The Host Review

Title/Author: The Host - By: Stephanie Meyer

Summary: Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.


When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.
 
My Thoughts: I put off reading this book for a long time because of my strong aversion to Twilight. Okay, okay. I'll say it. I f-ing hate Twilight. This hate mostly stems from the stupid hype about the lame movies and all of those whiny preteens convinced that Edward Cullen is real. Shut your dirty little mouths and stop saying vampires are real. It's called fiction for a reason. I did read Twilight, solely for the purpose of having a solid argument as to why it sucks so much. I'm sorry, but Stephanie Meyer does not know how to create a role model. Bella is a pathetic little twit that can't survive a day without her boyfriend. Girls should not be looking up to someone like Bella. Take Katniss from The Hunger Games. Now THERE'S a role model for girls. Strong, independent, and brave in the face of certain death. I think Stephen King said it best when compairing Twilight to Harry Potter. "Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend." Couldn't have said it better myself. One more petty argument about Twilight. Robert Pattinson is scrawny and ugly and KStewart has no emotions. I hate them both. Just sayin'.

Okay, I'm done with my Twilight rant now. Back to The Host. I started reading The Host at the request of friends. They convinced me to give it a shot and I was to try my best to not compare it to Twilight in any way. I ended up really enjoying The Host, surprisingly. The beginning was extremely slow and hard to get into. After the first 100 pages or so, I was hooked. The whole idea of mind control and invasion was very facinating to me. Once you get past the slow moving start, the story really comes to life. The examination of what really makes us human was interesting.

I was conflicted for most of the book as to which charcters I wanted to root for. I started off hating Wanderer (aka Wanda) and rooting for Melanie to succeed and take back her body. As the book progressed, I started to love them equally as Wanda became more and more human-like. Thus, the conflict in my head continued. When is boiled down to who should stay and who should go, I didn't decide until the book decided for me. At the end of the book, I loved both of these characters equally.

As for Jared...I'm sorry, but what an a-hole! I have nothing else to say about him. The real male lead should be Ian. How can you not love Ian? Even while looking at something not human, he was able to move past that and show his true kindness. Jared can't see past his own nose.

And Jamie. Dear, sweet, lovable Jamie. The best character in the entire book to say the least. Maybe it's just his young age that left him to be so open, forgiving, and vulnerable. Jamie was the best of them from the beginning, though. No competition.

I will grudgingly give Stephanie Meyer a point for this one. She's still losing from the million points I'd taken away for the sparkly thing that people call Twilight. The Host is worth the read.

Flat Out Love Review

Title/Author: Flat Out Love - By: Jessica Park

Summary:
When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side...and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that...well...doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

My Thoughts:
Let's start with the fact that the MC is a college student. Kudos to Jessica Park! As a college student myself, I am constantly looking for a good book with characters my own age. I have come to find that many of the really good books with college students are often from self-publishing authors, like Park. I have also found that because many are self-publishing, most books are only available as E-books. Don't let this deter you. In the past, I had the idea that electronic books had no place in the world, as they were slowly taking over the art of printed literature. However, I finally broke down and downloaded the Kindle app for my laptop. Now that I have, I am not sorry because I would not have been able to read a number of AMAZING books without it. Even though I would rather read an old fashioned book with paper and ink, I cannot deny myself a trully good story if it is only available electronically.

I was expecting a quick, light read, but this is not what I recieved with this book. I actually found it kind of odd while reading the summary that the romance aspect of the story would be mostly based on emails and texts, but the story turned out to be so much more. The only reason I really even picked up this book was because of the many positive reviews on Goodreads. During the first 3/4 of Flat Out Love, I was still thinking that it was a light, summer read, but the last 1/4 of the book turned me into an emotional puddle of goo. I won't go into any details to prevent spoiling the story though. Even if you figure out the secret early on (like I did) you can still easily enjoy the story.

I had my moments with Julie. Most of the time, I really liked her. She is a strong, motivated young woman, and let's face it...overly curious. She was definitely easy to relate to. Her sense of humor was right up my alley. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Once everything came out during the last 1/4 of Flat Out Love, however, she just plain pissed me off. She completely misdirects her love, unknowingly, and refuses to accept the truth about the situation. She did return to my good side before the end of the book, thankfully.

I may just have a weird thing for geeks, but I just loved Matt. I don't know why Julie felt the need to make fun of his dorky tshirts, because I loved those tshirts. I absolutely loved the witty banter between Matt and Julie, and couldn't get enough of his humor.

And Celeste, oh my dear Celeste. How could you not love this little girl? Seriously.

Flat Out Love took me on an amazing journey with quirky and very lovable characters. My emotions ranged from laughing to crying during Julie and the Watkins' emotional journey. This book will not disappoint. Give it a chance.