Stephanie Meyer, The Host, and Twilight. What do you think?

I haven't read about The Host yet, but you made it sound interesting. Though I must agree with you that on the first part of the Twilight it shows non feminist part of the author but in the last part of the Breaking Dawn, Bella really rocks. I appreciate how strong her personality is on this part. He became the protector.

Personally I really enjoyed both The Host and the Twilight Saga, and I generally like Stephanie Meyer's writing, though I acknowledge that the portrayals of women and relationships (and other things) in her work can sometimes be problematic. But you know, it's okay to like problematic things, as long as you keep a rational head about it and acknowledge the issues that other people see. I will cop to loving a lot of Meyer's female characters. Alice and Rosalie are two of my favorite things about Twilight. Wanderer is fascinating, and wonderfully alien. I even really like Bella, in all her screwed-up glory. My top favorite is actually Sheba, from Meyer's short story in the Prom Nights From Hell anthology. Have you read it?

I am curious to know about The Host if it has a better female character. I couldn't stand Twilight because of Bella's character. The way she sits around moping for Edward to come back to her and throwing herself at the guys, she doesn't seem to have any goals in life beyond being someone's girlfriend. I'm all for a love story but I never felt that Bella had enough depth or motivation and it kind of bothers me how many young girls were influenced by this.

I didn't really like Twilight, I got bored reading the first six chapters. I gave up.

I loved The Host. It was such a change from Twilight and the lame Bella character. I've heard that Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon and I'm not sure how true it is, but it could provide some explanation in her character choices. I did notice that in Twilight the book described Bella as choosing a long khaki skirt to wear to Edward's for the first time. To me, it just seemed that she made the character a bit old-fashioned since people normally don't wear those types of things. And, none of the characters seemed to have cell phones and internet didn't seem that popular.