The Host

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Goodreads rating: 3.87/5

My rating: 4/5

Pages: 619

Reviewed by: Amy 

Synopsis:

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

Review after the jump!

So I set out to see how this book compared to Twilight. I really wanted to see if the relationships in it were as sappy and senseless as the idea of twilight. Here are some general thoughts I had during the book.

- I was a bit confused in the beginning, however, I found that things cleared up as you read and learned who the characters were.

- It was kind of hard to understand who the souls were and how the process worked but, as stated before, it clears up as you read.

- The story overall, is a very interesting concept. An alien living among humans who hate it/her is very entertaining and was the element that really kept me reading. I loved seeing how the human community warmed up to her after shunning her. By the middle of the book I loved it. Taking away some of the sappy love parts it was an interesting story that I would like to see a movie to :)

- I'm not really into the whole relationship between Melanie and Jared... I mean... they are "completely in love" in just 4 weeks... eh not as bad as Twilight but still a little out there for me, especially since Jared is so much more older than Melanie. I just didn't like the pace of the romance, however, once they went into more background on their history, it was easier to accept

- However, I LOVE Melanie's and Wanderer's relationship :) They are sooo funny sometimes and how they do things to annoy each other is hilarious.

- Bluntly, Melanie's character bothered me at some parts. Mostly when she was complaining about Jared... I get your in love but come on, your strong enough to fight off the influence of a soul and you can't keep your drama with you and Jared down?

- One MAJOR part that bothered me was there was no clear line between when Melanie was talking and when Wanderer was talking. Often times I got part way through a paragraph only to realize it's Melanie talking and then, being confused had to re-read the paragraph... wouldn't be hard to put Melanie and Wanderer's inner conversations in something like Italics

- The story developed into an interesting love triangle (or square I guess). That was kind of interesting :)

- Toward the end, I actually cried.... that's all I'm gonna say. However, The very end... I called it and it really didn't blow me away. It had an interesting twist but was still kind of....eh. This was why it got 4 stars instead of 5 for me.