The Host: A Novel
by Stephenie Meyer
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Book Reviews of The Host: A Novel
Book Review: I hate sci-fi but I LOVE the Host! Give it a chance....
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine Earth has been taken over little by little by alien beings that implant themselves into our human bodies and take over our lives as if they are us. They do it slowly so nobody will notice, then by the time we do notice they are already everywhere and drawing attention to yourself as a human will only make them take you down as well. They are peaceful beings that are trying to salvage the planet that they find so beautiful. They mean no harm to humans, only to fix what we have taken for granted and destroyed. These aliens are tiny silvery beings that implant themselves into the spine of human bodies and after they are inside it leaves a silver ring that shines in the eyes of anyone that has been changed. This is how the remaining humans can tell who is human or not.
Melanie Stryder has been captured during the rebellion and has been implanted with the soul named Wanderer. Upon waking up Wanderer can hear Melanie talking to her, but Mel is not supposed to be there still. This is where the struggle begins. Melanie is protecting the ones she loves and that is very hard when the enemy is literally inside your head, she must protect her every thought. We follow Melanie and Wanderer as they set out to follow clues in Mel's mind that will lead them to her brother and Jared, the man she loves. Wanderer has grown sympathetic to the humans and their plight, but the Seeker that is assigned to Wanderer to find information on the remaining humans will not let up and is determined to figure out what is being hidden in Melanie's mind.
I will start by saying that the first part of the book is hard to follow the first time you read it. It is science fiction and is giving you a background to work with and you understand it SO much more if you read the book a second time which I highly recommend (loved it even more the second time!). Once you get through understanding the invasion and takeover part and you get into the story and struggle between Wanderer and Melanie it rolls much more smoothly.
The complicated love triangles that are tearing at the characters really drew me in and definitely made me pick sides. The people, relationships and surroundings were all so believably written that you forget this is an alien story. There is so much that goes on in this novel that is quite long but after getting through those first few chapters I was completely sucked in. I never found myself wanting to quit or willing myself to continue on just to find out the end. I enjoyed this book so much and really hope that Stephenie continues on and makes companion books.
I really liked the Twilight saga, but this is so far beyond that. This book is so well written and truly showcases Stephenie Meyer's writing much more so than Twilight did. This story is so different from anything I have read before and I highly recommend it to all of my "reader" friends.
Book Review: One of the best books I read this year
Summary: 5 Stars
In many ways, I consider this novel to be a major progression in storytelling for the author. While I don't mind her "Twilight" series, its one of those books where you can kind of tell that the main audience that is going to be reading it is a bit younger than the ones eager to read this novel. Her first adult novel and a whole new story and characters await as we follow the lives of 2 characters and what it really means to be human.
The human race has been invaded by alien beings called "souls", spectral essences that take over the human body and basically erase the person's existence. With access to all their emotions and memories, souls don't die so much as move from planet to planet and gain new healthy bodies. When she arrives on Earth, one soul, known as Wanderer, takes hold of the body of Melanie Stryder. Only Melanie's not backing down so easily and eventually, Melanie is trapped within Wanderer's mind, the literal "voice in the head". With Melanie's memories of her love Jared and brother Jamie, Wanderer seeks out Melanie's desires and in turn starts to desire them as well.
While the heart of "The Host" is essentially a love triangle story, there's a lot more underneath the surface that let's it stay in your mind a lot longer than just being simply about a cool cast of characters. The idea of alien takeover will obviously bring about resistance and people wanting to fight back and yet we find the Souls are actually way more peaceful and even more courteous than most humans are. The love triangle is also better handled and doesn't seem so..."CW/WB-ish". The characters are also quite endearing and even though some of them don't get as much prominence as some of the others, they add a bit more depth and character to everything.
Undoubtedly the best character in the whole thing is Wanderer herself who has more conflicting emotions and feelings and in some cases, way more humanity. Melanie, one of the few characters I can recall that's just simply a disembodied voice, is also well handled. As far as the book itself, the pacing of it doesn't really have a climax to it in an action sense where there's lots of activity and moving around and some parts of the book don't so much drag the book down but keep it level. We spend a lot of time within a certain place for practically the whole book and there's only so far you can go before it starts to become same-y but it still maintains your interest anyway.
I'm a little skeptical about the book having more sequels planned for the future since The Host feels like a step forward for Meyer and has potential for a diverse writing career where every book contains another new story to get sucked in by but as it stands now, it's all revisiting. Not that I mind since I'm a bit more interested in the world found in the Host than in Twilight but would be great if she branched out and tackled new stories.
Book Review: Good effort, prefer her writing Young Adult
Summary: 4 Stars
The earth has been taken over by an alien race of symbiotic creatures that have started implanting themselves into humans. This very passive, yet invasive race, is doing this in hopes to save what they see to be a very brutal race. A soul named Wanderer has been implanted in a young woman named Melanie Stryder, a strong woman who has a past trying to survive with other "wild" humans. Most cases of implantation result in the erasing of the human mind within the body, but in this case Melanie's voice remains strong in Wanderer's head.
At first Wanderer tries to ignore her, but then Melanie starts throwing her own memories of her life before implantation at Wanderer. Her memories are heavy of a man named Jared, the man who Melanie had fallen in love with. Wanderer starts to empathize with her and desire him as well, and this finally spurns action... that Wanderer abandon those of her own race and heads into the desert to find Melanie (and now Wanderer's) one true love.
This is very different from the "Twilight" series. VERY different. Because it IS different. I am not saying that it's a bad thing, but it does require wrapping your head around a different concept and much different themes than what she used previously. Instead of the romance propelling the storyline at the beginning it is this great concept about humans and the end of the world, more or less... however, there is a point where I feel that Meyer relies less on her concept and more on the developing relationships between the main characters, particularly the romance, which is very much more of a YA kind of style.
There were parts of this I was annoyed at. The 70 pages of exposition in the beginning where Wanderer was in the cave hole earning trust... annoyingly too long. I couldn't wait for her to get out of the hole. The part where it degenerated into a love quadrangle... such a YA tactic. I wanted it to be a bit more grown up. And the part where Jared denies Melanie from having a sexual relationship (before her implantation) because of her age and lack of birth control.... it's the end of the world? Humanity is at a premium... what? I did like that Melanie says "You're going to worry about conventions when we're past the end of the world?" at that point in the dialog. It punctuated that it was totally ridiculous. Of course that may have just been my brain saying these two just need to consummate their relationship and get it over with. I know why Meyer wrote it this way, but that doesn't mean I had to agree.
Overall, about a B+. I would have awarded more had a few things been tweaked. I do prefer Meyer writing YA books. I think she is better suited to that market (since this was ultimately more YA than adult). I'm not sure if I would like to see more in this series either. It just felt very final at the end. Still, an interesting concept and overall a good read. I liked it.
Book Review: Sci-fi that even non sci-fi readers will enjoy
Summary: 4 Stars
The Earth is being taken over by aliens, who use human bodies as hosts for their souls. Melanie and her brother, Jamie, are running to avoid being taken over by an alien when they encounter Jared, another rebel. The three of them band together and become like a family.
Melanie sees her cousin on TV one day and realizes she hasn't been taken over by an alien (you can tell by the eyes) and decides she needs to go find her and bring her into their fold. While Melanie is out, she is discovered by a "Seeker" and throws herself down an elevator shaft to avoid being captured. Her body is recovered and healed and the soul of an alien named Wanderer is implanted into her body.
Wanderer/Melanie lead a simple life teaching about other worlds these aliens live in at the college level. Wanderer is supposed to search Melanie's thoughts to find out where other rebels are and report her findings to a Seeker. Melanie's personality is strong, though, so Wanderer meets with resistance. Wanderer is told to report to Tucson and claims to be afraid to fly so that she can drive. She has developed a kinship with Melanie and decides to abandon her car and search in the desert for Jared and Jamie.
Much to her surprise, Wanderer discovers a rebel camp and they take her in - initially for research purposes, but things get complicated when people in the camp start to become fond of her. Wanderer also has feelings for many of the rebels and at times her emotions conflict with Melanie's. There are other humans who resent her presence and want to kill her.
The rebels survive by staging raids on the aliens. Jamie injures his leg on a raid, and it becomes seriously infected. Wanderer insists on going on a raid to help find medications to save him. Wanderer decides to tell the rebels how to remove a soul from a human body without harming the soul or the human. They in turn must agree to remove her soul from Melanie's body and send all the souls they remove to another planet so that they can survive. You need to read the book to find out what happens next.
When The Host by Stephanie Meyer arrived and I discovered that it is science fiction and over 600 pages long, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I quickly found out there was no need to be worried. Even though this book is science fiction, it's not technical, filled with unfamiliar words or "way out" there. For me, it was a great story about relationships and accepting others for who they are on the inside rather than for what they look like on the outside. I found this book to be engaging and thought provoking. This is my first experience with Stephanie Meyer's work and if her other books are like this, I can see why they sell so well - she's a great storyteller. You really get your money's worth with this book! An excerpt of The Host is available on Stephanie Meyer's website.
Book Review: Stephenie Meyer has taken her writing up a few levels with this book
Summary: 5 Stars
I highly recommend this book! No matter how you feel about the Twilight-saga - read The Host! I might add that this book has nothing to do with the Twilight vampires. Okay, I'm going to say this out loud: I personally think this book is much better than the Twilight-saga.
The Host is a book in the science-fiction genre, the first sci-fi book I have ever read or to be more precise listened to(the audiobook is read by Kate Reading). I didn't think that sci-fi was a book genre I would enjoy but I was badly mistaken in my presumption. If you don't enjoy the genre don't let that stop you, if you do then you're going to miss a great book.
The Host is an adventure of a story as well as a story about important things like learning to accept others for who they are, compassion, love and the feeling of being alone and finding you're place in the universe.
The "souls" in The Host isn't like small green men, no they are tiny beautiful silver creatures. The "souls" are parasites and they are living inside other creatures. They have taken over the earth, the humans didn't desreve a great planet like the eart. Humans only ruined it and were violent and evil towards each other.
When the human, Melanie, is being captured she is in Chicago looking for her cousin, Sharon, who she thinks might still be human. When Melanie understands that the "souls" have found her she throws herself into an elevator shaft hoping to die instead of having her body taken over by a "soul". If her body is taken she fears that her mind will reveal the place where her little brother, Jamie, and her boyfriend, Jared, are hiding. Melanie dosen't die and one of the "souls" heals her body and places a female "soul" named Wanderer inside Melanie's body.
Melanie refuses to give up her own mind and body and through memories and feelings she somehow manges to effect the "soul" a little. Wanderer knows she shouldn't let herself be effected by this and that she ought to swap to a new body, but after awhile she to longs for Melanie's family. Is Jared and Jamie still alive? Can Wanderer the "soul" be trusted?
Melanie and Wanderer starts a search and they find what they are looking for, what they haven't considered is the hate humans nurture for the "souls".
The main character in this book, Wanderer, is hard not to fall in love with. Wanderer is a peace loving "soul" and she shares the body with Melanie a really tough girl who doesn't mind using violence to protect herself. It goes without saying that there's going to be some conflicts inside their head.
I feel that the characters in The Host has got more depth(more multi layered) than the characters in Twilight. It seems to me that Stephenie Meyer has taken her writing up a few levels with this book. I loved the book and the way the characters in it were described.