"The Host" Reread Day 2--Chapters 3-5

Hey there! Wow, it feels like forever since I've been on here. Goodness. Life in the Army is going kind of crazy, but thankfully, Ames and I are able to start rereading "The Host" before the movie comes out next month. I think it's safe to say that we are both extremely excited about the movie.

Here are my thoughts from today's readings and some quotes.

First, can I just say that I want to tear through this book right now? I seriously wish we had less time to read it so that I could read it faster. Two chapters a day starting next week? That's going to kill me. I forgot how much I love these characters. Right now, I am definitely having some feels.

Chapter Three-
Does it seem odd to you that the Healer and the Seeker are so much more than just their souls? Or is that what it's like since humans are so vastly different from the other species that the souls have taken over? I don't think there's an issue with the writing here. I just think it shows how we as a race (the human race) are so much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. I mean, there are things that the soul just would not be able to overcome despite the fact that they are attached in every way to the physical body. I don't know. I am nerdily excited about the science and theoretical issues that would come with this. I don't know how to explain my the nerding going on in my head right now. I love the Healer, Fords, and I kind of wish we could have seen him more. The Seeker is a bitch, but we always knew that one.

Chapter Four-
I love the dream. It screams of a dystopic world for both Jared and Melanie, yet for the rest of the world, all the souls, it's a utopia. Are you kidding me? I love that concept. That even in this utopia there's the ability to exist a dystopic world for others. It just seems so real to me because even if a so called utopia did exist, there would still be dystopic tendencies. Also, how many people would be so unhappy in a world that is supposedly so perfect? This world that is free of violence, free of unpleasantness for the most part is a world that Melanie and Jared refuse to join because to them it's worse than living in a world with the violence and the anger and unpleasantness. How wonderful is this book? Seriously. You have people who are supposedly so good doing something that we would consider so evil, but that they see as being helpful. I mean, you've definitely got some of the flawed hero going on here with these souls. They think they're doing the right thing, but they're actually enslaving the human race. And then you have the resistance, the humans who see the truth for what it is, and they're doing all the wrong things to try to escape this so called "utopia" that really, in essence, just kills them. Because it is like they die. They lose who they are and all they have left are their bodies. Which are controlled by someone else who uses it for things that they have absolutely zero say in. And, I'm sorry, but I don't care how long you've been away from the human race, Jared Howe, you do no manhandle a girl and then kiss her when you find out she's human. I expect better from you, Howe!

Here are two quotes from this chapter that I really like:
Melanie/Wanda is having a dream about when Melanie first met Jared, but before she meets him, she's scoping out the house of two souls. She's waiting for them to be gone so that she can steal their food and get back to her younger brother who is starving. She talks about how the souls keep up human appearances really well. "I think it's Friday. They keep our habits so perfectly, it's hard to see any difference. Which is how they won in the first place." It reminds me of a quote from a Gilmore Girls episode. I don't remember the exact quote and I don't remember the exact episode. But it's when Lorelai is explaining to Sooki how to put the leash onto Paul Anka (the dog). She explains that he's like us Americans: we like to have our freedom slowly stripped away from us without our knowledge. Something like that. And this is exactly what happened with the human race when the souls came in. They start becoming extinct without even realizing it. It shows a lot of flaws in the way humans exist. How we refuse to acknowledge problems or stand up to them until it's way too late.

This next quote is just a good one in my opinion because it just explains way too perfectly how hard it can be to be human sometimes. And how another species could be rocked to the core by just how difficult it is to handle human emotions. How sharp and vivid and powerful they are. "I blinked away the unwelcome moisture in my eyes. I didn't know how much more of this I could stand. How did anyone survive this world, with these bodies whose memories wouldn't stay in the past where they should? With these emotions that were so strong I couldn't tell what I felt anymore?" It also speaks to me because I have a lot of memories that I wish I could forget. But I can't. Because that's not the way life works for me or for anyone else. And it just makes being human a little more difficult to handle. I understand Wanda so well right here.

Chapter Five-
These are where one my favorite quotes exist. I can't handle this book sometimes. And I'm not even into the real emotional parts of this book. I think rereading this will end me. But it is SO GOOD. I swear to everything good and holy that this woman did not write this book.

I will just write down the quote real fast because I feel like I've ranted on long enough. So, here we go:
"'In so many millennia, the humans never did figure love out. How much is physical, how much in the mind? How much accident and how much fate? Why did perfect matches crumble and impossible couples thrive? I don't know the answers any better than they did. Love simply is where it is.'"

I love this.

Happy Hunger Games and May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor!
Happy reading.
Isabella