#bootk

[netlex]

Andrea del Sarto, La dame lisant Pétrarque (© Uffizi, Florence)

[eternallyimaginative]

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Book: The Host 

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Publisher:   Little Brown and Company

Release Date:   Janyary 1st, 2008

Format: Hardcover

Pages:  620

Started Reading: April 9th, 2020

Finished Reading: April 13th, 2020

Summary (supplied from GoodReads):    Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.  

My Thoughts: Honestly this is my favourite Stephanie Meyer book that I have read. I love Twilight, but I can definately point out the flaws as seen in the book review for each of the Twilight books. 

I adore Melanie and Wanderer (Wanda) as characters. I love how they are opposites, yet they compliment each other so well. Seeing the transition between enemies/host and alien you see the transition in their relationship from start to finish, with the two girls seeing each other as family. 

A qualm that I do have with this book in regards to the Melanie and Wanda dynamic is that I wish there were more situations where Mel was present. Yes Wanda is the main character as the story is being told about an alien invasion from an anlien’s perspective, but in my minds eye if you’re going to be inside of a host, I would have liked to see more struggles between the two characters. I’m pretty sure this would have been the case if the story telling roles were reverse. 

Secondary characters, I won’t be saying too much about them so they will all fit into one paragraph. Jared and Ian, I like how they are similar to Mel and Wanda in contrasting the other party in the duos. Having said that though...I’m not a fan of Jared. I love the character of Ian a lot to he completely real. Qualms that I have regarding the character development though? I wish we got to see more of how Ian transitioned from hating Wanda to being friends with her, seeing more of the conflict with himself if you know what I mean. We certainly see it with Jared. Jamie? Love him. Jeb...I want him to be my crazy grandfather. Enough said. But, I think the most well written secondary character written was probably Doc. I mean when I started reading the book I felt Wanda’s anxiety about him like it was my own, but then the course of the story and you find out that he’s actually a very sweet character. Seeing that is very refreshing to me in books because it really makes you feel emotions alongside the character. 

Setting? I actually though it was very well done. Mind you I will completely have to warn anyone that has not read this book yet...you really have to be patient with it for the first 14 chapters. I say this because they are painful to get through, once you get to the human resistance in the desert caves though its smooth sailing that you can’t put down. 

Over all I really enjoyed the fact that this story is about an alien invasion, but told from an alien. I mean I usually can not even get into alien books at all, even when its “oh my god we’re being invaded!” But, this one had a completely different take. Its was we’re going to write it as an alien and make her end up empathising with the humans. It really does make you question your moralities when you read the conficts that Wanda has with herself and the conflicts that she deals with from the humans. 

Verdict: Hands down I think I’m going to have to rate this one a 4 out of 5 for myself. Its far from perfect, but its definitely up there on books that I have the least amount of qualms with.