The Host by Stephenie Meyer
In my regular blog, I detailed how due to Stephenie Meyer and “Twilight” series is gracing the top of all the best seller lists, I had bought myself a dream journal.
On her website she tells how she came up with the plot for the story from an intense dream she had one night. In fact, chapter 13 of her first book is basically a transcript of that dream. I’m fairly sure I’m among a large segment of the population who forgets their dreams within moments of waking up. So, what best sellers have I been missing out on? I mean SERIOUSLY. Coming up with story ideas is my biggest problem. Do you realize how hard it is to write without having a plot or an original story idea? I know, I know – Nicholas Sparks makes it look easy but still.
So I went and bought myself a dream journal. When I told Ben about it, he thought I mean like a “goal” journal where I would write down life ambitions and such. He has made fun of me for it so much. In fact, now if I dare to complain or ask for a favor he just replies, “Why don’t you go tell that to your Dream Journal.”
Now, the Host was not based off of a dream. It was based off of a story Meyer was telling herself to keep herself entertained on a long road trip while driving through Arizona to Salt Lake City. I’ve made that trip, but I didn’t tell stories to myself to keep myself awake. Of course, I was driving in the summer in a car that didn’t have air conditioning so any stores I would have told myself would take place in Antarctica. “Penguins, lovely.”
And unlike the dream journal, I don’t think I’m going to start taking long road trips in the desert just so I can try to come up with a good story too. This one was good. I don’t think that it has as compelling characters as Twilight (which has caused a lot of the adults to overlook some of the writing), but if you like Meyer’s other books and you’re willing to make it through the first several chapters (which are a real snoozefest) it gets pretty good. Halfway through I found myself caught up enough in the characters that I had trouble stopping until I was finished. I’m not saying it’s classic literature or that Meyer’s pen is obviously guided by angels. But it made me happy reading it.
I do love Stephenie Meyer – not just as an author but as a friend. She’s really awesome and has always been incredibly fantastic to her fans. I’ve had so many teenage girls who have written her and been astounded when she wrote back. She can’t keep up with that now, but she has always been so kind to all her fans. That’s what makes me love an author – almost as much as what and how they write. Because I love my customers and so it makes me happy when an author loves them too. Thus, I will always defend her and her books – sparkling vampires or not.
Also, if you’re still reading this – I’m having a Breaking Dawn midnight release party and it’s going to be seriously awesome. You should totally come.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
She does seem like a really nice person. I shouldn’t dis the Meyers. If anything, I should be grateful -some of the ladies in my ward/neighborhood would not have read a book since middle school if it weren’t for the Twilight series! She’s making literacy vampire hot again!
I am excited to see the movie, I will admit to that. 🙂
May 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I just wrote *my* review of “The Host” and decided to check if you’d read it yet. We pretty much sync up, minus me writing about dream journals. 😉 I give Meyer leeway when it comes to the first chapters, though, because it’s difficult to set up a new concept of the world and still keep readers interested.
I guess I didn’t mention this on my blog, I must have forgotten about it while writing, but some of the dialogue in “The Host” did feel contrived. I’ve never heard an adult male, when in the middle of a heated argument with another adult male, start out a comeback “Why, you …” I mean, really? Are we in the 1950s?