In Defense of Twilight (by Taara Rangan)

I thought about the way I acted in book club last Friday. I believe that what I said about Twilight and its fans was very inappropriate, and I apologize to anyone who was offended.

As atonement, and as an exercise for myself, I have decided to write my next blog post focusing purely on the positive aspects of Twilight. I have not seen the movie, and I will not review the series, though I have read the other books. Before I begin, here's a quick timeline of my relationship with Twilight (feel free to skip it if you find it uninteresting):

1. I pick up Twilight around 2008,in freshman year. I like it a great deal.
2. I read New Moon and Eclipse shortly afterwards. Although I don't like them quite as much as I liked Twilight, I still like the series as a whole.
3. I read Breaking Dawn over the summer and proceed to become anti-Twilight.
4. I read the leaked chapters of Midnight Sun, which remind me of why I liked Twilight in the first place.
5. I spend both my sophomore and junior year picking out the flaws of the series without really reading the books.
6. In senior year, Meena Vempaty lends me Meyer's latest novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Prior to reading it, I decide to re-read Midnight Sun to understand what drew me to the Twilight series in the first place.

And so, we come to his point. I will only be listing the positive points of Twilight in the following blog post. Please keep in mind that, while I am not directly reviewing the future books, some of my opinions have been colored by the additional character background information I found via the later installments. Here goes:

1. The entirety of Twilight is based around a solid idea. It's genuinely interesting to read about two characters who are both repelled and attracted to one another.
2. Edward Cullen may have roughly a century's worth of experience, but, as later books mention, his sensibilities were frozen in time when he changed into a vampire. So, though he may have the eloquence of someone born several decades earlier than his classmates, he still reacts to situations in the same way that a 17-year-old would. He's slightly awkward, and a little unsure of how to deal with his feelings toward Bella.
3. Alice is so lovable. She's the most excitable little ball of energy in the entire series, and I adore her for that.
4. Sparkling in the sun is a genuinely creative way to get around the rule that vampires can't be seen in the sunlight. I thought (and still think) that was inspired.
5. Back to Edward: he's actually what a lot of girls look for in a boyfriend. He's musical, intelligent, and completely involved in his relationship with Bella. I also enjoy his occasional sarcastic quip: "Afraid of a needle. Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand..."
6. Jacob (pre-wolf) is seriously the most realistic teenager in the novel. He speaks and acts like someone our age, and I have no problem at all picturing him in our high school.

That's it for now! It's been a while since I've actually read the book, so I probably missed quite a few, but I'll add to this list as I think up more reasons.

Invisible in My Pants (doesn't work that well there) by Pete Hautman

I've read other fabulous books by Pete Hautman, but this particular one only merits two stars. While he paints his main character extremely well, the plot is weak.

The main character, Dougie, comes off as a bit disturbing. Even from the beginning of the book, there's something about the way he speaks that seems a bit off. After scanning the chapter, one might notice that he uses contractions sparingly. This is not how normal teenagers talk. When I speak, I swallow about half of my words, unless I'm speaking during speech and debate. Even then, I use the words can't and don't and won't. However, I let this pass. Maybe Hautman's keyboard is mysteriously missing an ' key. Even ignoring the syntax, the way that Pete describes the world around him gives the reader hints that Dougie is not quite alright in the head.

The other character, Andy, is pretty cool. He's the kid who does football, participates in plays, and maintains great grades. He's Dougie's best friend, and the two talk pretty often.

The plot twist, however, is kind of lame. It's one of those moments in which an author attempts to keep the reader in the dark, dropping subtle hints. This would have been effective if the hints were at all subtle. It takes just a couple of chapters to figure out that Andy died a while back, and that Dougie is merely speaking to a figment of his imagination. So, when the plot twist is revealed and Dougie comes to the realization that his friend died in a fire, I wasn't too impressed.

Over all, I wouldn't recommend this book to others, unless you plan to read purely for the characters. That's all.

