The Host: A Novel

I picked this book up on Friday and finished it on Sunday. Even though its almost 700 pages it was, as all Stephanie Meyers books are, a quick read. I went from reading all four of her Vampire "Twilight" novels to reading "The Host". I was worried about the transition, thinking that Vampires to Aliens may be a bit strange, thankfully I fell right into the book. I knew I was hooked with-in the first 3 chapters -- "Wanderer" the main Characters name, which is also referred to as a "Soul" is a alien to our planet.

Unfortunate for us they need to live inside our heads to survive, unfortunate for them when they do they adopt our memories and sometimes our thoughts. Wanderer is one of the unlucky Souls that is put into a human who is well aware of the invasion and proves to be a inhospitable host.

The first part of the book is the struggle between Wanderer and Melanie her host, Wanderer can't shake the memories or surreal dreams of the life Melanie lived before. Worst of all Wanderer hears Melanie's thoughts in the present and fills that at times Melanie is taking back control. Wanderer becomes overwhelmed by two memories practically which are of Melanie's younger brother and her love interest Jacob.

When a Searcher is assigned to the Wanderer things get interesting. The Searcher is dead set on finding the last remaining humans still in hiding and believes that the Wanderer can excess Melanie's memories in order to help. But the Searcher is also pledge with its own demons and becomes more and more overbearing. Wanderer decides to go back to the Healers and have herself removed and placed into another Host in a hope to rid herself of Melanie's memories and the annoying Searcher. Its during this time that Melanie talks the Wanderer into searching for her brother and lover meanwhile evading the Searcher. Leading to a intense underground Mad Max realm were humans still live and try to survive. This of course throws the Wanderer into a world were she is hated and despised, but the love of her host, Melanie, keeps her alive regarless. The remaining humans, Jacob and Malenie's brother included, fight the urge to kill her or to try and save her some how.

Spoiler : What's bad -- There are times that you feel like she is rambling. She really let her imagination go wild on some of the story. For instance the names of some of the Souls are a bit corny, i.e. Petals to the Sun, and Sings in Night. They reminded me of old hippy names. The way she described the other colonies or planets that the souls had lived on was childish as well i.e. dragons, ice bears, bats, and seaweed. The love triangle between Melanie, Jacob, and Wanderer is hard to believe...after all if Jacob loved Melanie at all how could he ever be happy with a silver slug living in her head, keeping Melanie trapped in some sort of paraplegic hell? Strange?

Still, I recommend this book regarless of its flaws, because it was fun to read. It was engadging and new.

I do not typically read books about aliens, they're just not my thing, but I decided to try this one because I enjoyed Meyers Twilight series so much. And, once I started reading, I couldn't put it down! Meyers stories definately don't disappoint to reader. This books was a fantastic journey for my imagination!

I am the biggest Twilight Saga fan... Saying that I loved this book a lot. I loved the ppl in the book. I am hoping that stephenie Meyer continues the series... I loved Wanda and Melanie. I love how Wanda is willing to give her life for humans which most humans won't give their life for anyone or anything. I love how strong Melanie is and she wouldn't give up for anything. Strong Female! Love that...

After reading all 4 of the Twilight series I am a avid reader of Stephanie Meyer. While I read those books I accepted Bella for the character she was.

When I started the host, I was glad it started out completly different than Twilight. The main character was more interesting and complex mostly due to her strange background. Melanie was also fun to learn about in the beginning of the book. However, when I first read the summary of the main plot, I was more excited then I felt after reading most of the introduction. I was looking forward to a book about a girl (Melanie) that would be a rebel against the humans using her abnormal "parasite" to help her. Instead, as I read on I discovered it was a similar theme to twilight. Love. Sound familiar?

As the story progressed, the action declined, and the romance inclined. A majority of the body of the book is focused on worrying about her "family" or fanatizing about Jared (who doesn't really like her, then starts to, then admits he only likes Melanie). It turns out the man she thought she loved is replaced by the true man Wanderer loves. After letting the reader feel attached to Jared one finds himself just "going along with the story." The other side of love, family, is just wanderer worrying about Melanie's family. This was okay at first, but after the ending you find yourself wondering why it was introduced while at the end it was just mostly the body that loved them.

The character that stephanie Meyer put in as the loving soul is basically just Bella in alien form. She doesn't care herself and cannot help loving everyone else and sacrificing herself (for no good reason) and loves someone she can't, while trying to love someone else she also can't love. Jacob and Edward are just to similar to the relationship of Wanderer with Ian and Jared. Didn't we just read a couple thousand pages about that sort of thing? I don't know about you but I'd like some real science fiction.

Overal, the phony character development, stretched plot that lacked action, excitement, and satisfcation made this book a disapointment.

I picked this up at the library since I'd read her other books, not knowing what to expect beyond the author's name. It was a different perspective on a typical parasite-alien story, and I really enjoyed it. Meyer is quite good at describing things as though she hasn't seen them before. But my opinion: I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my friends.