The Host: A Novel
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of The Host: A Novel
Book Review: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Summary: 5 Stars
The book THE HOST is a lot like Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT saga in the fact that the whole point of the story is that love is the most important thing. What's different though is (obviously) the storyline. Yes, that is right - this story has nothing to do with vampires; instead, aliens have taken over our planet.
The time is somewhere in the future and our world is not as we know it. Instead of mass murders making headline news, there are articles on the best type of flowers to plant. The most disturbing article is that the bridge near Maple Avenue is due for a repainting. The world is full of peace and love. No one argues, no one fights, and there is not even a hint of violence in this bizarre world.
Obviously, these are not humans we are talking about.
The aliens that came to Earth would capture a human to use its body as a host. (Hence the title.) They stretch their tentacles around the nerves and "control panels" located in our heads; thus gaining complete control of the body. Unfortunately for the human, this process eliminates them. The aliens were able to gain control of almost every person this way. By continuing their host's former habits they were able to go virtually unnoticed. Luckily for humankind, there are always a few observant people that actually see things the way that they truly are
Our story is focused on Melanie and Wanda. Melanie is (or was) one of those few humans that was able to escape. Unfortunately, she was caught and because she might have information on other fugitives stuffed in her head, Wanda is put inside her. When a soul is put in a human, it has access to every memory their host might have had. Well, at least that is what is supposed to happen. Instead, Wanda reaches some "walls" within her mind. She later finds out that Melanie is still in there and kicking. She is even able to communicate with Wanda, using her (or their) thoughts.
This starts a whole new thread of events. The most important being Melanie convinces Wanda to go and look for Jared, her true love, and Jamie, her little brother. They are both labeled as "wild humans." After getting lost in the desert and nearly dying, Wanda is found by the humans and is taken to their hideout, a large cave, as a captive. She is surprised to see so many other humans still without a soul within them and even more surprised to see Jamie and Jared have made it here.
Unfortunately many, including Jared, hate Wanda for what she is and what her kind has done to their world.
At first I thought the story itself was rather lame. I mean aliens...? Come on, can't she do anything better than that? Not to mention it had an extremely slow beginning. Once they reached the caves, though, things really heated up and Ms. Myer's amazing writing skills started to really shine through. Personally, I think that if anybody else tried writing a book with this specific topic it would go down in flames, but Stephenie Meyer was able to finish it with grace and in a way that made me want her to write a sequel.
Reviewed by: Abby - The Class
Book Review: A book that could lead to good discussions
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephanie Meyer is good at creating a new world that readers are curious to understand and explore. The Host is not one of those stories that leads up to a big, final battle in which the "good guys" defeat/conquer/overcome the "bad guys". This is a relationship driven story. It's about an alien that comes to understand love more deeply - from motherly love, to friendship/family love, to romantic love. The story is appealing because most of us can relate to feelings of being a misfit, and the deep desire to belong, be accepted, and to be loved.
Ways The Host is similar to the Twilight series:
- Both stories have a group of outcasts in hiding trying to survive
- The main character's internal struggle over who to be loyal to
- The main character's struggle with gaining the trust of the outcast group
- Symbolism of the eyes. In Twilight the eyes tell about a vampire's diet; in The Host, the eyes indicate whether a person is human or alien
- The non-human characters' physical dependency on human bodies. In Twilight the vampires need mammal blood. In The Host, the aliens need sentient host bodies.
- The non-human characters' (vampires & aliens) potential for "immortality"
- The non-human characters' (vampires & aliens) don't get the same opportunities as human in experiencing a parent-child relationship
Potential discussion questions:
- How much of "who we are" is our Body and how much is our Mind?
- The story explores how an alien soul controls the host body. The story shows how humans have some kind of intelligence/mind/spirit that is a separate entity from their body. We learn through the story where the aliens' souls come from, but the story doesn't talk about where human spirits comes from. The author has religious beliefs, but she doesn't bring any of that into her writing. However, this story does present the opportunity to discuss the origin and potential for human spirits.
- Even though we don't have aliens taking over our bodies, what other entities are trying to influence our thoughts and behaviors? Some examples would be the news media, advertising, political campaigns, parenting methods, educational slants, etc. What about something like the devil as portrayed in C.S. Lewis's novel "The Screwtape Letters"?