~Taara

thisisnottom

I finished it. Well, what was there of it. ★★★★★

This is Taara. This is most certainly not Tom. And this is a totally awesome story! (AVPM? Anyone? Anyone? No?) Okay, so the story is told through a series of puzzles. I believe that the most recent chapter is 3.2.1 (I forgot how the numbering system works, but I think there are at least twenty-odd chapters right now.) Unfortunately, the most recent chapter was uploaded ten months ago. John Green says that he wants to continue the project, but he's a little busy right now.

Right, so thisisnottom is not, in fact, about anyone named Tom (at least as far as I can tell). It's about a girl whose name I can recall (but if I recall correctly, she can't recall her name any more than I can) who is apparently an escapee from an underground computer system that uses people as a power source.

I'd love to say more, but it's a bit complex, and it'll ruin the fun. This story, as I said, is locked behind a series of puzzles. Unfortunately, the puzzles are varied and highly complicated, so it's pretty much impossible to get to all the chapters without crowd-sourcing. One of the tacitly acknowledged "rules" of thisisnottom is "never reveal the answer." The Internet, however, will provide you with a series of hints. Best of luck, you guys.

Hint 1: What's missing from the sentence?

http://www.thisisnottom.com/

Looking for Alaska (in My Pants) by John Green

Ummm...★★★★1/2

So, for those of you who read my book review on An Abundance of Katherines (in My Pants), screw it. That book is good, but this book isgreat. (Following Meena's lead, the spoilers will be in white, so you'll have to highlight to get the story.)

I can now proudly say that I have read all of John Green's books. So far. He's coming out with another one. This time with a female protagonist. And a desert island. And a boy. And...I'm going to stop talking about that now and actually write the review of this book. "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia," after all.

This is John Green's first book. The one that earned him critical acclaim and a heck of a lot of fans. And after reading it, I understand why. The book starts off like a seemingly typical High School Novel. There's a kid who's new to boarding school, and he makes friends with this group of students who are troublemakers but are basically nice people. And there is, in that group, a cleverfunnygorgeous girl who has a penchant for pranks, smoking, drinking, and poetry. Mayhem ensues, and Miles, the main character, becomes more and more infatuated with this cleverfunnygorgeous girl, and she seems to flirt back a bit, despite the fact that she has, as she is constantly reminding him, a boyfriend.

You think you know where this is going. After a bunch of mayhem and pranks and drinking together and sharing each other's life stories, they hook up and everything is happilyeveraftertheend. Right?

Right?

Wrong. If you were paying close attention from the beginning of the book, you noticed the chapters. They're counting down.

One hundred thirty-six days before.

Sixty-seven days before.

Eight days before.

The last day.

You reach that day in the middle of the book. Alaska, the cleverfunnygorgeous girl, wakes early that morning, yelling that "she forgot," then drives off and crashes her car. She is killed instantly. Every page after that is marked as just a day after the event.

The day after.

Twenty-eight days after.

Sixty-two days later.

One hundred thirty-six days after.

Most books just spend the rest of the story telling you about how people were sad, but then they moved on with life and realized that life is beautiful, and get all touchyfeelysentimental. This one...talks about the most EPIC. PRANK. EVER. So brilliant that it could only have been devised by said cleverfunnygorgeous girl. And yes, it is about discovering yourself after someone important passes away, but it does so without being over-the-top.

The reason that this book lost half a star is because a) no book is perfect, b) John Green does have a few stylistic points he could work on in this book, such as c) his dearth of funny, quotable lines, but come on it's d) his first published novel.

One of the real joys, though, is to see how much of himself John Green put's into the book. For example, the book's most famous quote,"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia," is something that his wife, Sarah Urist Green, actually said to him on their first date. Furthermore, the prank that the gang pulls near the end is actually a prank that John Green pulled with his class when he went to high school. For that video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lht_JH2xi6w. John puts so much of his life into his novels, and it's all the more fun to read them when you can spot the references.

