The Host: A Novel (edition 2008)

After my best friend practically forced me to read the Twilight series in high school I decided I pretty much hated Stephanie Meyer. I was not a fan of her conflictless story line, lack of character development and overall sappy unbelievable romance. But once I started seeing movie previews for The Host, I had to admit I was intrigued. When my book club chose this I decided I would go ahead and read it, because what the hell, it couldn't be any worse than Twilight.I was right... and wrong.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book, it wasn't great, but it was compelling enough that I finished it and didn't hate it. Basically earth is a real life invasion of the body snatchers and aliens beings have taken over nearly all the humans. A handful of humans exist in hiding and the alien hosts are trying to find and eradicate them. Melanie, her brother Jamie, and her lover Jared had been keeping a low profile but Melanie is captured by the aliens and one of their kind is implanted in Melanie's body. Melanie has no control over her memories or bodily functions but she is still a presence. Wanderer, the name of the alien host in her body, is a good being and together they work together trying to find her family and lover.

Of course things aren't always as easy as they sound and Melanie and Wanderer find themselves trying to prove their loyalty to the handful of humans that end up capturing them. Can Wanderer betray her kind? Can Melanie?

It wasn't a bad story, it was just anti-climactic. I am anxious to see the movie though and see how it compares. They also recently announced that Stephanie Meyer was making this into a trilogy and that there are two more coming out... we'll see. I don't know if I want to read them. Overall, it was just ok. ( )

Terrible book. If you're looking for something similar to Twilight, don't bother.

Two minds in one body (one alien and one human) make for a confused reaction by humans and aliens. Good story, easy reading. Enjoyed the happy ending. ( )

Comments to come. It's late. ( )

The human race has been taken over by alien souls. They keep the same bodies, but they take over the consciousness and actions of the human. One soul, Wanderer, takes over the body of a young woman named Melanie only to discover that Melanie refuses to surrender to her. Wanderer hears Melanie’s voice in her head and sees all of her memories. Without wanting to Wanderer finds herself falling in love with the memories of Melanie’s boyfriend and aching to find Melanie’s brother to make sure he’s safe.

I liked the questions the book raises about personality, memory and what it means to be human, but the book got bogged down by unnecessary love stories. It was ridiculously repetitive and could have easily lost about 200 pages.

The main narration came from the Wanderer (Wanda) and she came across as weak and whiny in almost every scene. Her internal monologue was exhausting. The plot switches gears mid-way through to focus on a love triangle (love square?) and I just wasn’t interested in that aspect. I never felt like rooting for any of the couples. There were supporting characters I enjoyed, like Uncle Jeb, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the other shallow plot lines.

I wasn’t expecting Shakespeare, but based on my experience with the Twilight books I was expecting a page turner. Twilight might be a bubblegum series, but at least they are really fast reads that hook you early. Maybe it’s not fair it to compare the books, but it’s also inevitable. The Host became really boring in my opinion and I wasn’t invested in the characters.

BOTTOM LINE: The overall premise really was interesting; it just wasn’t well-edited and lost too much in the execution to work for me. ( )