When I first hear Stephenie Meyer wrote another book other than then “Twilight” books, I was hesitant to read it. Two of my friends had already read the book and pushed me into reading it. “The Host” is a complete 180 from “Twilight.” I’m not sure how, but Meyer upped her writing game tremendously.
“The Host” is about earth being abducted by aliens. It sounds lame, I know, but these aliens are little glowing worm looking things that inhabit bodies, eventually silencing their host bodies, and thinking for themselves.
Wanda takes over Melanie’s body, but Melanie refuses to leave. Melanie accidentally gives Wanda memories that lead Wanda to a hidden human refugee camp. The inhabitants in the camp include Melanie’s uncle, brother and the love of her life Jared. Wanda convinces herself she’s also in love with Jared because of the memories she sees from Melanie.
Needless to say, the non-infected humans lock her up because they see she’s been infected. Eventually, she is let out of her prison and starts making a life for her. She slowly becomes friends with Melanie, realizes she’s not in love with Jared, but in love with a man named Ian, who is also living in the camp. You can only imagine how big of a mess that love rectangle is.
The aliens come to look for Wanda, and needless to say stuff goes down. I won’t say anything else because I’ll end up giving the ending away, and I don’t want to do that.
I was enthralled with this book. There aren’t a lot of books out there that grab your attention from the very start and keep you hooked for 400 plus pages. I think the only reason I stopped reading this book was to change classes and drive home from school.
Meyer distinguishes Melanie from Wanda in a way the reader feels for both of them, but at the same time knows they slowly grow into two halves of one person. I didn’t like Jared. He’s a jerk face, and I want to punch him in the face. Ian on the other hand is a total babe. I want to jump into the book so I can hug him.
It’ll be interesting to see how the movie adaptation depicts the book. The main thing that I’m worried about is if the voice over of Melanie inside Wanda’s head is lame. A good majority of the book is Melanie and Wanda having conversations in their head, so if they messed it up, I’ll be upset.
The book is definitely worth the read, and here’s hoping that the movie is worth seeing. It comes out Friday. Check out the trailer below.