That's all for now! PDBAZ and DFTBA!

~Taara

An Abundance of Katherines (in My Pants) by John Green

If you don't get why I added "in my pants" to the book's title, then I strongly suggest you check out the vlogbrothers on YouTube. I think you've all heard me extol the virtues of John Green enough, so I'll leave that be.

I think I'll start this review off with an anecdote: I took this book with me on my trip to Pittsburgh, and I was reading it on the sofa when my brother noticed the title. Our conversation was as follows (feel free to skip it if you like. I've outlined it in a different color so it's easier to spot.):

Soorya (S): "What's that about?"

Me: "...I'm not really good at summarizing things."

S: "What, you can't just tell me?"

Me (internally): No, Soorya, I cannot. The best books can't be summarized in a blurb. That's what makes them good.

Me (speaking): "It's about this guy who's been dumped by girls named Katherine 19 times, and now he's on a road trip with his friend to cool off after the latest breakup."

S: *snorts* "You actually read that kinda stuff?"

I am fully aware that I did not at all make that book sound cool. I can't. I'm not good at summarizing stories. If you asked me to sum up Harry Potter, I would say, "It's about a boy who never quite fit in to the real world, then found out that he was a wizard and fought the dark forces of evil with his friends." After a summary like that, most sane people would say: "Okay, let me just take a second to grab that clichéd plot by the throat and hurl it off a cliff." However, if you actually read Harry Potter (which, to be honest, you should be doing instead of just getting someone to summarize it for you), you'd know that it's about so much more than that. What makes the book enjoyable is Rowling's attention to characters, the care with which she crafts the world that they live in, and, of course, the occasional madcap quote ("Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!").

It's that same quality that makes An Abundance of Katherines so enjoyable. John Green takes what appears to be just another road-trip-to-discover your true self and fleshes it out with extremely enjoyable characters:

• Colin Singleton: He just graduated high school as valedictorian and is a prodigy who picks up knowledge extremely quickly and retains it. You can follow his thought process in footnotes, which are usually random and extremely tangential. His primary hobby is anagramming, and he does so at every possible opportunity. (The word "dingleberries" is, apparently, an anagrammatic jackpot.) Through his 18 years of life, he has been dumped 19 times, each time by a Katherine.
• Hassan [can't recall his last name at present]: He's an overweight Lebanese Muslim who basically acts as Colin's filter to the outside world. The dude is plenty smart (about Saratoga standard), but no prodigy. He injects most situations with his own awkward sense of humor.
• Lindsey Lee Wells: This girl is kind of interesting because, despite being the female that seems, in all likelihood, as though she's going to end up with Colin, she isn't the typical smartfunnypretty character that one comes to expect in these books. She's a pretty deceptive girl who stays stubbornly unremarkable ("because if nothing good happens to me, at least nothing bad will, either") <---[very, very paraphrased] until near the very end.
• The Other Colin: Lindsey's boyfriend. Oh yes. I said boyfriend. Lindsey is taken, and both seem smitten with each other, the little lovebirds. However, TOC himself seems a rather one-dimensional character. He's kind of the typical jock that people will find in The High School Novel that Meena so despises.
• Katrina: Hoo boy. This one...well, imagine a stick bug. Now imagine a more...buxom, blonde stick bug. That's Katrina. Katrina appears to fit into the typical, aggressively shallow popular girl that one has come to expect of these novels, but then...well, you'll have to read and find out. I won't spoil it for you.

You will be glad to know that the entire story doesn't consist of the two mucking about on the road. Colin is, throughout the story, attempting to work out his great epiphany in life, the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. Colin reasons that people are predictable, and so the future must be just as predictable. He makes a beautifully complicated equation that just gets more and more complicated as the book goes on, eventually fleshing out an equation that could tell a person how long two people would be together, and, more importantly, who would do the dumping.

