The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Summery:

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. (Book description).

My Thoughts:

Since I just re-read this book for the zillionth time, I thought it would be a great place to start. While I may not be a huge fan of Stephenie Meyer, I really did love this book. Meyer's use of psychological terms entertained me since I recently had a quiz on a few of them in Psych 1101.

Full of adventure and romance with a Sci-Fi twist (Talk about body snatchers) The Host is told from the perspective of two characters... In the same body. Meyer shows all sides of human nature in this book, where humans are all but obsolete. What I thought was interesting is that you cannot hate the Souls. They are a kind species and has no capacity for hate (or that was before they took on the Human Hosts). The funny thing is, humans show the most hostility in this novel. Not the aliens that took them over.

Meyer really did an excellent job portraying Wanderer's love for Jamie and Jared, even though it began as a sort of handed-down love from the body Wanderer has taken over. What really caught my eye about this book is Melanie and Wanderer co-existing in the same body. Their conflicting personalities amused me, especially when they would try to do things just to annoy each other. At the end of this book, You feel like you really know the characters. Wanda's your friend, Ian's your boyfriend, and Jamie is your little brother. All together a great read. One that you can re-read again and again.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

"It's a strange world,"

"The strangest."