Host, The - Stephenie Meyer

Well, if you read the title it says the HOST, that means a leach or a parasite. But here the host is the other person’s soul that has invaded a very sweet and innocent girl. However she is completely unaware of this situation. The book just explains fatal accident of the girl with a car and then she just wakes up unharmed in the hospital.

This truly does not explain how or when the girl got possessed by the ghost. To everyone’s surprise the ghost inside her body is also a female. She is apparently extremely nice and cares about her a lot. After the accident, the host starts healing her from the inside. Which ghost on earth would want to posses your body then heal you from the inside so that you can kick them out of your body. The story is just to gain the boy.

However after this happens the girl gives the host the permission to stay in her body forever. Although the book is quite interesting and has a great fantasy touch to it, but it just not make any sense at all.

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Well, if you read the title it says the HOST, that means a leach or a parasite. But here the host is the other person’s soul that has invaded a very sweet and innocent girl. However she is completely unaware of this situation. The book just explains fatal accident of the girl with a car and then she just wakes up unharmed in the hospital.

This truly does not explain how or when the girl got possessed by the ghost. To everyone’s surprise the ghost inside her body is also a female. She is apparently extremely nice and cares about her a lot. After the accident, the host starts healing her from the inside. Which ghost on earth would want to posses your body then heal you from the inside so that you can kick them out of your body.

The story is just to gain the boy. However after this happens the girl gives the host the permission to stay in her body forever. Although the book is quite interesting and has a great fantasy touch to it, but it just not make any sense at all.

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The Host is an extraordinary book written by an extraordinary writer. The main thing about Meyer's books are that you completely fall in love with the characters. That's what happens in this book. you fall in love with Melanie, Wanda, Jared, Ian, Jeb, Jamie and the others. I'm quite surprised that this book couldn't become more famous as compared to the Twilight Saga. I think the story is the main plus point about the book. though the first few pages seem dead boring (and complicated) , once Wanda reaches the cave, everything becomes fascinating. There are also a few moments that'll pull at the strings of your heart and make you weep (end part) but this book is no less than magic. you definitely should try this book

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The most important thing about Meyer's books are that - you fall in love with the characters. That's what happened with The Host. I bought this book because of the awesome cover. When I began reading the book, the first few pages were a little boring. But after a few hundred pages, the book took a turn and became one of the most gripping, astonishing and interesting stories. The characters are really good and you'll fall in love with Wanderer, Jared, Ian, Jeb, Jamie and the others.

The story is really beautiful and is very different from other books. Its kind of unique. At parts , the story is quite touching too. I almost gave in to my tears when, in the end, Wanda was getting ready to leave Melanie's body. And the end of the story is surprising too. The writing is too beautiful and some sentences are really beautifully written. I recommend this book to everybody if you want to enjoy a different, out-of-this-world story which has romance, a little action and is touching too.

So, please read this book.

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It is the attractive cover which made me to buy the book.   I couldn’t defy the Vampire eyes staring at me.   I turned the book and I read a poem, byMay Swenson which starts with a question, ‘Body my house my horse my hound what will I do when you are fallen….’I don’t had to think twice to make my decision and The host is my possession now.

The Soul:If there is one word I search for the meaning the most, that is ‘Soul’.   I enjoyed reading this book which talk about ‘Soul’ quite in depth.   Stephanie Meyers took the Hindu Philosophy way for the ‘Soul’.   The lead character, the ‘Wanderer’ had eight previous lives in different worlds, last being the world of sea weeds.   Even when this concept is as ancient as ‘Bhagawata’, there are good novel points on Soul discussed by the author.   ‘We die a little death every time we leave a host.  We live again in another.’   The soul is one, which has no death and no limitations.  It is the host/body which set limitations.

The Story: Melanie Stryder opted for suicide despite her love to her boyfriend Jared and only brother Jamie, when the new ‘soul’ to her life was denied a chance to live.   The attempt turned as a failure where the healers of the soul implanted a new soul, ‘Wanderer’ (Wanda) inside her.   Knowing that Melanie was a strong woman the souls gave a strong contender in ‘Wanderer’ and asked her to invade Melanie’s memory and thoughts.   Wanderer however met with a difficult task where Melanie was not ready to give up her thoughts, memory or love.   Now, Melanie and Wanderer lived as two souls with in one body.    Wanderer was searching for the reason of Melanie’s resistance.  However, through Melanie’s body and thoughts Wanderer starts to feel and understand human relations and love which now occupy Wanda’s mind.  Wanderer now is in love with Ian where Melanie is still under the influence of Jared.   What the soul can do if it has no free body to respond?   How the lovers will fight for the sole body?  The Host is a love triangle story too, where it is more than that.

