quite anti-violent and want to make Earth a better place than the humans had made it. If you don't like aliens that's okay this book still could be for you. Now Melanie is caught by these aliens/invaders and is taken to be a host. Most humans fade away but Melanie stays inside Wanda's (and her own) head. Time goes by and eventually Wanda, and Melanie, want to meet the man in Melanie's memories,Jared, and the people that Melanie left behind. Jared is Melanie's love and slowly Wanda starts to feel something for him to. They eventually go off and set out to find both Jared and Melanie's little brother, Jamie. I can't say much more since it would give the book away but I will say that they find what they're looking for and an unexpected (surprise/disaster). This was a really amazing book overall. The characters are great, you have so many different personalities. There is at least one person that you will be cheering for in this book, or you can be like me and love everyone. The plot was also very good and so unique. I have to admit i was reluctant to read this when I read science-fiction on the page. I also am not fan of Apocalypse books, which this book kind of reminds me of, but it was very enjoyable.

Now for the Twilgiht comparison. This book didn't remind me of Twilight AT ALL, completely different story line and characters. Melanie and Wanda are complete opposites and while Melanie is very strong and independent Wanda is more of a peace and no violence type of person but still independent and strong in her own way. Neither of them reminded me of Bella Swan. So for all the people who disliked Twilight I can assure you that in my opinion this book is different. In my opinion the only way these books are associated is with the author. By the way this book is really long, a little over 600 pages, and it's taller than your average book. So for those of you who don't like to read, well I encourage you to read it but this book may be more for book lovers and people with patience. Now this book does take about 6-8 chapters to really get into, but you need those first few chapters to understand everything. Once you get through those...well Happy Reading!

P.S. Who is so excited that they are making a movie and there are going to be two more companion books?!

5 Kisses!

Book Review - Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse (Twilight, #3)
By Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007
629 pages, hardcover
Date Finished: 6/29/2010
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Romance, Young Adult

First Line of Book: "All our attempts at subterfuge had been in vain."

Review: I've noticed that I have reread a lot this year. Well, Eclipse was one of those wonderful books; the ones that you read again and againn because they get better and better. I also reread Eclipse in anticipation of the new motion picture (unwanted substitutes for "movie"), which I have yet to see. Don't worry, though, I'm going soon.

The third novel in Stephenie Meyer's worldwide, phenomenal Twilight series had me sympathetic, scared, angry, amused,m and overwhelmed with joy from cover to cover. In my opinion, Eclipse is the best in the series, followed closely by its sequel, Breaking Dawn. More action, fun, and a lot more Jacob than Twilight, but much less sadness than New Moon.

The opening of the story -- after the interesting prologue/preface -- is Bella reading a scribbled, confused, I-don't-know-how-to-say-this note from Jacob. Sad, but not NM sad. From that part, more drama and action. Soon enough, Bella and all her senior friends are graduating (Congrats!); they're finally done with high school. For Bella, this brings serious uncertainty. Carlisle and Edward have promised her that she may be turned into a vampire only after she graduates. However, if she wants Edward to do the changing, he insists that she marry him first. Can you believe that after Bella's done all that begging, the girl doesn't even know if she's ready or not?

The action part of this book came when the Cullens and the wolf pack to defeat newborns -- and Victoria herself. This is the part I'm mostly looking forward to in the movie, besides an ah-mazing exchange between Jacob and Bella. There was fast-moved killing, that Bella didn't even get to see, not that she wanted to in the first place. And, the person I'm overwhelmingly looking forward to seeing? -- Bree Tanner!, the star of the Eclipse novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I've been wanting to see what Bree's character looks like ever since I read the "companion novel."

More ROMANCE!!! ~Edward~ Well, of course, Bella has more epic romance with her boyfriend Edward Cullen. That was obviously obvious. ~Jacob~ Okay, yes! Finally, we get a kiss scene from Jacob and Bella! This is one of the things I'm really looking forward to in this movie. So cuh-yoot! But also, Jacob is still very very against Edward and Bella's relationship, and definitely disagreeing with the fact that Bella will soon be a vampire. Bless his little soul....

Another thing that fans can look forward to in this book: Edward's 'sister,' Rosalie, and his 'brother,' Jasper, finally reveal how they became vamps! An exciting portion of the novel!