Even more fun to read are the quotes. I can't even list all the instances at which this book made me laugh out loud, but here are just a few bones I'll toss you:

Colin did not laugh. Instead he thought, Tampons have strings? Why? Of all the major human mysteries - God, the nature of the universe, etc. - he knew the least about tampons. To Colin, tampons were a little bit like grizzly bears: he was aware of their existence, but he'd never seen one in the wild, and didn't really care to.

The moment Colin sat down, Hollis asked Hassan, "Would you like to say grace?"
"Sure thing." Hassan cleared his throat. "Bismallah." Then he picked up his fork.
"That's it?" Hollis wondered.
"That's it. We are terse people. Terse, and also hungry."

That's about it. I know I didn't do the greatest job of summing things up, and I certainly left a lot out to leave the plot unspoiled, but I think it's certainly a book worth reading. I would like to note that this is certainly not John Green's best book, but it's still a nice read, earning a total of ★★★. That's all for now!

~Taara

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak ★★★

Hi everyone! So The Book Thief is the first book I read this summer, and I would recommend it highly. Because this novel is set in Nazi Germany, I am glad I read it after I learned about WWI and WWII in World History because I probably wouldn't have understood the book very well otherwise.

The book basically follows the story of Liesel, an German foster child, and her various adventures stealing books with her bff Rudy Steiner. Over the course of the novel, Liesel develops a relationship with her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann and their family ends up illegally harboring a Jew.

This book would probably fall under the Historical Fiction category I suppose, and I generally don't read books in this genre. Prior to reading The Book Thief I had the impression that historical fiction novels are boring and textbook-like but this book definitely changed that impression.

My favorite part of this book was how it was narrated by Death. I though that was really creative and I liked how Death would tell the reader about all the different places he went to collect dead people. For example, there was this one passage where he goes the Battle of Stalingrad and picks up alot of people which I found interesting since I had just learned about this battle in World History. Although the narration by Death was my favorite part, it was also my least favorite part in some ways because he always ruined the surprise and told you everything that was going to happen before it happened.

I also felt that the storyline of hiding a Jew in the basement wasn't that original since most books of this time period had a Jew hiding somewhere or the other.

In the end, I would give this book ★★★ 3 stars and recommend it to anyone who has taken World History!

--Parul Singh

The Musician's Daughter by Susanne Dunlap

Rating: ★★

The cover of The Musician's Daughter claims that it is both a mystery and a romance. Only half of each is true. The mystery part? The main character, Theresa, bumbles around the streets of eighteenth-century Vienna in search of the truth about her father's mysterious murder. However, instead of uncovering clues and putting the picture together herself, she has the entire story explained to her by her “love interest,” Zoltán. Her “romance” with Zoltán is disappointing to say the least, as it consists mostly of her teenage infatuation with/angst for the older violinist.

In addition, the heroine, Theresa, is one of the least likable main characters I've ever encountered. At least characters such as Dorian Gray or Scrooge have a depth to their personality that makes them interesting; Theresa is simply a self-absorbed and hormonal teenager. She continually endangers her younger brother by dragging him along on her adventures without a thought for his safety. I never felt any real concern about her safety or connected to her on any level. For example, the passages about her love for music, something which I thought I could share, just sound cliché and fake. The writing lacks sophistication, and the descriptions of Theresa and Zoltán's interactions are straight out of an indulgent fan fiction.

That said, this isn't a wholly unenjoyable novel. The plot picks up around halfway, when Theresa finally gets a clue about what's going on around her. The story manages to weave politics, historical setting, romance, gypsies, and a couple formidable bad guys into a mystery that I actually did want to solve by the end. The mystery, when it is revealed, is complex enough to satisfy the reader.

In short, I can't say that I gained much from this book, but it wasn't a complete waste of time, either. If you don't mind a few overly dramatic statements and a somewhat clueless protagonist, you might enjoy this light summer read.

