The Host

Hey everyone! Well it has been awhile since I've written on my blog due to my extensive amounts of AP homework and just general junior year craziness. But when I looked through my old posts, I noticed that I had been pretty critical of the Twilight series and Stephenie Meyer in general. While I stand by my previous statements about the Twilight series and Meyer's writing in that series, Meyer has written other books that better showcase her abilities as a writer. So, I decided to review my favorite Stephenie Meyer book, The Host.

The Characters: Melanie Stryder: taken over by Wanderer but refuses to fade away/sibling of Jamie and in love with Jared/knows the location of the resistances's hideout
Wanderer: the alien who has taken over Melanie/has been to numerous other worlds which have been taken over by aliens/has never been resisted by a host before
Jared: man who loves Melanie/is afraid it isn't really her and that it is some elaborate plot to hurt his family/is trying to protect Jamie
Jamie: Melanie's brother/the only person who likes Wanderer/looks up to Jared
Ian: brother to Kyle/in love with Wanderer/wants Wanderer to stay in Melanie's body

The Plot: Enter a world where the human race has been completely overrun by aliens. But these aliens you can't even see. These aliens attach themselves to the brains and spinal cords of humans, and take over the minds of the humans they possess. Over time, the human's soul fades completely away and the alien takes over the human body. No resistance, no means of defense. Until now. Melanie Stryder refuses to be taken over by the Wanderer, the alien who has entered her mind. As part of a secret group of free humans, Melanie is desperate to get back to her brother and her friends and she is determined to make it back with Wanderer's help. But even if they make it to the secret hideout, will Melanie and Wanderer be able to overcome their differences and learn to live together?

What I liked: The Host was a mesmerizing read. All of my complaints about Meyer's previous novels don't hold true in The Host. Instead of flat one-dimensional characters, you have the amazingly complex and gripping characters in Melanie and Wanderer. Melanie is torn between her desire to see her family, and the realization that they will never accept her because they don't believe she still exists. Wanderer is torn between her expectations as a alien and her strange attraction to this new world and people. The writing was flawless, and the plot was intense. When you read The Host, you are drawn into a read that touches you on a level beyond just reading. The Host forces you to consider what it would be like if the body of the person you loved was still there, but the spirit of the person was completely gone, replaced with the person who had taken your loved one away from you in the first place. To top that, Melanie and Wanderer each fall in love with different people, which raises the question whose body is it anyway and whose life is it now? It would be easy to side with Melanie if Wanderer was cruel, but Wanderer isn't. She is a kind soul who had never really considered the lives that were lost in the process of the alien takeovers. More importantly, you are left with a sense of originality that was lacking in the Twilight series. Meyer has a cast that doesn't leave you bored or irritated, and keeps the twists coming. The Host keeps you hooked from beginning to end, and unlike Twilight, you aren't left wondering why you picked it up in the first place.

What I didn't like: Honestly, I thought the whole novel was flawless. I absolutely loved it. As opposed to the other Meyer novels that were brimming with flaws, The Host had none. It almost makes you wonder how the novels that were written after The Host still have the flaws present in the pre-Host novels. My guess? That Meyer wrote Twilight when she wasn't very experienced as a writer, and when she went to write Breaking Dawn (final Twilight novel written after the release of Host) she was still stuck in the same ruts and had no way to get out. The Host was a clean slate, and Meyer could do whatever she wanted, unrestricted by the limitations of Twilight. If I was her, after writing The Host, I don't know if I would have been able to finish the series. Perhaps that is why she didn't seem to be as into her last novel, Breaking Dawn. When you read Breaking Dawn, you don't feel like it is even Stephenie Meyers writing and that maybe a direct result of her boredom with the Twilight series.

Overall: 9.5 out of 10. Stephenie Meyer gives me hope that she truly belongs on the New York Times Bestseller List.