The female Host:The author tries to make a statement.   Male or female, it is the same soul we are sharing and no discrimination is required.   ‘I’d inherited a different role in the human community.  People carried things for me now and let me pass first into a room….’  The author’s view is crystal clear.   The author sees Females as the ‘Host’ species which is the hope of survival.

The Mother:The first temptation thrown to ‘the wanderer’ was the probability of ‘motherhood’.   Stephanie Mayers stress that Motherhood is the height of any human relation.   ‘..mothers are irrational here.  Too many emotions involved.   Motherhood is always emotional – even for you souls.’  The soul’s understanding of a mother readiness to sacrifice her own life if it was refused to her child was beautifully explained in the novel.   The author insists that in all species, in all births and all worlds, mother is respected and it is the motherhood that gives the females a higher place than others.   The author throws her heart when she discusses ‘motherhood’ and can feel the emotion with which ‘wanderer’ rebel the mighty Kyle & Jared.  The book is rightly dedicated by the author to her mother.

Aborted:Why there is a denial of life? The author asks a simple question to the doctor - can he separate the body from the soul?    ‘…my survival instinct was every bit developed as the average human’s.’    The author doesn’t accept the condition that such acts are done to save the elder.   For a soul, it is the youngest the eldest.  When ‘Wanda’ sees a broken child on the table, she questions the kind of pain we humans shares.  She says that the human race is far behind in mourning our lost souls.  No wonder, our own ‘soul’ became alien to us!!

Expectation: The novel was a good read in the beginning setting high expectation.  The healers of soul, the insecurity of the soul in a new host, the resistance, the soul trying to find out the incidents which lead Melanie’s suicide attempt – all these were done brilliantly and I set a high expectation from the novel.

Confused:Once the story is set and the reader is looking for its forward movement, I am met with dark metaphors.   I felt the dark story telling style took a toll on the entertainment value of the book, given the lack of incidents at this middle stage.   I was transported to the caves and holes with dirty cloths and unfamiliar food and I really felt the boring pregnancy period.

Bored:I would have given away the book by midway, somewhere around page number 200 but somehow I thought I will not surrender that easily.   And I carried my boredom to next hundred plus pages.  The story was not moving at all.    Even love was not happening.

Clue:I managed to get some clues upon which I could make some sense to those dark proceedings and from there own the reading was little more pleasant.  Thanks to Jared’s extendable antenna and the sole gun.  I could see ‘Wanda’ and ‘Melanie’ being two souls and in one body and it is a perfect fit.

Excited:The slow narration and uninspiring proceedings took a big U turn in last 200 pages or so and I finished those pages in no time.   The story was moving with a soul and a heart in these pages, which was much missing in the middle part of the novel.    The love triangle & the powerful good bye made the wanderer a darling which she was not earlier.

Overall: The concept Soul is discussed and handled well.  The subject female and mother is stressed brilliantly.   Some Sudden changes in the attitude of characters and the love of Ian to Wanda didn’t explained by the author and it took extra time to digest.   Too many names and darkness did confuse the readers, but thankfully Wanderer, if not Melanie managed to create a cord with the readers.  The book can be termed as good, but it falls short of excellence, thanks to those slow paced dark middle part.

Recommendation:Hardcore Stephanie Meyer fans will love this novel for sure.   For a light reading, I think the book may not suit.   However, for those who love to swim deep there are gems all around.   For feminists, they will find a good weapon in the novel.

My rating: 3.5 stars

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We three friends decided to hit Tirupthi over the weekend (07/24) and chose the package tour offered by Rajesh travels to make our trip hassle free.We boarded the bus at Jaynagar 9thblock at 7:45 PM and the first impression of the bus was good.

Little did weknow that it will be the only part of the package we will be satisfied about. Thebus stopped some where in Kalasipalyam to get it’s top loaded with stuff to betransported to don’t know where and the whole loading process took 2 hours.

