The Host- Stephanie Meyer

Slow Starting....but worth the wait.

Fans of Twilight will still like the host and so will female sci-fi fans who aren’t into vampires. I will warn you, it took me about 100 pages to really get into this book, but it was worth toughing it out. The story takes place in a future Earth where “peace-loving body snatchers” have taken over our planet. They have been here long enough to be the majority and the last remaining humans are in hiding. The aliens called “souls” are implanted into human bodies and then they take over still sometimes keeping the human’s memories and some personality traits. Wanderer, a old soul who has lived on more planets than most other souls, is implanted into Melanie’s body. Unfortunately for her, Melanie is letting go easily and the two of them are stuck in a power struggle. Melanie’s memories of her love, Jared, are haunting Wanderer and making her long for a man she has never met. Eventually they set off to find Jared and her brother, Jamie, who she was separated from when she was kidnapped. 

I liked the book mainly because Stephanie Meyer is such a good storyteller. I’m not usually into science fiction type stories but this is a great story about love and humanity. The issue I did have with this book is that occasionally when a new chapter started I felt like I’d missed something. The story would move ahead in time, skipping ahead quickly, but it would mention things that happened that were left out. It felt like some of things we miss should not have been skipped over and mentioned so briefly. It’s like your racing to the end at some points. I would recommend this book to all Stephanie Meyer fans but don’t expect another Twilight; it will not measure up. The story is far from the world of Forks and the love story is a much more confusing. Don’t judge the book until you’ve read at least 100 pages, then if you still aren’t into it you can put it down. But the slow start, leads to a surprisingly good story.