Currently reading: Well, I have three more books from the school library, but I might read Paper Towns by John Green first.

"Where did you mean to put it? Her sock?"

Apparantly, blogspot's formatting has a personality and temparament all its own. Well, it's the content that counts. *tosses head imperiously*

Angry Management
(by Chris Crutcher)
★★★
Here is another genre of fiction with its own characteristic stench: the generic high school novel. These novels have:

• jocks
• drugs
• dating problems
• one friend of the same gender as the protagonist
• one friend of the opposite gender to the protagonist, who will probably end up with either the aforementioned same gender friend or the protagonist herself
• an accessory character
  
• a "strange" character, such as a goth, a nerd, or an artist (probably also falls into one of the aforementioned categories)
  

They are the cousins of the educational-historical-novels, but they spring from Health class rather than Social Studies. They are a little bit like chick flicks, in my opinion- not much substance, but still fun if you don't particularly want to question the meaning of life while, say, having tea.
You will smell the smell of these books on Angry Management. Therefore, I will point out two ways in which Angry Management transcends the subliminal Health class teachings label.
The first is that the characters are very strong. They refuse to fade into archetypes, and they are not all perfect and just misunderstood. You would be able to pick them out of a lineup, and not because you would remember their overly elaborated eye color.
The second is that the book could probably be carried just by the awesome contained within its pages. When I read the description, which said it was about a conseling group, I already had half the plot constructed in my head, and in it, the counselor character was a little shy but very understanding and wore collared shirts with grid-shaped patterns and tan slacks. Boy, was I wrong. The counselor is a Japanese cowboy. And one of the characters is, to quote directly form the book, a "gay black kid in the inland Northwest who's still standing" (this is, in the counselor's opinion, his most significant characteristic). There are parts of this book that made me literally laugh out loud. It actually made me let out a wicked cackle when a particularly awesome grandma gave a speech about legalizing marihuana. I am sure the people standing around me at the time took a few nervous steps back.
Two things irked me, and one of them is PG-13. If you read this and discuss it with me in person, I will rant about it at length. The other thing is a spoiler, so... same deal. Someone please read this, I am dying to rant about it. There is pure indignation spewing out of my ears.
Well, okay, I need to get some of the rant out, at least, to explain the title. Point one: How the heck does that sort of thing happen accidentally??? Point two: Why is it practically assumed that, ahem, "that sort of thing" will go on if you are staying at the house of someone who you met a few days ago? I'm not even kidding, it's an assumption. Is there a fundamental principle to this world that I am completely ignorant of? Are things just different in the inland Northwest? What is wrong here???
So, yeah. If you're not into books about high school and high schoolers, I guess this isn't really for you, but I though it was worth a read just for the awesome factor.

Currently reading: Well, I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and most of the other books I have from the library come in series, and I don't want to have a two-week gap between books! The other one is a bit old, and even though it sounds really good, I find older books to be a bit daunting, for no particular reason... I did read all but four chapters of Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, though. Using a computer. My eyes can still feel it.

There is an oft-abandoned art to writing historical fiction...

A Curse Dark as Gold
(by Elizabeth C. Bunce)
★★★★
Have you ever read a book that simply reeks of disguised history lesson? We are subjected to quite a few of these in the early years of school...
A Curse Dark as Gold is, thank the possibly existing higher powers, not like that. The pre-Industrial Revolution setting stays as just that: a setting, instead of rearing its ugly head as a history-lesson-animated-tongue-depressor that, of its own accord, shoves itself down your throat and leaves you with that nasty wooden taste on the innermost reaches of your tongue. Irritatingly and unrelatedly, this sucks more than a nasty aftertaste on any other part of your tongue because you can't lick it off there.
I think that one thing that keeps the history from attacking is that the specific country that the story takes place in is not named. Aspiring authors, take your cues...?
I'd like to list this book's other attributes in bullet points, if you don't mind. I found that it lends itself well to such feature-oriented description.

