E & B 's relationship
How is the relationship?
Wow, I had to push myself through this book. Between the movie preview and the 5 star reviews, I gave THE HOST another chance (lost interest a year ago after chapter 2). This time I was optimistic about it developing into a moving story. Despite my disdain for S.M's hideous overuse of adverbs and said-bookisms, I knew she was a superb storyteller, so I let myself be drawn into the exciting premise of Melanie meeting Jared again, and having to prove she was still her, even though her eyes reflected the truth that a different soul also lived in her.But this was "Wanderer's" story, and I found her ... robotic and mundane (for the first 9 chapters, especially). She had NO humour, NO goals (apart from smother Melanie out of her body), NO hobbies, NO friends or family, NO personality. So I had NO compassion for her. I also loathed her telling me, a human, over and over what it was like to be in a human's body. Tell me something I don't know! And I SO wasn't interested in her other planets and "hosts": those details were very uninteresting and gross (the fact that she'd liked sharing one of a huge alien "spider's" 3 brains made me disconnect with her further).I still have great admiration for S. Meyer for creating such mystery around the character of Edward, in Twilight, and if the POV character in THE HOST had have been Jared, Meyer could have created a similar chemistry. Jared's re-discovery of Melanie could've been as exciting as Bella being told by Edward all his secrets and intricacies. We would have been fearful for Jared to trust Melanie again, but excited that she could be telling the truth. Also, her other-world and other-host details would have ACTUALLY been interesting if heard for the first time through Jared's ears. And I'm sure his time away from the cave would've been MUCH more exciting and heart-rendering (how did he deal, after seeing the face of the girl he's still mourning?) to read than Wanda's POV: every. single. detail and every. single. conversation being relayed."Wanderer" was such a boring narrator, and Jared was absent for MOST of the first half of the book! I didn't understand the alien worm falling for Jared, because EYE hadn't even gotten to know him! The movie seems to correct this and play out in chronological order, and I can't help but ponder on how intensely I would have wanted Melanie and Jared to get back together if the book had STARTED with them, STARTED with Jared finding Melanie in that kitchen. I would have been riveted to the pages! We would have gone through his mourning when Melanie left him that note and felt his intense loss, felt his anguish in having to tell her brother, felt his bravery in plucking up and finding a new home, looking after the little brother of the girl he was mourning. Then we would've felt his ache and anger whenever he looked at Melanie's face, her eyes now reflective (such a cool detail by S. Meyer! What's with her and eyes? So good!). THAT'S all conflict. Very interesting conflict!The sad thing is, Stephenie Meyer HAS THIS POTENTIAL for great conflict and feelings.Anyway, I lost so much interest in the possibilities of THE HOST that I started skimming (periodically) through Wanda's cave-time during Jared's absence, and all I found was more of the same. It reminded me of Eclipse, when Bella goes to the bonfire with Jacob and we have meaningless (plot-wise) conversations that take up a whole CHUNK of that book. And the other chunks in the series where we have PAGES of inner monologues and every detail on housecleaning and hair-washing. But with those books I kept reading because I was invested in E & B's relationship.I was not invested in "Wanderer," and Melanie (a more interesting, gutsy character) was fading more and more into the background by halfway. I gave up. I was so frustrated, I did more than just skim each page to the end, I skimmed every fiftieth page. Nothing grabbed me. They were STILL in the caves.Oh, and Wanderer had become so much like Bella ... minus the humour and stumbling. All that serious caring-for-others and stubbornness, yet no interests or personality of her own.I HOPE S. Meyer can write in a different POV voice! Perhaps that's why she didn't write from Jared's perspective. I haven't written her off yet, however, like I have THE HOST. 