there is a name for my animosity toward Stephanie Meyer's predilection for repetitive verbiage, and that name is "chagrin."*
seriously, you could play a fucking drinking game to this book. which is really a shame since, with exception of the excessive use of "chagrin,"** it's really not a bad book.
all the scenes and dialog move the story along. sometimes i think the pacing could be helped. maybe that certain conversations or descriptions run a bit long, but none are pointless.
i'm a little suspicious of my judgement however. ever since City of Masks,*** i'm afraid that anything will pass as good in comparison.
but no. the more i think about it, and rate it against my criteria, the more i think it's ok. i mean, it's no HP or Hunger Games or Apathy and Other Small Victories, but it's definitely not bad. ...and doesn't drag on like Blindsight tended to do. and when i got to the end i really liked Blindsight, but there were moments where i was unsure. also, Blindsight had a character named Chelsea which i just found kind of distracting.
but i was talking about The Host. oh yeah, did i mention we were talking about The Host? we're talking about The Host. yeah. so far, not bad. but i haven't gotten to the end yet. it's still possible it will be devastatingly disappointing. we'll see.
* i was trying to find the right word for my feeling. more than annoyance. more intense than simple anger. rage would be overboard. i looked to the thesaurus and it suggested "chagrin." :/
** which is among my list of favorable words. when it's not grossly overused, of course.
*** which is pretty much the most annoying book ever. ESPECIALLY the ending. ugh! you remember, it's the one i ranted about. the one that said "dragon eyes" and said something about two hearts beating as one, or some schmaltzy crap like that.