• a strong female protagonist
• creepy bits, but okay to read at night
• based on a fairy tale (Rumpelstiltskin): I feel that the "modified fairy tale" thing has gotten a bit overused lately, but this book does it well
  
• a banker (I'm not spoiling which character) who, despite his "accessory male" status, manages to add to the book

I feel that that last one needs some more typing, because I will probably be using the term "accessory character" again... An accessory character is one that exists for the sole purpose of being the protagonist's soul mate. They have no purpose to their existences other than to provide the protagonist with romance and to complete the happy ending. They, like handbags or mink scarves, hang upon the main character's arm, almost to complete their outfits. I think that regular mortals will be able to buy them in department stores one day, color coordinated with, say, skirts and jewelery. Perhaps, in the future, one will be given away free with purchases of clothing from Macy's. I really do not like this concept of "you need an accessory character to have your happy ending"... The exception to the rule that most movies and "young adult" books will have such a character that most stands out in my mind are The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke, and Avatar.
Because the story of A Curse Dark as Gold is taken from Rumpelstiltskin, though, there really is almost a necessity for an accessory character. The character who fills this position was, thankfully, likeable enough that I didn't really mind. He was also refreshingly original as a character, and so he did not immediately set off the old "character added to appease every-ending-must-be-served-with-a-side-of-romance compulsions" sensors. What do you mean, I spent way too long discussing this?
One issue was that the start was quite slow. One starts to wonder whether one really cares if Charlotte's mill goes under or not... Keep reading, though! You will begin to care after a bit!
A note to those who read this book: try not to take breaks, especially towards the end. I can't explain, but if you stop and come back to it, the whole "feeling" of the curse on the mill and its history dissipates, and the... atmosphere? aura? that has been created is lost.
My final judgement on this book would be that you should absolutely pick it up and read it, especially if you like slightly-but-not-overly-creepy-type books

Currently reading: trying very hard to keep it to nothing, which will be explained in the next post...

Grotesque By Natsuo Kirino

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever thought about someone else? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever thought about yourself? What’s the worst that has been thought of you? The odds are that all three share the same rotten roots. Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino is a relentless and ugly exposure of these darkest places in the human mind. It is not a book for the weak of heart or stomach (Trust me!!). It's not a pretty book. (Hence the name of the novel. duh?!) But if you are possessed of a macabre interest in those shadowy corners lurking inside you and your fellowmen, and are willing to sink to the deep, despairing depths this tome takes you down to, then allow me to tie the first stone around your ankle and throw you in. Grotesque tells the tale of three women and one man descending farther and farther into degradation and self destruction.

Yuriko Hirata – Monstrously beautiful daughter of a Swiss man and Japanese woman. Her beauty is described by her sister, the narrator, as “monstrous” and “diabolical” because of its utter perfection. She resembles nobody else in her ordinary-looking family, and they despise her, fear her or treat her like an alien because of it. By outsiders, she is seen as a thing, not a person – an object to puzzle over, desire, admire, hate, possess or throw away. She soon comes to the conclusion that an object is all she can be. The moment she blossoms into gorgeous womanhood at 15, she begins wilting – giving her body away to every man in her life, basically a prostitute in school, making it her adult profession and ending at the hands of a murderer.

The nameless narrator lives all her life in her beautiful sister Yuriko’s shadow. A shadow so large and so dark, it hides her completely. Yet, instead of clawing her way out of it, she hugs it tighter around her, willing it to grow and feed the hatred, jealousy and malice inside her. The darkness becomes so much a part of her, not even Yuriko’s death can lift it.