To wrap up my supersuperlong review, this is a book that I really don't mind rereading over and over again because it's just that good. For all you people that refuse to read the book: Fine. I'm sure the movie will be better than the book anyway. Yeah, I said it; I actually went against my own books-are-always-better-than-the-movie/s theory. But no matter, because I'm still recommending this awesome book!

I hope that you get to see the movie sometime. Because even if you haven't read any of the books, this is going to be one epic movie!

Rating:


Quotes from the Book:

" 'I told you about that story in the paper -- there's some kind of gang on a killing spree in Seattle, and I want you to steer clear, okay?'
I rolled my eyes. 'Dad, there's a better chance that I'll get struck by lightning than that the one day I'm in Seattle --' "

**Bella and Edward are passing notes in class. Bella = bold, Edward = italicized.**
"I wasn't about to send you off alone. With your luck, not even the black box would survive.
So let's say my bad luck did crash the plane. What exactly were you going to do about it?
Why is the plane crashing?
The pilots are passed out drunk.
Easy. I'd fly the plane.
Both engines have exploded, and we're falling in a death spiral toward the earth.
I'd wait till we were close enough to the ground, get a grip on you, kick out the wall, and jump. Then I'd run you back to the scene of the accident, and we'd stumble around like the two luckiest survivors in history.

I stared at him wordlessly.
'What?' he whispered.
I shook my head in awe. 'Nothing,' I mouthed."

" 'If you ever kiss her again, I will break your jaw for her,' he promised.
'What if she wants me too?' Jacob drawled.
'Hah!' I snorted.
'You might want to wait for her to say it rather than trust your interpretation of body language -- but it's your face.' "

" 'Kiss me, Jacob,' I said." [So few words, so much meaning ... sort of.]


--Zakiya, the walking butterfly

P.S., After I see Eclipse the movie, I will be posting a movie review, and will compare it to the book. I will also give you the inside scoop on whether Kristen's charrie, Bella, is any klutzier, and who's hotter: Edward, Jacob, Jasper, or Emmett? Will give you all the details on this "contest" in the movie review. Keep checking in to my blog for the answer! Happy reading and/or movie-watching!

Eclipse Movie Review

Yes, I am a semi-fan. You can not say that I am a die hard by any means. However, when my friend (Amy) told me that she had an extra ticket for the opening midnight showing I jumped at the ticket!!

*I should of done this review ages ago*

We did not get all dressed up and stand in line for hours. I actually showed up at 11:30 to pick up the tickets she had on hold.

Mission 1 - Complete

Now, I am off to see if I could find and save four seats in a row.

Yikes! In the front row... Bring on the heat pad for my neck!

Mission 2 - Complete

With saved seats in tact I was off to use the restroom then pick up a lovely order of pretzel bites. I am the pretzel girl and she the popcorn.

I am the regular soda girl and she is the diet.

(How are we friends?)

Mission 3 - Complete

11:54 PM

Oh, where Oh where is Amy?

She is on her way. Time to get her ticket to her.

Mission 4 - Complete

Time to sit, relax and enjoy the show!

Mission 5 - Complete

(Me and my Ticket!)

...................................................................................

Review:

First off, let me just say that this movie was way better then the first two! I enjoyed this movie greatly.

~Rob Patterson~ Wow, he can act (finally). He was really pushed to his limits with his characters emotional roller coaster throughout the movie. Amy and I were both pleasantly surprised with him.

~Kristen Stewart~ Her character was bland. But guess what her character is supposed to be bland. If they jazzed Bella up for the movie it just wouldn't be right. They are already so far off track of the book.

~Taylor Lautner~ HOT! Yes, most of the time Jacob has no shirt on. There is even a part in the movie where Edward asks if he has a shirt in his closet. I hate the whole Native American is a savage thing, so lets have him wear as little as possible (and the wolf pack). However, that boy can take his shirt off for me whenever he wants! *Drool*

~Movie~ As for the whole movie... I thought that the fight scenes were pretty good. Who does not like to see a wolf tear into a rouge vamp? Victoria and Riley were interesting and kept up their end of the movie. Emmett is still amazing to look at. There were a few corny, and I mean corny, areas. I bust out laughing at one of those parts where everyone else goes "ahh". So did the girl next to me and well, my giggles are contagious when it comes to Amy. After a few seconds there we were having have the front row laugh at the "ahh" part.