- Many of the characters in this story have a hard time separating Melanie from Wanda. The characters looked at Melanie's body and had a difficult time recognizing the two different entities inside. Compare and contrast this to how we often look at outside appearances. How do prejudices about beauty, age, race, gender, health, etc., affect the way we view the person on the inside?
- What does it mean to "be human"?
- Who "owns" a body? What ways did the story explore different definitions and types of ownership over a body?
- What some examples about how the characters where affected by their ability (or inability) to see things from other people's perspectives.
- Are there some ways in which Earth is a better place because of the Souls?
Book Review: Another captivating world of Meyer's--with less vampires
Summary: 5 Stars
The Host, released May 6th, 2008, is Stephenie Meyer's first book aimed at adult audiences as well as her first science-fiction novel. This book is like a romantic War of the Worlds--it includes an alien invasion, but with much less blood and guts. In the book, the world has been taken over by aliens called "the souls," who implant themselves into human bodies, leaving mankind nearly extinct.
After the soul Wanderer is placed in the body of Melanie Stryder, things become complicated when Melanie doesn't fade away like she is supposed to. Living with the host's thoughts and memories invading her head, Wanderer soon begins to fall in love with Melanie's boyfriend, Jared, and decides to go looking for him. Thus, a complicated love triangle ensues.
Stephenie Meyer wrote The Host just as she was wrapping up her bestselling series Twilight. With an English degree under her belt, the mother of three began her first novel just five years ago. Meyer says that her method of writing is telling a story that interests her and thinking about her audience later.
Her methods sure have captured my fascination. As she does in all her books, Meyer has a way of making The Host's supernatural creatures almost human. I found myself first starting to like and eventually love Wanderer's character. What is most intriguing about the story is that those who start out as villains become heroes and vice versa.
The reader is first made to see Wanderer as nothing more than an unfeeling parasite. As the story progresses, the reader begins to see humans act with cruelty while we begin to feel more connected to the souls. Meyer breaks down the barriers between species and universalizes emotions such as love, loss, and anger.
Another part of the book that I found particularly impressive was the dialogue between Melanie and Wanderer. Both voices come from one mind, yet the reader is still fully able to identify the two characters and see them as separate individuals. The most amusing parts in the story happened when Wanderer's attraction to Jared became apparent and Melanie reacted in a very "Oh, no you didn't" manner.
The only setback in my full enjoyment of the book was the rather slow beginning. Understandably, Meyer had to set up the storyline and give up some footing as to who these characters are before she creates any drama. Still, I was rather far into the book, wondering when any excitement was going to happen. However, once it did, I couldn't put it down until the end.
Because of the huge female fan base of Meyer's previous series, men may be a little reluctant to give this one a shot. In my opinion, The Host really is a book for all audiences, teenage and up. Men will most likely enjoy the sci-fi aspect of the book and women will focus on the love story.
Because of a couple of violent and slightly sexual scenes, I would not recommend this book to children. As for me, I am forever a sucker for Meyer's love triangles and look forward to the possibility of a sequel.