Kazue Sato is a bright girl brought up to believe that if she just works hard enough, she can be anyone, do anything. Yet this very belief which should be her wings, turns out to be the cement-block around her feet – for try as she might, she never seems to get what she wants. In school, she is bullied and mocked for her ambitions. As an adult, when she bags a prestigious job in the big firm that also employed her father, it is not her work ethic that gets the credit, but her family ties. Her self-worth is snatched at and torn to shreds by the world, and the only way she sees to get it back is by starving herself to near-death and moonlighting as a prostitute.

Finally, we have Zhang – the Chinese immigrant and murderer of Yuriko – and possibly Kazue as well. His story as he tells it is one of unbearable poverty and hardship as a farmer in China, a determined and hopeful escape to Japan in search for a better life, and heartbreaking admissions of desperation and guilt. Yet, in Kazue’s story, we see an altogether different and more chilling side to him.

What makes Grotesque fascinating, I think, is the way in which these intertwining stories are told in Rashomon-like fractions, through the voices of the narrator, and the other protagonists’ letters, diaries and police statements. As each character’s own point of view mixes with another character’s telling of their story, different angles and shades of each personality and tale are revealed to the reader. What is first shown as self-absorption later turns into acute self-awareness; what breeds feelings of compassion on one page, evokes shock and disgust on another; what is once sweet eccentricity is then the beginnings of senility. The moment the story shifts from one character’s hands and voice to another’s, you are left wondering if what you have been told about them before is really true.

And isn’t that the way it is in reality? We are seldom who we think we are, but we are not what the world thinks we are either. The truth lies somewhere in between, and it is in between the pages and lines that the reader must seek out the true natures of Yuriko, her sister, Kazue and Zhang.

This, however, isn’t an easy book to read.

The harder part lies in following the people in the pages down into their ever deepening abysses of hopelessness and despair. If, however, you are brave enough to pick this one up, it is likely to be one of the most memorable books you have ever read.

"Have you found Jee-zus yet, Gump?"

Note: Spoilers are in white. You can read them if you highlight them.

