Book Giveaway: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

Next month will mark the release of the film adaptation of The Host, which arrives in UK cinemas on 29th March. It was surely only a matter of time before bestselling author Stephenie Meyer's other book was adapted into a film and the adaptation certainly looks promising, with Saoirse Ronan cast as Melanie Stryder, support from Diane Kruger and William Hurt and writer/director Andrew Niccol at the helm.

To celebrate the film's release, the lovely folks over at Little, Brown UK have got three copies of the film tie-in edition of the book to give away. 

To be in with a chance of winning one of these three copies of The Host, all you have to do is email filmvsbook@gmail.com with the name of the other book series that was written by The Host author Stephenie Meyer. Don't forget to put "The Host competition" as the subject heading and please include the city in which you live in your email.

The Host Official Synopsis

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes 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.

This competition is open to UK residents only and closes at midday GMT Sunday 10th March.

Breaking Dawn: Book vs Film

*Warning: contains some spoilers* 

With Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer brought her Twilight series to a close. The book followed Bella Swan as she marries the love of her life, Edward Cullen, and becomes both a vampire and a mother. With this book, the series took a bizarre turn from the teen angst that had riddled the pages of the earlier three and saw Bella mature into an impressive woman thanks to her new vampiric status. It also offered a shift of perspective for a while as Jacob took centre stage with his wolfpack.

For its adaptation, the book was divided into two films - the first following Bella as she prepared to marry Edward, went on her honeymoon and discovered she was pregnant with his child and the second as she had given birth to their half-vampire, half-human baby and was enjoying life as a newborn vampire herself.  Director Bill Condon was on hand for both parts meaning that the feel and flow of the pair worked well together.

Part One was all about the romance. There was a stunning outdoors wedding, a honeymoon on their very own island and the opportunity to consumate their new marriage. Bella then gets protective over her unborn child that is - quite literally - sucking the life out of her forcing Edward to turn her before she dies.

Though Part Two begins with a happy Bella (Kristen Stewart) revelling in her new life, the drama begins when Alice sees that the Volturi vampires think their daughter Renesmee is an immortal and are coming to kill her. The most important law of the vampire world is that biting a child is forbidden and the Volturi believe the Cullens have broken this law and must stop them. In order to prove that Renesmee was born, not bitten, Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Carlisle travel the world and enlist all the friends they can find to stand with them against the Volturi. As a result, a whole host of new vampires arrive in the town of Forks from across the globe and Jacob, who has imprinted on baby Renesmee so is forever with them all, finds himself outnumbered by red eyes. 

In the film, Stewart took to the vampiric Bella superbly, showing just how talented an actress she really is when given the opportunity to (pardon the reference) shine. Pattinson is able to relax a little here too which makes for a much more amusing Edward than audiences have seen previously. He is no longer living in fear of hurting the woman he loves. He now realises that it is her turn not to hurt him (as she is stronger than him!) and relishes watching his wife in action.

Whereas fans of the series had spent all their time thus far observing the world of the vampires from the outside, Breaking Dawn Part Two offers the chance to experience it from the inside. It is a far more adult book than the earlier three, with marriage, pregnancy, parenthood and lots of vampire sex to boot and Condon handles this well, keeping the theme of young love and Bella and Edward's plans of 'forever' at the forefront while allowing his stars to grow up and develop.

While the book of Breaking Dawn went off on such a random tangent that many fans of the series may have found it jarring and peculiar, the final film managed to add the drama and action seriously lacking in the book - and, more importantly, made it credible. It wasn't action for action's sake and in creating a far more spectacular ending to the film franchise, the film managed to surpass the book. What the book lacked in tension, loss and drama, the film more than made up for with some impressive fight sequences and cinematic blood on snow imagery.

After the release of the first Twilight book, I don't think anyone could have guessed that Bella would become a vampire, a mother and a wife - not even Stephenie Meyer herself. Though no doubt many fans did enjoy the 'happy ending' of it all, this twi-hard found it massively anti-climactic and all too neat and tidy. The film, however, clarified the book's ending with all the tense action necessary to give the series a fitting end.

Book - 3 FOBLES
Film (Part One) - 3 FOBLES
Film (Part Two) - 4 FOBLES

The Hunger Games vs Twilight vs Battle Royale

It is so often the case that when a new book or film comes out, it is compared to a similar predecessor. More often than not, it's essential to give people a clue as to what they are letting themselves in for. The Hunger Games has striking similarities with both Twilight and Battle Royale, but is it the new version of either of them? Well, no.

Firstly, the plot of Twilight is completely different to The Hunger Games. Apart from the obvious lack of werewolves and vampires (you can see there whose team I'm on!), the focus is entirely different. Granted, they are both young adult fiction and they both have a pretty complex love triangle. But the similarities end there. While the love triangle in Twilight is the central focus of the plot and other stuff happens around it, The Hunger Games is a dark look at a dystopian future with an incredibly strong female lead in Katniss Everdeen - it just happens to have a love triangle going on at the same time.

The main comparison though is with Battle Royale - a story which brilliantly looked at a Japan that forced a class of students each year to kill each other until only one survived. In this, The Hunger Games is the same - simply put, it is children forced to kill each other or die.

The most notable difference though is the style of each. Battle Royale is a horror film, plain and simple - it is a blood bath of epic proportions that examines the different reactions people would have if put in that scenario. Would you kill yourself, kill everyone else, form alliances or just sit and hide? In The Hunger Games, there is a whole horrific level of reality TV added. The 24 chosen participants are not only forced to kill each other, but many are trained for the eventuality and all of them are forced to put on a show. There are days between the reaping (when the 24 are chosen) and the actual start of the games and in this time, they learn new skills, perfect those they already have and are interviewed on live TV for all of Panem to see. The children in Battle Royale are drugged and wake up with a bomb round their necks.

So if you want a clever horror film with a blood-bath and fantastic lost-in-translation subtitles, check out the film of Battle Royale. If you want the back-story and a more graphic look at each of the class members, then read the book. If, on the other hand, you want an easy to read piece of fantastic young adult literature which is dark and gripping with a phenomenonally strong and brilliantly flawed heroine, check out The Hunger Games.

Roll on March 23rd for the film...