Reading Time
1 Week
Rating
You’ve all heard of Stephanie Meyers, the famed Twilight author. Whether you loved her books or hated them, everyone has an opinion on the vampire/werewolf romance series. And while those books received worldwide attention, Meyers wrote another book that—in my opinion—deserves all the attention that Twilight received and more.
The Host was published around the same time as the first installment in the Twilight saga and quietly slipped into the background as Meyer’s other work picked up traction. While The Host is also a romance story, that’s where the similarities between the two novels end.
In Meyer’s post-apocalyptic world, aliens have invaded. Only small pockets of human resistance exist, hiding in the fringes of society and out of sight of the invaders. What I loved about this book right from the start was how atypical the alien invasion storyline was. There were no violent battles, gory alien takeovers or any other common invasion trope. In The Host, the aliens were smart, sneaky and quiet, because they didn’t just take over the planet; they took over the humans’ bodies as well.
This brings me to the second reason this book stood out to me; you’re reading it from the perspective of an alien that has taken over a “host body.” Because of this, we get to see humanity from the perspective of an outsider who has never felt emotions like we have, has never experienced senses like we do, and has to figure out how to become human in her new form.
This unique perspective showed me as a reader all the aspects of my life I take for granted, and how novel it is for a character who has never felt anything like humanity before. But, of course, there’s a twist. When the alien takes over a host body, the alien should be the only one left. That wasn’t the case for the main character of The Host, Wanderer (a.k.a. Wanda), who woke up to her new life on earth in a body whose original inhibitor was still alive and kicking in her mind.
Now we have some real conflict as Wanda is locked in battle for what she sees as her body and mind, while Melanie, the original human, is fighting to break free from deep within Wanda’s (once Melanie’s) consciousness—confusing, I know. It certainly gave me pause when I read this story. I couldn’t decide if Wanda was the protagonist or antagonist of the narrative. While she is part of an invading race, seeing the story from Wanda’s perspective makes you sympathize with the enemy.
And, like I mentioned earlier, this book is a romance novel. With Melanie still fighting for survival in the back of Wanda’s mind, she’s also trying to put up “mental blocks” to hide her memories of two other humans she was in hiding with before being caught—her younger brother and her boyfriend, the love of her life who she met a few years earlier. With her yearning for them too strong, and the threat of Wanda being placed in a new body because of the “resistant host” issue, Melanie decides to persuade Wanda to find these two humans and reunite.
What Wanda and Melanie find though is much more than either of them bargained for. They come across a group of human resistors and while Melanie is elated, Wanda is terrified. She is the enemy, and they certainly don’t know that a human is still living inside her mind.
This is where the story really takes off and navigates the reader through a harrowing journey of surviving in the face of tragedy, discovering humanity and what it means to love and be in love (get ready for an insane and messy love square—that’s right, square, not triangle).
I go back to The Host time and time again to reread when I’m in a reading rut. But just because I love it, doesn’t mean there are no flaws in the novel. On the contrary, there are parts of the story where I truly cringe while reading.
Take, for instance, one of the most tense scenes in the story, where Wanda is in a collapsing cave and needs to be rescued by another character. Of all the ways to describe the rescue, this would’ve been my last choice: He dropped to all fours and scuttled to me, his eyes burning in the light of dawn. Seriously, how can you not laugh at that visual?
Or this question posed by one of the characters: “Who can prove that it’s not the truth that sounds so false on its lips?” Believe me, this is a serious part of the novel; however, I can’t help but laugh at that line. Do you know anyone that would speak like that? Because I certainly don’t.
While the novel has its issues, it’s an addicting and enjoyable read with surprisingly deep themes that you wouldn’t expect from the author that brought us vampires who sparkle in the sun.
All in all, I highly recommend giving this book a read (but I urge you to pass on the movie, no need to waste two hours of your life on that). Whether you’re looking for a good romance story, a sci-fi plot or just something quick and addictive, The Host is the book for you.
Feature image courtesy of Unsplash
Paper & Lore 