I was cursing myself for ignoring my earlier experience of travelling in aprivate bus where again they had made us wait for almost 2 hours to load it’stop. Whenever you travel in a private bus, ensure that you ask the operatorsabout the exact time it will start from Bangalore;else you will end up wasting time like we did. Anyway the bus headed to AnandRao circle where we were supposed to continue our journey in another bus. We waited for around30 minutes for the bus to arrive and when it finally did we had our first majortryst with reality of Rajesh travels. Around 45-50 people where waiting toboard the bus which was supposed to be an A/C Volvo.

First of all it was not aVolvo and secondly our seat was second from last and the push back button wasnot working for one of our seats and thirdly it was not the bus which wouldtake us all the way to Tirupathi. At Hoskote, there was another bus waiting forus and we were woken up from our sleeps at 12:00 in the midnight to embark the3rd bus enroute to our destination. At around 4:00 AM we reachedTirupathi and the lights switched on and our beloved tour guide welcomed us toTirupathi and started barking out few instructions in a language comprehendibleonly by him.

It was neither Kannada nor Telugu nor Hindi nor English but all ofthem mixed up to make our lives worse. As people started getting down from thebus, we thought it would be in our best interests to do what other people weredoing and decided to get down from the bus taking our entire luggage. We werein for a reprimand from the tour guide and bus driver for picking up theluggage to buy the darshan tickets.

Realization dawned on us; we were at thefoot of Tirumala and bus had stopped so that we could stand in the queue andbuy the darshan tickets. It was a very wrong assumption we had made that thepackage tour included all the arrangements required for a hassle free darshanof lord Venkateshwara. Standing in the first never ending queue of Tirupathiyatra, we learnt that all the tickets to VIP darshan were sold out and all thatwas remaining was free darshan tickets. Wow! What a way to start our day. Afterstanding in the queue for around 120 minutes in the wee hours, we secured thedarshan tickets. Coming up next was "the resort” where we were supposed to freshenup and get ready to go to the temple. “Awful” would be an understatement forthe short accommodation and breakfast we were provided.

Trivia: Huge tourist buses can’tclimb the 7 hills of Tirumala. So after a brief wait of 30 minutes in thescorching sun, we got into an APSRTC bus which would take us to the hill top. Don’tmiss the view of the valley on the way. It is legendary. We reachedthe hill top, submitted all our electronics, footwear and headed straight tothe temple. There were lots of pep talks by our useless tour guide and thistime we tried really hard and understood what we actually wanted to say.

There wewere in the next never ending queue of Tirupathi and this time we were seatedin the queue for around 2.5 hours, . The temple gates were expected to open at12:15 and we were there in front of the gate by 10:00, so we had no option butto wait. When the gates finally opened, there was lot of chaos with peoplepushing each other to get ahead in the queue.

After going through all the queues we reached the main temple and we hada good darshan of the lord and the extraordinary temple. The sight of thealmighty made us forget all the ordeals we faced to reach there. Our rendezvous with queues was notover yet. To get the famous Tirupathi ladoo prasad we had to go through anotherhuge queue and ultimately when we got out of the temple with the prasadam itwas 3:30 PM. Our tour guide gave us the number of the bus that would take usdown hill and vanished into thin air. We sat there all hungry and sick foranother hour in the bus, waiting for it to start. It did start, but at 5:00 PM.6:00 PM was lunch time for us and the place was again the same resort.

Not sureif food was not bad or we were very hungry to distinguish between good and bad food.We hogged whatever was provided and were finally happy that the long day wouldbe soon over. Wait! Our destiny had other plans. The breaks of the bus (again, not the one which brought us to tirupati ) which had to bring us back to Bangalore were jammed andthe search for mechanic was on. Thanks to all the guys who were part of thisunfortunate group who chose Rajesh travels to visit Tirupathi, the bus startedafter they all gave a hand to push the bus and relieve the breaks.We reached Bangalore around 12:15 and were stranded inAnand rao circle as it was the last stop and they didn’t have any provision fordropping people to the places where they picked up from. By god’s grace, wefound an auto driver who agreed to bring us home in the middle of the night andhe didn’t demand unreasonable fee. What a relief it was to reach home after thepathetic package tour.

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