The Host by Stephenie Meyer

The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer

There's not a vampire to be found in this book. Nor are there werewolves, not that Jacob was a werewolf, he was actually a shape shifter who changed into a wolf.

This is more like invasion of the body snatchers, a race of aliens that goes from planet to planet taking over the bodies of the beings that reside there. They justify it by claiming that they make the worlds better, and in the case of earth, humans are so violent that they're actually doing them a favor.

As the story begins, the process is already well underway, and now the Wanderer, who has lived many lives on many planets in many different types of bodies, unusual even by her alien races standards, is inserted into Melanie, a fugitive who has finally been caught.

Only Melanie won't go away and disappear like humans are supposed to. Her soul is alive and kicking and leads the Wanderer on a trek that reunites her with her younger brother and her boyfriend and a hideout where other human fugitives survive. A hideout that the Wanderer should be reporting to her superiors but chooses not to, because now the Wanderer if feeling guilty for taking Melanie's body, and she's starting to like these humans.

I couldn't put this book down. You would think that a six hundred page novel that takes place mostly in a set of caves where nothing much happens would be dull, but it wasn't. Add into the science fiction element a romance, no, two romances and this one is a winner. Wanderer or Wanda as she's eventually called, struggles with her conscience between duty to her own race and empathy for her host and the other humans. As well, there is a hunt for Wanda by a determined alien who is convinced that Wanda knows far more than she's told. And of course there's also the humans who knowing what Wanda is, are battling within their community about keeping her around. She's the enemy but she's in a loved one's body who claims to still be there. Between that and the constant trial of obtaining food and supplies in world that wants to capture you and obliterate your soul, tensions are high.

It's not easy making the bad guy someone you want to root for. To be sure there was a big part of me that was thinking "Stop being so selfish. You've already lived hundreds of years. Get out of Melanie's body!" and another part of me that wanted Wanda to somehow survive, although not in Melanie.

We don't really get into Melanie's perspective. It's told from Wanda's but there are conversations between Melanie and Wanda and Wanda does let us know how Melanie is reacting to what's happening.

Meyer has improved from the first Twilight book. The protagonist doesn't faint every time something happens and the writing is simply better. Meyer has proven to be good at taking conventional horror stories (vampires, werewolves, body-snatchers) and given them her own spin, re-inventing and making them fresh again.

Other Books by Stephenie Meyer