The Host: A Novel
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of The Host: A Novel
Book Review: Beautiful Love Story with Aliens Instead of Vampires
Summary: 3 Stars
SUMMARY:
"The Host" is about a life form called a "Soul," primarily named Wanderer (although she has many names) who is inserted into the body of a woman named Melanie Stryder because that is her "Calling." Melanie's body has met an abruptly violent end. These life forms have aggressively occupied Earth because humans have destroyed the planet and they want to correct the devastation and restore the planet to its natural state. Well, for the most part, they have been successful. However, some humans have survived and they're fighting back. Melanie Stryder was a member of that resistance before Wanderer occupied her body. The "Souls" are entirely passive and non-violent beings, whereas, "The Seekers" are the military arm of the life-forms' society. One "Seeker," in particular, is intent on rooting out all resistance.
When the "Souls" take over a host, on any planet, the mind/spirit/soul of the body usually is completely silenced. But, in this case, Wanderer cannot silence Melanie's voice, emotions and memories. Melanie has two loves in her life: Jared, the man who saved her, and her younger brother, Jamie. She floods Wanderer with images of these loves and her emotions and Wanderer develops a love for them, as well, that compels her to go against her Calling as a "Soul," or does it? Will the humans keep her alive, or be forced to kill her for self-preservation's sake?
Adding to the conflict and tension is the fact that, although she has love feelings for Jared and she's in Melanie's body that he loves; she has fallen in love with Ian, another member of the resistance. Does she truly love Jared or Ian? Does she accept the human notion that she's a parasite, or will she continue to see the "Souls" as benevolent beings? Do humans deserve to be saved?
These are the questions raised by this thought-provoking book.
REVIEW:
It was a great love story with only a good sci-fi back-story. "The Host" is geared towards an adult audience, as opposed to her "Twilight" series of books. I believe Stephenie Meyer is becoming the Jane Austen of supernatural love stories, which I have no problem with because I love character and relationship driven stories. She seems to favor characters that are outsiders in their world.
I only give it three stars because it seems to me that when Stephenie writes her love stories, she wants to create a fantastic world around them. So, the world becomes the afterthought or back-story. In other words, she fills in the gaps and details later. She revealed, in regards to Twilight, that she did her vampire research when the character "Bella" did, so she wrote the vampire lore around the love story. Fortunately, there is a great deal of vampire lore out there to build on.
This time, however, the back-story seemed underdeveloped and random, in my humble opinion. Also, after the Twilight saga, I was looking for something vastly different to read. I guess I shouldn't have chosen a book by the same author...lol...because this wasn't vastly different from her other books.
So, if you're really a fan of sci-fi, you probably won't like this book. But, if you're a fan of love stories and a romantic, you will. After all, the eyes are the window to the soul. :-)
Book Review: Predictable & slow rehashing of Meyer's archetypes
Summary: 3 Stars
**spoiler alert**
I picked up The Host as a summer read. Unfortunately, the book felt like a rehashing of Meyer's Twilight series with a different setting and slightly older main characters. As her first published attempt at an adult novel, I had hoped for more mature writing, deeper character development, and more conflict, instead of problems being simply fixed in the end. Unfortunately, I didn't get that with this book.
Much like the books in the Twilight series, The Host uses dialogue and internal conflict to move its plot. However, this quickly became repetitive and therefore boring. The book was slow in the first 30 or so pages, but I'm a patient reader, so I kept on. Things picked up, only to slow miserably around page 200. While the writing style is a little more complex and varied than the Twilight series, there were many déjà vu moments. Meyer continues to overuse the words and descriptions of chagrin, hiss, snarl, demanding, reacting in horror, crowing, etc.
The characters are also too similar to her previous works. Most of the characters in this book, outside of Melanie and Jed, are provided little to no backstory and little to no development. The males in the book could easily be compared as Jared = Edward (the dangerous, controlling, but somehow alluring male), Ian = Jacob (the sweet, considerate male who's willing to give his love anything she wants, but who still does creepy things like kiss her when she doesn't want it), Doc = Carlisle (the compassionate, good doctor who couldn't hurt anyone and who's despondent when he does), and so on. The female character of Melanie/Wanda also plays on the same characteristics that Meyer created for Bella in that she's utterly consumed with the man in her life/lives, even when he physically or emotionally hurts her; she's willing to sacrifice herself and die for others and even jabs a knife into her arm willingly to help save someone else (fight scene in Eclipse when Bella slashes herself with the rock shard, anyone?). The main female character is also helplessly carried around by the men repeatedly in this book, much like the Twilight series. It seems as though Meyer's personal ideas about what she considers as a desirable male repeat themselves. There were times I actually put down the book and talked to it, saying, "C'mon, Meyer, are you capable of writing a different story?"
