The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.99 You Save: $22.00 (85%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Host: A Novel
Book Review: A Fascinating Story!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the future Earth has been taken over by a unique alien species. The infiltration was slow and undetected until it was too late. Now these aliens, known as Souls, live inside human bodies, which act as hosts for the invading parasites. Usually when a Soul is placed in a new host it is able to take full control of the body, pushing aside any remnant of the human consciousness that once lived inside.
After a Soul named Wanderer is inserted into her new host she soon realizes something isn't right. It seems the human who once inhabited this body refuses to give in and die. Melanie Stryder wants no part of Wanderer and is doing everything she can to fight back. Even though Wanderer controls the body, nothing she does is able to quench Melanie's spirit. She is always there, in her head, so to speak.
As time goes by Melanie's memories become Wanderer's and soon she finds herself longing for the people that meant so much to her host. Melanie left behind her brother and the man she loves, and now Wanderer has developed those same feelings. Soon Wanderer and Melanie begin working together to track down Melanie's loved ones, all the while being careful that they don't lead the other Souls to the humans who are in hiding. When they finally do find them, they must figure out a way to live peacefully with a group of humans who have grown to hate Souls. Emotions flare and relationships are tested in agonizing ways as two lives must share one body and as enemies must learn to co-exist and survive.
Stephenie Meyer has taken the publishing world by storm with her groundbreaking young adult Twilight series. The Host is her first stand alone adult novel and millions of readers are anxiously waiting to see how it stacks up. Having never read any of the Twilight books, I didn't know what to expect from a Stephenie Meyer novel. What I found was a fascinating story that is really unlike anything I have ever read.
While this story certainly has sci-fi elements, it is not what most would consider hard-core sci-fi. Meyer focuses more on the relationships of the characters and the intriguing dilemma of two lives sharing one body. Much of the book deals with Melanie and Wanda's complicated love triangle with Melanie's old flame and Wanda's new love interest. There is action and suspense laced throughout, and Wanda's relationship with the surviving humans is tension filled to the max. The novel's real strength lies in the character of Wanda as she is constantly pulled between her duty as a Soul and the compassion she develops from her connection with Melanie and the other humans. Indeed, Wanda is the most human character of them all.
Meyer's writing is top-notch throughout and never lags despite the massive page count. Readers who expect a fast paced storyline wrapped up in a mere 100,000 words may be disappointed. However, those who enjoy a steady paced tale that slowly builds into a powerful and emotional ending will love The Host. In the end we are left with just the right amount of closure, but also with a little taste of what is to come. I can only hope Stephenie Meyer will continue this incredible saga she has begun.
Book Review: A Very Pleasant Surprise
Summary: 5 Stars
I was more than pleasantly surprised and shocked while reading this book. I have the first three books of the Twilight series and I will admit that I am not really a fan of them. The writing in those books is not very well done, plus I have problems with the storyline and the characters in general. Plus with all the hype surrounding them, it just makes the reading seem more tedious. Therefore I approached The Host with rather low expectations and prepared myself for another Twilight except with aliens. Boy was I in for a shocker.
When I started reading, I was amazed at how I got sucked into the book. I really didn't expect to, because my experiences at reading Twilight had been more like let's get the book over with quickly. This time I found myself drawn into the story, wanting to savor every word. I didn't speed through this book like I normally would, instead I read the book in snippets every day. It's not the type of book to rush through as it pull you in and you find yourself engrossed into the story. I found the storyline very interesting and I'm not a sci-fi or fantasy fan at all. The invasion of aliens on Earth, the takeover of human bodies as hosts and the struggle for the remaining humans for survival was believable and not done in a cheesy sort of way. It's a plot that one could see actually happening and the underground network of humans very much like a bomb shelterplot line.
The relationship between Wanda and Melanie is very unique because it's like having a two headed monster, without the second head. At first Wanda is kind of unlikable because she isdoing things the way her species is used to, by taking control of everything with no regard for their human hosts. However as the story progresses she soon learns more about the human species and even falls in love with one of them. The whole love triangle bit was a bit weird and took a while to comprehend, but it's written very well. It's more developed dare I say than the Bella/Edward/Jacob storyline.
There are just two qualms I have with this book. The first is that I didn't really like the way of how both Melanie's and Wanda's thoughts are in the same italicized font. It would have been better if Melanie's thoughts had just been italicized or if Wanda's had been put in a different font. As it stands, it gets confusing when the two are "talking" to each other and there's no distinction between the two voices. My other qualm was that I felt the ending to be rather disappointing. I felt that the story had built up to an intense level and then just dropped off. I'm not sure if this is because there is going to be a sequel to the book or what, but it felt like a cop out at the end of the story.
Still I will say that I really enjoyed reading this book. For a change it wasn't a fast read for me. Instead I had a savor it, a little bit at a time each day. Thus it took me longer to finish this book than I normally would. However, I felt that this was the best way to read the book as it's not one to devour in a span of a few hours. If Stephenie Meyer continues writing in this fashion, I will definitely start picking up her books now.
Book Review: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Summary: 5 Stars
The book THE HOST is a lot like Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT saga in the fact that the whole point of the story is that love is the most important thing. What's different though is (obviously) the storyline. Yes, that is right - this story has nothing to do with vampires; instead, aliens have taken over our planet.