Book Review: No More Meyer For Me
Summary: 1 Stars
First off, it took me over a month to get through this book. I am a slow reader to begin with because I take in passages and really savor the story, imagining it scene by scene. However, I forced myself through this one (as I did with Breaking Dawn, but that's another gripe). I have to say Stephenie Meyer really has no remarkable skill as a writer except that her stories are interesting. While I do like the premises of her novels, I realize that I wish they were written by someone else. Her adjectives and verbs are monotonous, if not plain ridiculous ("she winced", "he growled", "he said, narrowing his eyes", "I hissed" "I flinched"). I think Meyer can benefit from breaking out the Thesaurus to discover the wonderful world of synonyms. I also really do not see the point of writing such voluminous books: The Host was dragged out and spread too thin. She could have written a shorter version of this novel and made it twice as good. Over 600 pages was not necessary. It took over 200 pages just for her to write "I'm being held captive and the humans don't like me." One of the worst things about The Host are echos of what was irritating about the Twilight saga. While I liked most of the Twilight books, save for the last one, the triangle between Melanie/Wanda, Jared and Ian was reminiscent of the love triangle between Edward, Bella, and Jacob. Melanie/Wanda reminded me enough of Bella for me to roll my eyes. The character was too self-sacrificing, spineless and over-emotional. Another thing: while wish fulfillment is nice, come on! There were times when Wanda was walking hand-in-hand with both Jared and Ian. ?!? Fiction? Fine. B.S.? Please. Wanda gains a "family" in the caves that are willing to protect her from enemies, even to the point of risking their lives. (This again?) After a book this fat and being that the Seeker was so feared and hated by Wanda/Melanie, I expected a bigger climax and a heck of a lot more conflict. Instead, a fizzling out followed by sunshine and rainbows. Meyer seems to be incapable of giving readers an ending that isn't picture-perfect. I'm not saying we need an ending of sadness and tragedy, but the heroines in Meyer's novels always seem to end up getting everything they want with little or no sacrifice. Jared and Ian's head-butting was Edward and Jacob all over again. And what is it with the male love interests rough-handling the female protagonists? Punch! "Oh Jared, I've found you again!" Pow! "I love you!" Smack! "Oh, I missed you so much!" The couples in The Host are clingy and all over each other too much. Ugh. Lastly, this was a weak attempt at an adult novel. The only thing adult about this book was that most of the characters were adults. The annoying characters might have made more sense as teens. The end.
After The Host, I'm done with Meyer. I can't sit through another one of her novels. It's exhausting. If she does publish sequels as she has mentioned, the most I might do is seek out spoilers to find out what happens after this first installment, since I wasted enough time on it, and that's that.
Book Review: Never wanted it to end
Summary: 5 Stars
As a fan of The Twilight saga, I figured that I would give The Host, Stephenie Meyers first delve into "adult" fiction, a try. However, I was wary when I read the synopsis...I was unsure if I could be sympathetic and relate to the narrater, who is in fact a silver centipede like parasite imprisoning the mind of a human named Melanie and taking over her body. When the cryotanks appeared in the first few pages I almost put the book down. I have never considered myself a sci fi buff. But I missed Meyers voice after devouring Twilight and forged forward...and only a few chapters in, I was glad I did. The Host demonstrates how Meyers is growing as an author. A great story teller from the start with an ability to make the reader fall in love with her characters, the emotion and tension she creates leaps off her pages and sucks me in...her stories are addicting- like literary crack. The difference between The Host and Twilight is that The Host is so complex! It is an adventure in humanity that explores the range of the human character across its volital spectrum. In fact, I did become simpathetic to the "worm" Wanderer, I came to love her! Yet, I felt a deep sorrow for Melanie, still existing and feeling while trapped in her own body with Wanderer in control- trying to break free. These aliens known as "Souls" do not view themselves as evil body snatchers but as good kind beings saving this beautiful planet from a violent evil species. They can not survive in any other way. What Wanderer learns from Melanie and the small clan of surviving humans in the southwestern desert is that there is more to humans then the headline of the evening news. With Melanie and through Melanie, she experiences for the first time longing, loneliness, and love and sets out to find Melanie's little brother Jamie and her partner Jared. At their first encounter, the silver sheen in Wanderer/Melanie's eyes that comes with harboring a "soul" sparks hate, distrust, and violence in the humans, and Wanderer believes her notions were correct- humans are evil. But as the days pass living in the humans hideaway cave relationships evolve. Wanderer experiences the death of a friend, the love of a child, lust, trust, sacrifice, and ultimately romantic love. It wouldn't be a Stephenie Meyers work without a good love story and the love "quad"angle between Melanie and Jared -Wanderer and Ian is sure to frustrate the reader and tug at the heart strings. When Wanderer finally finds a happy life where she is wanted and loved for the first time in 9 planets and thousands of years she is faced with the ultimate dilemma- to continue living in Melanie's body ( is there really enough room for both of them?) or take on the ultimate self sacrifice and set Melanie free- it becomes apparant how altruistic Wanderer truely is. I laughed and cried a long with these rich characters, and was sad to leave them once the book was over. I heard rumors of an upcoming sequel and will be sure to read it as soon as it hits the shelves.