Author Stephenie Meyer will probably for the rest of her life be known as the writer of the “Twilight” series, and for good reason. The books have become a phenomena on a “Harry Potter” scale and the film franchise has already achieved great success with more to come.
However, Meyer took a break from the Vampire world to pen an adult novel entitled “The Host” that was first published last year. The book caught Hollywood’s attention and now producers Nick Wechsler, Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz have acquired screen rights.
The book company describes the story of “The Host” like this:
“Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, 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.
Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts 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 yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.“
Question: If you’re NOT a fan of “Twilight”, would you still be willing to give “The Host” a chance?
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I read it on my recent trip to Europe (needed a book and the only english book there my friend suggested was that), and I loved it. I prolly wouldn’t watch the movie tho.
I am very excited for this movie! I absolutely loved reading the book, as well as being a fan of the Twilight series and cannot wait!
Prahanormal makes an ecellent point. There are some books that can make good movies and there are others that should be left in their current medium. Stephanie Meyers, regardless of what you think of her writing, uses many of he advatages that the written medium has over the Big Screen.
1. Time: IMHO Meyers has an excellent sense of pace in her books, but it is definately a book pace.
2. Emotion: Its just easier in books, there are many examples of powerful emotion evoked on screen but this requiers acting and directing of the highest caliber. In a book the emotion can be discribed and the infinate imagination does the hard part.
3. Introspective view: All of Stephanie Meyers stories are told from within the main characters mind where the reader is privy to all thoughts any emotions as they occur. This is very difficult to reproduce in the screen medium and so the directors have gone with the more classic approach and used narration, a tricky thing IMO, at key points.
The Host is a great story and very true to the Sci/Fi genre, but the movie will rise or fall based on how the director and the actress handle the internal struggle between the human and the alien.
This sounds more like the premise to a porno then a sci-fi/horror novel.
LOL, agreed. Borderlining on hentai even.
The novel was a lot better than Twilight, I’ll admit, but why? Why cant hollywood just go and find books that would be GOOD movies.
To answer your question: probably because, for the most part, Hollywood banks on what they think they can make money on, not on what is good.
Stephenie Meyer cannot write. It’s the sad, cold truth, but the truth nonetheless.
Don’t care to see this movie.
I think there are a few fans out there that would disagree with you.
What? Stephanie Meyer is a literary genius! How dare you suggest otherwise!
Take a look at this example of her masterful writing skills:
“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked, distracted.
“No.” I didn’t feel like mentioning that my stomach was already full – full of butterflies.
Nothing short of brilliant.
I’m not the only one who thinks she can’t right. Loads of people don’t think so. Hell even Stephen King doesn’t.
What I feel about her writing doesn’t come from my hatred for the Twilight series, it is simple. The books break the biggest rule that they teach you when you make a novel or story of any kind-“Show, don’t tell.”
And besides, if you compare her to people like J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, etc., she doesn’t come close to how brilliant they are as writers.
Stephenie Meyer can’t write, plain and simple.
I was being sarcastic if you didn’t notice.
I like how people figure that there are only two levels to anything. Either your top of grade in that skill, or your not it at all. Your not a writer unless you can at the top of game or write classics… never mind the fact that there are different levels of writing. Much like acting, either your a top notch actor, or your not an actor at all! God forbid, that like everything in life, the quality of work will range through multiple levels beyond can and can’t.
It is really hard to tell who’s kidding and who’s not. Sorry.
But it is true. Stephanie Meyer is not a writer. Or at least not a very good one.
“when I read that line… from the Stephanie Meyers novel….I jizzed in my pants”.
In all seriousness, she IS a terrible writer. Most people just look at the stories and such but never actually look at the quality of the writing.
For instance, J.K. Rowling can create some fantastic characters and magical worlds, but the writing of the Harry Potter books is average at best.
So what are you basing the poor writing on? Some might base a good writer on their ability to tell a story, then would not J.K. Rowling be a great writer? Or are you talking about grammatically or spelling wise? Or the use of complex writing? Or perhaps on character development? Obviously we are not basing this on merely success, or both Rowling and Meyers would be considered masters of their craft. So what exactly is it that you are judging Meyers in saying that she is terrible or cannot write?
Meyer’s writing is the epitome of purple prose. Her writing is overly repetitive, highly simplistic and quite limp in many areas. Her redundant descriptions never seem to cease. I don’t need to know how perfect Edward is over, and over, and over, and over again. She constantly falls back on plot contrivances and cliches throughout her books. The main character in her Twilight books, Bella Swan, for example, is simply a Mary Sue with no real complexity.
Her stories also have no subtext, themes or even depth. Her books are also filled with numerous grammatical errors.
Interesting, outside of grammatical errors, you just described a whole lot of books in the Young Adult category. Check out the House of Night series, it’s call all of what you said times ten. Or the Blue Blood series, or the Vampire Academy series. I just assumed all that you mentioned was the norm for Young Adult books.
It seems like all the books are the same.
Edward’s all “I’m so overprotective, I can’t be with you.”
Bella’s all “But I love you.”
Edward’s all “OK, let’s make out”
and then Bella’s like “Yah!”
LOL just kidding.
I totally agree with you Slashbeast, especially on the whole “Edward is so perfect!”
This “young adult” category seems to simply be cursed.
Ya, it does SlashBeast…. but for simplicity, they make great filler books while between books. Don’t require much thought, much like a popcorn flick.
You’re absolutely right.
Personally, Ive had problems with the way she writes as well. However, if you just need some junk reading, then I’d say that the Twilight series is great for that.
I also agree that there are many levels between top-notch and poor when it comes to being a writer. Meyers may not be top-notch….but she’s definitely not a “poor” writer.
She’s a poor writer.
There is only one Host and let the Korean classic live. THis woman is the new Dan Brown, your books suck but people will keep buying because its cool and the first one is so trendy
Are you talking about the first Host, or the sequel that is in production?
I haven’t picked up The Host yet, but I’m not surprised someone decided to option it for a movie. I like the idea that this is an idependant project with no studio attached. It’s also being reported that Andrew Niccol, who wrote/directed Gattaca will be writing/directing the film.
I read this novel and like her twilight novels, she has a good idea for a plot, starts off strong but ultimately underwhelms with the ending.
But I would be willing to give this a try.
Are they adapting this book because Twilight did so well? Or is it because they actually think it’s a good novel?
I wish I knew the logic behind pushing this book onto the silver screen.
This is not a complaint, just pointing something out. I enjoyed the book, despite the love triangle thing that Meyers just can’t seem to get herself out of, but overall story wise the movie has been done time and time again… Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Puppet Masters (the alien one, not the puppets one), and most recently that I can think of The Invasion. This book is slightly different from these movies, however, and focuses on a person that is being controlled by an alien. So I guess that could provide a nice spin on the storyline. Will be interesting, overall, to see how this turns out and how it sets itself apart from past movies with similar themes of humans controlled by aliens.