Rating:

Book Review - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
By Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2010
178 pages
Read: 6/22/2010
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Action, Adventure

First Line of Book: "The newspaper headline glared at me from a little metal vending machine: SEATTLE UNDER SEIGE--DEATH TOLL RISES AGAIN."


Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is, in my opinion, a good companion novel to the Twilight series. Bree is a newborn vampire who grows close to one of the "senior" vamps that she lives with. Together, they try to discover exactly what their creator (known to the coven simply as her) wants them for. They discover the truth about going out into the sunlight, growing an even stronger bond all the while. But when Diego goes ahead of everyone to find a path and doesn't come back, Bree gets worried. Did the creator get to Diego first? She still hasn't figured out what's going on, and they're about to go into battle.

The story of Bree's short vampiric life was thrilling, action-y, and a little adventrous. Being that we only see about 5 minutes of Bree Tanner in Eclipse, this is a great read for people who love the Twilight series or have read Eclipse. It helps us learn how Bree got into that predicament in the first place.

Rating: I enjoyed Bree Tanner and rate it
4 kisses!


Quotes from the Book:


"Riley was going to blow a gasket. I would make sure I wasn't within reach when he saw this paper. Let him rip somebody else's arm off."


" 'Yeah, I'm Bree. Bu tI didn't come in with the last group. I'm almost three months old."
'Pretty slick for a three-monther,' he said. 'Not many would have been able to leave a scene of the accident like that.' He said it like a compliment, like he was really impressed.
'Didn't want to mix it up with Raoul's freaks.'
He nodded. 'Amen, sister. Their kind ain't nothing but bad news.' "


"Diego smiled at me. 'I'm really glad you came tonight.'
'Don't get all gooey on me now.'
'What? You don't want to be'--he widened his eyes and his voice went up an octave--'BFFs?' He laughed at the goofy expression."


" 'I see the little girl made it, too.' said a new voice, and I shuddered because it was Raoul. I felt a little bit of relief that he didn't know my name, but mostly I just felt horrified that he'd noticed me at all.
'Yeah, she followed me.' I couldn't see Diego, but I knew he was shrugging.
'Aren't you the savior of the hour?' Raoul said snidely.
'We don't get extra points for being morons.' "


Posted By: Zakiya!

Prom Nights From Hell Review

Book: Prom Nights From Hell
By: Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Harper Teen, 2007
Pages: 304
Read: 6/10/2010
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Short Stories, Horror

Reviewed by Kate

Review: If you have ever wondered about reading an anthology of short stories hopefully this review will give you some insight. This was my first anthology that I have ever read and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I was not sure, at first, how it was going to be. I just did not think that I could relate and like characters in about 50 pages worth of a story but this book changed my mind. All I saw when I bought it was the pretty cover and some of my favorite authors, mainly Meg Cabot and Stephenie Meyer. There are many anthologies coming out with some of my favorite authors so I thought what the heck I will get it and see how I like it.

The Exterminators Daughter by Meg Cabot- This short story is about a girl named Mary who is sort of an all things paranormal exterminator. Her mother was kidnapped and held but Dracula and to get to her mother back she needs to kill Dracula. Problem is he is not coming for her, so she uses his son to get to him. I enjoy all things by Cabot and this didn’t disappoint. While it was not my favorite story I did enjoy reading it. It was a good short story that left me still wanting a little more from the characters and story, mainly to see where everything went from the ending, but it also left me satisfied if she doesn’t write a book on it.

The Corsage by Lauren Myracle- This short story was kind of a mild horror story based off of The Monkey’s Paw by W. W, Jacobs in 1902. This story is about a girl named Frankie is a little too eager to go to the prom with her crush, Will and makes a couple wrong wishes. The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for. While the second half was the horror part the first part had me almost laughing off my chair with more than one character in the story. I have never heard of Myracle until this book and I will definitely be checking out more books from her. I was not sure how I’d like it but I did, it was good.

