Sunday, January 29, 2012

Re-read: Prologue- Inserted

Welcome to the first week of The Host Movie Fans' Community Re-read! Over the next year (and then some) we will be re-reading The Host chapter by chapter. We begin this week with the prologue.

"Send her home."

In these beginning pages, readers are introduced to Fords Deep Water, the Healer responsible for the Soul's insertion into the Host's body. As a Healer and a Soul, Fords is "all things good: compassionate, patient, honest, virtuous, and full of love" (3). He shows great concern for the soul he is responsible for, especially when he knows what she will awake to in her new body. There is also an ominous feeling surrounding the mention of the Seeker and the information the inserted Soul is meant to discover.

Meyer describes the Soul as "a living ribbon" with her attachments "like pale silver hair" (6). The Healing students are in awe of the soul, having started on the origin and living on so many planets as a Flower, a Bear, a Spider, a Sea Weed, and Dragon. They are also curious about the "wild human" (4) lying soulless on the operating table.

As Fords finishes the procedure, he leans towards the body and whispers to the Soul inside: "Good luck, little wanderer, good luck. How I wish you didn't need it" (7).

And there you have it, the beginning of The Host. 

Since we are where it all started, what initially led you to read The Host? Were you already a fan of Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight Saga, or just a curious Sci-Fi fan?

Any other questions or comments? Just leave them below and PLEASE remember to be respectful. You can also find the re-read schedule here.

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5 comments:

  1. I definitely read it because of Stephenie, I had just finished Twilight the summer before and as much as I tried looking for other books I couldn't find one that satisfied my craving for romance, I read the Host and voila! Fell in love with Jared and Melanie AND Wanda and Ian. I don't have my copy with my, but I'll try to get a hold of a library copy so I can participate :)

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  2. I discovered The Host when I went to buy Twilight at the bookstore (because the waiting list at the library was crazy). There was a Stephenie Meyer display, and The Host was on it, and I got curious, so I reserved that title at the library. I finally bought a copy after I read it something like three times in a week.

    I like the prologue, I think it does it's job of introducing the readers to this fictional world while grabbing their interest. But, having read the whole book, I do have one question: (spoilers ahead)

    Why do the healing students even exist? The insertion is dismissed as something any soul on the street can do. As we learn later, the same goes for the extraction. Every illness and injury to the human body can be cured with a pill, or a powder, or a cream, or a spray. What is there for them to learn?

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  4. I finished reading all the Twilight books, even The Short Life of Bree Tanner so I was looking for something really good to read and I heard about The Host when looking on line about Twilight. After I found out about it my husband bought it for me because he knew how much I enjoyed Stephenie Meyers books. Well I ready is just about non-stop because I was hooked as of page one. I have now read it 5 times and I will keep reading it everytime I get bored with other books. I really cant wait for the movie to come out and I am really hopping she does the next two books soon.

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  5. I didn't like Twilight at all.And I definitely didn't read 'The Host' for Ms. Meyer.But it seemed quite iteresting and I love SF and also not-so-ordinary love stories..so I LOVED it.I love this book and can't wait for the movie[s].

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