"The Host"

Written by: Stephanie Meyer
619 pages
Overall Grade: A

I am going to start by saying: I love this book!I love the premise, the characters, and the ride they take you on. I am a fan of Stephanie Meyer's work and she really delivers in her first installation of adult fiction. Everything is more grown up: the characters, their struggles, and the tone of the piece. While I still am a Twilight fan it was refreshing to see Stephanie spread her wings and get to write from a character's perspective who isn't a whiny teenager who has too many good looking boys falling all over themselves to get near her. I feel like this book really showed the world that Stephanie Meyer is not a one hit wonder with the Twilight series but that she will be here for many years to come, I hope.

On to the story. Wanderer is the main character. She is an alien. Aliens have taken over earth and humans now are on the endangered species list. But the fun twist is that the aliens do not have bodies that last on their own, they are parasitic in nature and use human bodies as their hosts, hence the title. Wanderer comes to earth and is put in the body of a full grown human, Melanie, and works at finding out where this human came from to help her fellow aliens root out 'the resistance' and make earth a completely subdued planet under their control. The drama begins when Melanie isn't just a memory but her spirit and mind are awake, active, and combating against Wanderer inside her own head. Bum bum buuummm!  :)

This book makes for such an interesting read because I have never read a book where two beings with thoughts, feelings, and opinions shared the same body. It is one of those things that makes you stop and wonder what that would be like, besides awful. Another cool aspect of this book is how little the world changes when the aliens take over. The sunsets are the same, there are still people at the beach, and people in the grocery stores. The biggest difference is the lack of crime, pain, disease, and a lot of the other things that makes our time on Earth sad. Stephanie has made the bad guys of the book, the aliens, the sweetest kindest beings on the planet. They really are loving, kind, gracious, and they truly believe they are helping Earth by getting rid of its evil and sadistic population of humans. An interesting thought to say the least.

As the story continues, we find that Melanie's constant thoughts and desire to be back with her "family" begin to effect Wanderer. As their relationship grows Wanderer is torn between staying and belonging with her own kind or going after the 'alien' family she has never known but who she finds herself loving. I will take a minute right here to say that this is kind of a chick book. But I strongly encourage men to read it too just because it is a good book and there aren't any graphic romance novel-esque scenes in the book or ooey-gooey love scenes either.

I don't want to give too much away in this review because I want you to go read it!!!! If you don't like Twilight it's okay I understand but don't let your dislike of vampires stop you from reading a good science fiction book. Live a little :)

Also of interest, they are making The Host into a movie. I am attaching the link so you can watch the trailer and look at the cast list.  "The Host" on IMDB  Enjoy!

Until next time..."Read in order to live." Gustave Flaubert