The Host

Once you've read the Twilight series, you know what to expect from a Stephanie Meyer book. The Host is definitely, in my opinion, much better than the tales of vampire love, probably because it's just one book that takes you through the life of a Soul inhabiting a human body. It's a quick read - took me less than two days to finish it - and an entertaining one.

Wanderer, a silvery centipede-like alien, is implanted into the body of a human host, Melanie Stryder, with the hope that she will be the key to finding the human resistance that lies hidden and seems to be, in some way, fighting the invasion from these peace-loving creatures. Now living in the body of another, Wanderer finds that she cannot suppress Melanie. Her memories are too strong, and Wanderer begins to turn... human. She falls in love with the people that Melanie loves, and turns against her own kind to find Jared and Jamie. At first, she isn't accepted, because she is, after all, an alien. No one is aware of Melanie's presence in the deep dark caves of the mind. Slowly, she begins to make friends and is accepted as one of them. Only, one of them, falls in love with Wanderer.

While most of the book deals with life in the depths of caverns in the Arizona desert, it takes you through the conflicting emotions of what makes us innately human. And this being a Stephanie Meyer creation, it deals with love.

I've read my share of science fiction novels, so will refrain from putting this book in that genre, because it isn't about the actual invasion and a resistance, as much as it is of one person of a species, that turns and mingles with the 'hosts'. But, it definitely makes for a simple read. One that you do not have to pay much attention to because, let's face it, it isn't great literature, but it is good writing, for a young adult novel, not an 'adult romance' novel as I've seen it being categorized in some places. There is depth in the character of the alien, from whose perspective the story is told. The supporting characters are predictable. There is the love triangle, between Jared, Melanie and Wanderer; and the love quadrangle that is so reminiscent of the Bella, Edward, Jacob relationship; and the yearnings of 'inseparable love' which has been the theme of all of Ms. Meyer's books so far.

If you're looking for a quick fling into the romantic side of science fiction, where alien planets, names and history sound a bit too silly to have even existed - they are original names, but they have no essence, so you needn't pay attention to it - this is a good book to start off with.

To justify my rating of the book of 'it was ok', I'll just say that I don't expect anything great from a Meyer book (the Twilight series simply threw me off), hence I was able to get through the book without a feeling of wanting something more from it, as I do with most of the books I read.