The Host (Stephenie Meyer)
★★★★1/2
First off, let me say that anyone hating on it for Twilight-related reasons will be bludgeoned to near-death with a toothpick. Read it before you make your opinions.
I started reading this the day we picked up our books (Wednesday of dead week, I think), and had to finish it by the following Saturday, because I had to know what happened by the end so badly. I actually had to cover the parts of the page that I hadn't read yet with my hand so that I wouldn't read ahead. Somehow, Meyer managed to convince someone who was used to "nobody-died-at-the-end-except-for-nobody-cares-Irina" Breaking Dawn that there was, in fact, a chance that someone important would die. It was one of those stories that made you think, "Gosh, it would really suck if I died before I could finish this."
Actually, right up to the part where Wanderer was taken out of Melanie, I really did think that Meyer was incapable of killing her off. When it actually happened, I had to put the book down and process it for a second. I actually thought that the first part of the next chapter was some sort of psychedelic afterlife thing or something. Of course, instead of dying, she gets put into a seventeen-year-old body, and her main issue in life goes from being "How am I going to eat tomorrow?!" to "Hohoho, let's see how old and not awkward I can pretend I am!"
Let me say to those of you who read the high rating in disbelief that the summary on the inside cover does not adequately convey the essence of The Host. It is, in large part, a love story, but it is also much, much more. Those of you who read it searching for an epic romance with Jared will be disappointed... the reasons being that, a. Jared is not the only main love interest of the protagonist, and b. there is another character who draws Wanderer to him with probably greater force than Jared does. This second character really should have been mentioned in the summary in some way, but, like the idiomatic chopped liver, is ignored for the purpose of selling the novel to people expecting something like Twilight.
Another great thing about the book was the imaginativeness (yes, that is a real word) of the various alien worlds that are introduced. They were reminiscent of places like those of Gulliver's Travels and The Little Prince: they acted as foils for Earth. The creatures that exist on them were so fantastic that I was surprised that they had been used in a book for adults- but then, I think anyone can appreciate that sort of thing. I don't know how accurate these places could be scientifically, but then anything can exist if you call it an allegory, which I think, in this case, you can. The Host has a message; I don't particularly want to name it, because that would make me feel like I was answering SAT questions, but there is a clear message coupled with the compelling story.
On to the flaws. These were distracting, but they didn't completely ruin the book (if they had, I would have given it a lower rating). It was the difference between a bruised and a rotten apple. First, the romance was very awkward sometimes. I know that the "clean-ness" of Twilight was one of its best qualities, but that quality is lost on The Host. It seems very silly to discuss... erm... the limits shall we say, of a relationship, when the world as we know it has come to an end. I did not understand the reasons for devoting dialogue to the topic. It would have been just fine to leave such considerations to the reader's imagination.
The second flaw that I will discuss wasn't really as bad... but there was a slightly chafing feel of déjà vu about some of it. I suppose I can't expect it to be that different from Twilight, being by the same author, but some of Edward's more gentlemanly qualities seemed lost in a place where the number of known surviving and conscious humans can be counted using the book club's collevtive hands. Also, the word "chagrin" is used rather a lot. Sometimes several times in the same passage. I didn't want to use the word "irritating" to describe my first complaint in this paragraph, but it is certainly irritating to read "chagrin" as many times as it is used in The Host, especially because the secondary protagonist is, if you will pardon my language, extremely badass. Just as I think that it is ridiculous that Sebastian, in some fanworks, feels pain when separated in any way from Ciel (these lovely characters come from Black Butler), I also think it ridiculous that Melanie and anyone occupying her body and being influenced by her thoughts should feel such heavy amounts of chagrin.
Another issue was that Melanie never completely takes over her body again while Wanderer is occupying it. It seemed that she might gain enough strength to do so, and it would have been nice to see the effects, but it never did happen. In my opinion, this was a wasted opportunity.
The last problem was probably magnified, in part, by my own preferences, but I think that everyone will agree that the differences in age between Melanie, Wanderer's new host, Jared, and Ian, were unneccessarily large. I mean really? NINE YEARS? WHY?!!!
But these are minor complaints. I still thought that The Host was something that everyone should read, and that it would probably be good required school reading, too. It asks important questions about compassion with a story that will all but prevent you from doing your homework to finish it (actually, scratch that. It did keep me from doing homework.) (But ha ha! If it were required reading, it would be homework! *clever face*). It performed the near-impossible feat of restoring my faith in humankind- well, almost. When you realize the amounts of altruism in the book's characters, the spell is broken, and you become skeptical again. But it makes you look around you and reconsider your opinions on people.
I found that a movie for The Host is in the works, which brings me back to the reason for the title of this post. If you read the book looking for the epic romance advertised in the front flap, you won't find it. The Host is about so much more than that. And that is why I hope that if they ever make a movie out of it, they will not try to lower it to cheap romance status. I doubt that moviemakers can resist the temptation, but, hey, I can hope, right? If people can show kindness after most of humankind has been all but wiped out, can't they make a good adaptation of a book, for once?
Yeah, sure they can.

Currently reading A Curse Dark as Gold.

First Blog Post!

Hey guys,

By now, you must have already gotten the Gmail address and the blogspot-I assume that's why you're here. So you can start blogging about the books you've read as soon as you can...probably when you're done reading, right?

The rules are:

-Keep swearing to a minimum

-Try to be specific. No "It was good." Try "I thought it was interesting because..."

-Have fun!

There is no word minimum or maximum. Just write whether you'd have other people read the book, why, and how many out of 10 stars you would give it (10 being the best, of course). Everyone will be amazed at our awesome-ness. Also, if you have a book you'd like to share, but it hasn't been checked out from the SHS Library, that's fine--you are still free to post it!

Books we have already read:

-Shades of Grey

-The Time Traveler's Wife

-The Picture of Dorian Grey

-The Westing Game

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

-The Alchemist

Currently I am reading: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson