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The Host
Overall score: 
Little, Brown and Company 2008; 619 pages
The Host takes place in the future where a parasitic alien race who call themselves ‘souls’ has taken the minds and bodies of humanity, continuing the lives of their hosts relatively unchanged. Melanie Stryder is a ‘wild’ human without a host, living in rebellion—until she’s caught and Wanderer is inserted into her spinal column to take over her body. Only Melanie’s presence refuses to disappear and Wanderer has to deal with the overwhelming emotions she had for the men in her life—her younger brother Jamie and her love, Jared.
Instead of Melanie succumbing like she’s supposed to, the tables are turned and it’s Wanderer who finds herself incapable of continuing her life without Jared and Jamie. Melanie’s memories and feelings cause her alien parasite to become so overwhelmed with emotion that Wanderer sets out to find them, almost killing herself in the process.
I’ll have to grant Meyer one thing, she can sure get into the nitty-gritty emotions and minutiae of the agony Melanie/Wanderer go through as they try to cope with their situation. The characterization is interesting—particularly how a host’s body influences the souls in them, how she affects not only memories and mental personality, but how the physical differences of a host influences a soul. Meyer explores this concept with satisfying detail as the soul’s fundamental personality is changed by Melanie’s presence.
Meyer’s prose is consistent through her novels. She has great flow and description and that continues here. There are descriptions of the different planets Wanderer has lived on and the hosts she’s lived her life through. The concept behind it is interesting and the alien race’s approach to things is written logically and straightforward without too much boring extras.
Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the setting. Melanie/Wanderer are able to find a group of humans in the Arizona desert in underground caverns. There they grow food and are well enough hidden away that they are safe. Unfortunately, the Seeker who is assigned to Wanderer won’t give up, convinced that her charge didn’t die in the desert.
Sadly, like Meyer’s vampire novels, you read about 400 pages of ‘oh I feel so conflicted’ before anything happens. And Wanderer spends so much time feeling scared and passive to only have occasional moments of aggressive behavior that her actions seemed contradictory. Meyer does her best to explain away these inconsistencies, but I was still left reeling and incredulous at times.
The last quarter of the book the pace picks up and the 400 pages of build-up promise an exciting conclusion—to only deliver a forced happy ending. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.
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Buy The Host at AmazonWritten by Nessa on May 19th, 2008