I think that this book could be a decent, mindless read if you have not read the Twilight series previously. It was just too difficult for me to ignore the similarities. I did like that The Host addressed larger themes of love, different types of love, sacrifice, survival, and the balance of the need for peace versus the need for resistant violence. I only wish these concepts could have been explored more deeply. And, just like my experience with the Twilight series (though I am loathe to admit it), I did want to keep reading to know what happened next. In sum, if you liked Meyer's story line and writing style before, you'll probably like this. Just don't expect anything earth-shatteringly different. As is no surprise, everything works out in the end and everyone's happy. Not that you couldn't figure out *exactly* how they would do that about 200 pages before it happens....
Book Review: So many plot twists I got dizzy!
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow. And I thought I was imaginative. "The Host" has to be the strangest book I've read in quite some time, but also the best. Meyer weaves her tale in the midst of a terrifying backdrop, where the human race has been taken over by an alien species, "Souls," which, once implanted in to the cervical spine of their "host," take control of that person's brain, memory, and body. The invasion took place over a period of years, the implanted aliens using the stolen memories of their host's life and personality to assimilate themselves into our society until, at last, our society no longer existed.
Well, almost. A few humans were canny enough to put two and two together and retreated into the wilderness to avoid falling victim to the high-tech bodysnatchers. One such survivor is twenty-year-old Melanie, who, along with her younger brother Jamie and boyfriend Jared, has been ekeing out a fairly good existence, staying on the fringes of populated areas and out of the hands of the "Seekers," the alien equivalent of police.
All that changes when Melanie's attempt to contact a cousin she believes may still be human leads her into the hands of the Seekers. Now, Melanie becomes the host for Wanderer, a well-travelled soul who has inhabited many other lower life-forms on other planets, and looks forward to the complexities of life in this body. But Melanie refuses to cede her mind and body so easily, and an intense battle for control between Wanderer and Melanie continues for over a year.
Finally, overcome with Melanie's emotions and memories, Wanderer heads into the desert, where Melanie believes Jared and Jamie may be hiding. After nearly dying in the desert, Wanderer and Melanie are found and rescued by a group of rebels--including Jamie and Melanie's beloved Jared. Jared, however, is unable to hide his loathing for the creature who inhabits and controls his lover's body, and Wanderer, who has been deeply affected by Mel's intense love for him, feels rejected.
Gradually, though, Wanderer, now affectionately nicknamed Wanda, is accepted into the fold, and develops feelings of her own for another human rebel, Ian.
As the love quadrangle between two men, one woman, and one alien (shared out between only three bodies) intensifies, and the rebels' tenuous hold on survival weakens, Wanda is faced with a devastating choice; allow her new, beloved human family to fall victim to their greatest fear, or betray her own people by revealing the secret that could save humankind.
I cannot even begin to express how awed and impressed I was by "The Host." Meyer's talent for "humanizing" monsters, as previously demonstrated in her immensely popular "Twilight" series, is so adroit that readers may find themselves wondering whether humans wouldn't be better off in the hands of these peaceful yet egotistical interlopers. And her ability to create inner conflict and suspense is nearly matchless; I had to leave my half-finished book in my car overnight so I wouldn't be tempted to stay up all night reading. I anxiously await "Breaking Dawn," and any other novels this talented author cares to share with us.--Jacquelyn Sylvan, Author, Surviving Serendipity
Book Review: A Romantic Twist on Alien Body-Snatchers
Summary: 5 Stars
Earth has been invaded by alien life-forms. These parasitic aliens are called Souls and live in what they consider to be a peace-loving unity, similar to the way bees live in a hive together. They require Hosts in order to survive. The centipede-like body is inserted into the Hosts brain by the Healers, then the alien takes control of all functions of that body as its own and the original occupant disappears. The Souls chose to take over Earth when they noticed the violent and barbaric tendencies of the human race. They wanted to eradicate the evil and destructive ways that the humans were destroying their own planet. They wanted to bring peace back to Earth, but the Souls could not foresee one human entity, Melanie, fighting back to gain control over her body that the alien, Wanderer (Wanda), had stole.
When Wanderer (Wanda) came to Earth and was implanted into her human Host, she had no clue as what this planet would be like. She had never had a Host that had such strong emotions and desires before. She never questioned what happened to any of the Host's original occupants that was their before her, until now. When Wanda started to receive strong, emotional images from her Host's (Melanie) memories, she tried to resist and force her into disappearing, like all the rest of her Host's she had lived in before on different planets. Melanie was extremely strong-willed, determined and frantic to get her messages across and refused to disappear. Wanda had only one choice left and it was to discard this Hosts body as faulty and acquire another one. Out of desperation, Melanie released the images she was protecting from this alien, of her younger brother, Jamie and her lover, Jared. Wanda felt the desire and love Melanie had for them, as her own, and yearned to find and protect them. Melanie remembered a secret hideout in the desert that her crazy Uncle Jeb had claimed, just incase the end of the world came. She persuaded Wanda to search for the location. After almost dying of exhaustion, hunger and thirst, a group of human rebels found her and took her prisoner back to their underground cave.
Wanda is reunited with Jamie and Jared, but even though Jamie accepts Wanda for who and what she is, Jared is enraged with hate for the alien that stole his lover's body. Wanda has to prove to them that she does not want to cause any humans harm and that Melanie is still alive inside her. With few human friends at her side that trust her, she has to find out a way to control Melanie's desire for Jared, her personal feelings for Ian (her human companion and bodyguard), give hope back to the world for the human race to survive and deal with the alien Seeker that has been tracking her from the beginning.
THE HOST is the best novel by far that I have read and will bind the reader emotionally to the pages until the end. Stephenie Meyer is a wonderful, vivid and intriguing writer. THE HOST is a beautiful and romantic love story that will take the reader above the stars and into a different universe.
Stephenie Meyer is the author of the bestselling Twilight series. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three young sons. To recieve more information about her, visit her website [...]
Book Review: Sympathy for the Body Snatchers
Summary: 4 Stars
So here we have Host. Why did I buy it? I was outside my home state of Arizona wandering the country. As I was visiting Lovecraft's grave in Providnce I passed by the book store and Host literally caught my eye. The cover looks at you. Very strangely I might add. I gleefully commited that sin of picking a book out by its cover. A wise choice! (Also the bookstores made sure to decorate their establishments up and down with it. Someone has a good marketer!)
The story isn't 'original', but then again, nothing is these days. The trick to writing great fiction is taking the stories we all know, and doing something very different with it. Why read Beowulf when you can read Grendel instead? Why read about the last human on Earth hiding from the aliens. How about read about the alien?
The story is told from the perspective of a parasitic alien fused to a host whose consciousness has not 'gone away' like it is supposed to. Wanderer, the alien and her human host, Melanie, are quite literally stuck with each other and it causes complications both ways. And there in lies the gem of this story.
I hate xenos. I generally wish to purge the galaxy of all alien life-forms in the name of glorious humanity. Don't you? No? Traitor.
Anyways, I learned to 'hate' these aliens. Silent. Stealthy. And the idea of aliens taking your body, and absorbing some of your memories but crushing you in the process! Terrible. The idea you could be still aware and trapped within! Horrible. The echoes of your life joined with theirs! Sickening. And yet the aliens were so darn nice it was hard to wish them ill. The moment any of the alien characters were developed I found it quite difficult to picture them up against the wall in my mind's eye. So I had found myself utterly conflicted during the entire book. Just like the main character. Clever on so many levels! It is hard to 'pick' sides during this story and that will keep you voraciously reading in search of some closure or some definative answer as to 'who is right'.
The setting amused me. I live in Arizona and the idea that people are hiding out at the old Civil War 'battlefield' site Picacho Peak, amused me to no end. The conspicuous lack of guns in the hands of humanity (what is left of it), confused me. It's Arizona! If you don't have a gun, don't worry your neighbor has three.
The book is written by a female author and you can tell. I mean no offense. Quite the contrary. The story is about emotion, internal dialogue, internal dialogue (not a typo!) and less about action and description. I don't think a male author would have pulled it off the same.
Worth a read? Absolutely. By the time you are done, you'll be suspicious of anyone who is nice, always carry a flashlight (hopefully a gun as well) and have an escape plan. Strikingly similar to your Zombie Doomsday plan. Avoid urban areas. Avoid noise. Carry poison or a at least one bullet for yourself. You get the idea? Don't have a Zombie Doomsday plan? Oh my, well, you'll be a nice neighbor I'm sure!
Anyways, go enjoy Host! It should be looking at you right now. Literally. Accolades for an author I've never read before, thanks for the read Mrs. Meyer!