Just finished reading Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. I’m still not sure how I feel about this novel. It was unexpected to say the least; a lot more complex than the blurb on the cover implies.
As with the Twilight series, there is just something about Meyer’s writing that hooks you in, so that you can’t stop reading until you know where the story is going.
Wanderer, a member of an invading alien species, has been implanted into the host body of Melanie Stryder. A simple procedure that has allowed the silver, peace-loving creatures to take over Earth, Wanderer, like her kin, should be able to assimilate into Melanie’s body without a problem, except she finds that Melanie’s spirit/energy/life-force refuses to leave. Troubled by her inability to adapt to her new host body, Wanderer finds herself yearning for the people that Melanie lost–her partner and her younger brother–so accepting Melanie’s presence, she goes off in search of them… easier said than done.
The blurb on the cover describes it as a love story and the Amazon review holds that it “may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies”. However, while love may be one of the novel’s themes, it seems to me that the Meyer is more concerned with an exploration of what it means to be human.
Though the story dragged in places, it was the relationship between Melanie and Wanderer (Wanda) that kept me interested. The Jared/Melanie story did not do it for me at all. Jared has to be one of the most unlikable characters I have encountered in Meyer’s works.
Tags: book review, books, stephenie meyer, the host
OMG THIS BOOK IS SOOO GOOD!!!