Madison Avery and the Dim Reaper by Kim Harrison- In this short story Madison, also the main character from Once Dead Twice Shy, is singled out to be killed by a dark grim reaper named Seth. She wakes up only to find out that she’s dead with two light reapers arguing about who is getting in trouble for it. From there Seth comes to collect her body and soul but Madison will have none of that. With the light reapers help she faces the new challenge of not getting caught by Seth and being a normal dead teenage girl. Okay let me start off by saying that I think this book is a spin off of Harrison’s book Once Dead Twice Shy, therefore if you have not read the book, like I have not, then maybe you want to skip this story. Even though I have not read Once Dead Twice Shy I felt like I still had to read this short story. I have to say that it was also really good but I am worried that it is going to be very close to her novel and I just bought it. It is not that I would not like her novel it is just that I hope it did not give away any spoilers. That, and I am not a huge fan of authors taking their characters from their novels and putting them in short stories, it just does not work for me.

Kiss and Tell by Michele Jaffe- This story was a little confusing, you need more information, background wise, but basically it’s about a girl named Miranda who gets caught up in a kidnapping of her client that she drive named Sibby. While Sibby is kissing every guy she meets, she’s obsessed with guys, Miranda is trying to save them from “the Gardner” aka the hot deputy, oh yeah, and she also has these super powers kind of like wonder women. . This story was so funny! I really loved the main character she had me laughing pretty much throughout the whole story. This is one of those short stories that I hope becomes a novel, I want to know what happens next for these characters, and get a few questions answered. I have never heard of Jaffe either until this book so maybe she already has a book out on this. Either way I liked the story a lot and thought it was really funny.

Hell on Earth by Stephenie Meyer- This story revolves around angels and demons. It’s about a demon named Sheba that decides to ruin everyone’s prom for her own fun. And then there’s Gabe the all around good boy matchmaker who only wants everyone to be happy, seriously. What will happen when these two meet up? So, I have to say that the first four stories were all really funny in there own ways but this story is definitely toned down to a more serious story. I liked this story but not quite as much as the others. In this story Meyer has about a dozen people , some of which have short parts in the story, that are in the story, which made it a little confusing for me. It just seemed like there were so many people to keep up with and a whole lot going on. I really liked Sheba and Gabe and wish the story would have focused on them a little bit more. I did like the whole idea and hope she writes something like this soon! If she wrote a book about something like this I would be the first to buy it.

So overall my first anthology experience was good! I really liked it and have two more anthologies to read. The only thing I did not like was the feeling that I wanted more, as in a whole novel, from all of the authors. At least with Harrison I get one. It was a good way, for me, to learn about two new authors whose books I will be looking for. I still prefer novels but overall I really enjoyed this book or short stories.

Quotes

Cabot- “You see?.” Sebastian Drake is saying, as he lifts one of my hands and presses it, softly against his lips. “I’m not so terrifying, am I? I’m just like you, actually. Just the child of a-let’s face it- a very formidable person, who’s trying to figure out his own place in the world. We have our burdens, do we not, you and I, Mary? Your mother says hello, by the way.”

Myracle- “You opened the coffin?” I said
“Yep.” She seemed proud. I wondered if she’d worn her juicy Couture during the grave robbing
“That’s gross that it still has hair,” I said.
“He still has hair,” Madame Z said. “Show some respect.”

“What about that?” Yun Sun asked, pointing to a clear Tupperware container in which something reddish and organlike floated in clear liquid. “Please tell me it didn’t come from Fernando, too. Please.”
Madame Z waved her had, like Don’t be ridiculous. “That’s my uterus. Had the doc give it to me after my hysterectomy.”
“Your uterus?” Yun Sun looked ill
“I’m going to let ‘em toss it in the incinerator?” Madame Z said. “Fat chance!”

Harrison- “That’s right,” he added, pulling his gaze back to me, and I shuddered. “You died on the anniversary of your birth. Two reapers. My, my, my. Such a drama queen, Madison. I’m glad you’re up. It’s time to go.”

Jaffe- “Good book?” He asked, taking it from her and reading the subtitle, “A guide for Good Girls Who (Sometimes) Want to Be Bad,” out loud.
“It’s for a school project. Homework. On, um, mating rituals.”

Meyer- Bryan put his arm around her shoulders. “I thought you left. Guess I’ll have to cancel the hot plans I just made with Mrs. Fickle. We were going to sort failure notices by candlelight.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to miss that! I think I saw Coach Lauder by the cookies. Maybe I could talk him into some extra-credit pull-ups.”
“Or maybe we could just dance,” Bryan suggested.

4 Kisses!