I can feel you judging me but I actually really liked all the Twilight books. I have them all; I've read them numerous times and I even have the illustrated guide and the additional book that was not needed on the character of Bree Tanner. In my opinion, the books are unjustly slammed and the characters are too heavily criticised but alas, I am going off on a tangent and this post is about 'The Host', not my love for the Twilight saga.The Host is a completely different world from that of our favourite Cullens. For one, it is set in a far away future, where the Earth has been invaded and the majority of the human race has been destroyed by 'Souls', aliens that inhabit human bodies and seek to completely take over a person's mind and life. Adhering to the sci-fi genre, there is of course a group of rogues, who are the last few humans alive and they refuse to give in. Amongst them is Melanie Stryder, one of the novel's protagonists, who refuses to give in to her 'Soul' and occupier, Wanderer (aka Wanda).
It is not a Stephenie Meyer novel without a somewhat bizarre love-triangle. In Twilight, we had vampire-human-werewolf. In The Host, there is human-alien-human; when Wanderer's 'Soul' is inserted into Melanie's body, Melanie bombards her invader's thoughts with visions of the human that she is in love with, a man called Jared that is a part of the resistance. Due to these incessant emotions and memories, Wanderer too begins to fall in love with and desire Jared. Together with Melanie and with suspicious aliens tracking them, Wanderer goes to find him and the other outlaws that include Melanie's brother, Jamie, and her uncle, Jeb.
Yes, The Host is definitely...different and weird. But it's a good weird. I applaud Meyer on her originality and I think that this book really shows her writing chops. Critics assume that all she can write about is 'sparkly vampires' and 'depressing teenage girls that always seem to need saving' but Meyer disproves this with The Host. If you did not like Twilight, try The Host and if you still don't like Stephenie Meyer after reading it and find the book 'utter rubbish', that's fair. It is over 600 pages long and in that length, the characters are well developed and you feel more for them and their struggles, especially those that are a part of the odd love triangle.
However, there are a few convoluted parts, particularly when Wanderer and Melanie are talking to each other (Meyer uses italics to help the reader differentiate between each character) but I think maybe these parts seemed confusing to me as I read The Host for the first time when I was about twelve years old. I found the book's ethical element quite interesting; although Wanderer is sympathetic to the humans' plight, some refuse to accept her as they view her as a soulless (ironic) being. This raises the question on what we as humans should accept and define as human; is a human someone who is physically it or someone who displays human characteristics of love and kindness?
There's a film version of the book coming out later this month and it stars the acting beast that is Saoirse Ronan as Melanie. (The chosen Jared, Max Irons isn't too bad on the eyes either...) I wanted to review the book before the film as I know that it'll become more popular and it sure looks very promising from the trailer.
Nevertheless, I still prefer the Twilight books. Maybe this will change when Stephenie Meyer releases the inevitable sequels to The Host.
Rating 3.5/5 ***
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Host-Stephenie-Meyer/dp/0751540641/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363811362&sr=1-1
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