I was reading the Wanderer thread and it got me thinking. So many people disliked Wanderer at first, and were already supporting Melanie.
I wonder if more people would have liked and sympathized with Wanderer from the beginning if Stephenie hadn't only given us the Prologue and Chapter 4 on her website as teasers. We all had been exposed to Mel long before the book came out, and we knew her love interest was Jared. We never were exposed to Wanderer's thoughts or the possibility of others caring about her for her own sake.

So, I guess my question is do you think your opinion was skewed by the fact that Stephenie gave us Chapter 4 instead of another chapter before the book was published?

For me, it just made me more interested to know how this "soul" was liking living in a human host and how she was going to live with the knowledge that Melanie had a whole life before.

I don't think it influenced me, but I read it so long ago and I wasn't even really sure what was going on in the excerpt that I don't think it made a difference as to if I liked Wanderer at all. I actually liked her a lot from the beginning, but I guess I usually like the one telling the story because you understand it from their perspective.

The funny thing is the excerpt and everything I had read about the book ahead of time let me to believe that Jared and Melanie were going to play an even bigger role than they really did and that Ian was alway going to be a side character. He is not mentioned at all in the excerpt or summary at all. So I was totally overlooking his significance in the book at first and it took me by surprise when i discovered how much he really loved Wanda so I'm glad I knew nothing about Ian and that the except led me only to think the book was about Mel, Wanderer and Jared. I love great surprises like this. I think it made me like Ian even more since I had no preconceived notions about him.

I have to admit I was very influenced by the extract we could read before publishing. I didn´t get the feeling for the book in the first chapter with the healer and the soul, so I was first getting interested when I read the chapter with Melanie who tried to steal food for Jamie. The moment Jared was after her and then kissed her... it was like start getting magical like with Edward and Bella.

So I would have sympathized with Wanda more if there had been posted another chapter (maybe the one they started wander through the desert), but it would have been too much information. I prefer it this way and I like to let me suprise by SM

I was completely thrown by the sections that were pre-released. I thought that the book was going to be so much more about "The Host", Melanie, than "The Soul", Wanda. I was so shocked when I ended up sympathizing with Wanda and cringed when Melanie was mean/hurtful towards her in the beginning. There's a thread that was started about the title of the book being somewhat misleading and I have to agree. I was caught way off guard. But, that being said, it was in a good way. I ended up loving both characters in the end.

I was afraid that I had read too much (reviews, the excerpt) ahead of time and I was so happy that it didn't take long before the story was brand new. You know how studios put the best scenes from a movie in the trailer, and then the movie is a disappointment - I was afraid this had ahppened with this book. It didn't though, and I enjoyed discovering the characters. I got frustrated with Wanderer - with how long it took her to understand that Melanie should not be erased! I was so mad at her for telling the Seeker there was a brother!

That's what I mean. I think everyone was predisposed to like Melanie and therefore dislike Wanderer before we ever got to read the book.

i did not read the chapter that she posted so the book was new to me. i loved every minute of it!

Did'nt read the excerpt>>.started, but than..for some reason???? decided to wait.. I really enjoyed the story.

I guess that was a brillant move on the part of the powers that be, in choosing what they did for us to read in the excerpt. Makes you stop and think, what is in store for us in the excerpt from BD, and will the same thing be done to us again?

I too had read the exerpt so long ago that I don't think that it was influential at all. I really felt sorry for, and liked Wanderer almost immediately. As the story went on I found myself so delishiously conflicted about Mel, and Wanda that it was almost painful.

The book will come out in Germany in August. I could read an expert of the german translation and the first picked a whole new chapter and second the title isn´t the right one, it´s the opposite!

They call it in german "Seelen" that means "Souls"... and the expert is about Wanderer driving dirving throught the desert when Mel gives her an explicit backlook of Jared and Jamie. With the memories of touching Jared and the sextalk ect.
I really think this give just more a wrong impression than the english expert that was chosen. It gives too much of the story away.

The excerpt definitely influenced what I thought the story would revolve around, but I was pleasantly surprised about Ian. I saw him coming as soon as he was introduced.

Absolutely! And I think that was kind of the point. To give us a taste but not to give it away. I mean you would just naturally assume going into an aliens vs. humans book that you would be rooting for the humans. So even though we got an entire chapter we were still completely unaware of where the plot was going.

I didn't read the excerpt before reading the novel. I still found myself pulling for Melanie from the get-go. I was glad we got the story from Wanda's POV, though. Feeling for her was a nice surprise.

Tara