The time is somewhere in the future and our world is not as we know it. Instead of mass murders making headline news, there are articles on the best type of flowers to plant. The most disturbing article is that the bridge near Maple Avenue is due for a repainting. The world is full of peace and love. No one argues, no one fights, and there is not even a hint of violence in this bizarre world.
Obviously, these are not humans we are talking about.
The aliens that came to Earth would capture a human to use its body as a host. (Hence the title.) They stretch their tentacles around the nerves and "control panels" located in our heads; thus gaining complete control of the body. Unfortunately for the human, this process eliminates them. The aliens were able to gain control of almost every person this way. By continuing their host's former habits they were able to go virtually unnoticed. Luckily for humankind, there are always a few observant people that actually see things the way that they truly are
Our story is focused on Melanie and Wanda. Melanie is (or was) one of those few humans that was able to escape. Unfortunately, she was caught and because she might have information on other fugitives stuffed in her head, Wanda is put inside her. When a soul is put in a human, it has access to every memory their host might have had. Well, at least that is what is supposed to happen. Instead, Wanda reaches some "walls" within her mind. She later finds out that Melanie is still in there and kicking. She is even able to communicate with Wanda, using her (or their) thoughts.
This starts a whole new thread of events. The most important being Melanie convinces Wanda to go and look for Jared, her true love, and Jamie, her little brother. They are both labeled as "wild humans." After getting lost in the desert and nearly dying, Wanda is found by the humans and is taken to their hideout, a large cave, as a captive. She is surprised to see so many other humans still without a soul within them and even more surprised to see Jamie and Jared have made it here.
Unfortunately many, including Jared, hate Wanda for what she is and what her kind has done to their world.
At first I thought the story itself was rather lame. I mean aliens...? Come on, can't she do anything better than that? Not to mention it had an extremely slow beginning. Once they reached the caves, though, things really heated up and Ms. Myer's amazing writing skills started to really shine through. Personally, I think that if anybody else tried writing a book with this specific topic it would go down in flames, but Stephenie Meyer was able to finish it with grace and in a way that made me want her to write a sequel.
Reviewed by: Abby - The Class
Book Review: A book that could lead to good discussions
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephanie Meyer is good at creating a new world that readers are curious to understand and explore. The Host is not one of those stories that leads up to a big, final battle in which the "good guys" defeat/conquer/overcome the "bad guys". This is a relationship driven story. It's about an alien that comes to understand love more deeply - from motherly love, to friendship/family love, to romantic love. The story is appealing because most of us can relate to feelings of being a misfit, and the deep desire to belong, be accepted, and to be loved.
Ways The Host is similar to the Twilight series:
- Both stories have a group of outcasts in hiding trying to survive
- The main character's internal struggle over who to be loyal to
- The main character's struggle with gaining the trust of the outcast group
- Symbolism of the eyes. In Twilight the eyes tell about a vampire's diet; in The Host, the eyes indicate whether a person is human or alien
- The non-human characters' physical dependency on human bodies. In Twilight the vampires need mammal blood. In The Host, the aliens need sentient host bodies.
- The non-human characters' (vampires & aliens) potential for "immortality"
- The non-human characters' (vampires & aliens) don't get the same opportunities as human in experiencing a parent-child relationship
Potential discussion questions:
- How much of "who we are" is our Body and how much is our Mind?
- The story explores how an alien soul controls the host body. The story shows how humans have some kind of intelligence/mind/spirit that is a separate entity from their body. We learn through the story where the aliens' souls come from, but the story doesn't talk about where human spirits comes from. The author has religious beliefs, but she doesn't bring any of that into her writing. However, this story does present the opportunity to discuss the origin and potential for human spirits.
- Even though we don't have aliens taking over our bodies, what other entities are trying to influence our thoughts and behaviors? Some examples would be the news media, advertising, political campaigns, parenting methods, educational slants, etc. What about something like the devil as portrayed in C.S. Lewis's novel "The Screwtape Letters"?
- Many of the characters in this story have a hard time separating Melanie from Wanda. The characters looked at Melanie's body and had a difficult time recognizing the two different entities inside. Compare and contrast this to how we often look at outside appearances. How do prejudices about beauty, age, race, gender, health, etc., affect the way we view the person on the inside?
- What does it mean to "be human"?
- Who "owns" a body? What ways did the story explore different definitions and types of ownership over a body?
- What some examples about how the characters where affected by their ability (or inability) to see things from other people's perspectives.
- Are there some ways in which Earth is a better place because of the Souls?
Book Review: Another captivating world of Meyer's--with less vampires
Summary: 5 Stars
The Host, released May 6th, 2008, is Stephenie Meyer's first book aimed at adult audiences as well as her first science-fiction novel. This book is like a romantic War of the Worlds--it includes an alien invasion, but with much less blood and guts. In the book, the world has been taken over by aliens called "the souls," who implant themselves into human bodies, leaving mankind nearly extinct.
After the soul Wanderer is placed in the body of Melanie Stryder, things become complicated when Melanie doesn't fade away like she is supposed to. Living with the host's thoughts and memories invading her head, Wanderer soon begins to fall in love with Melanie's boyfriend, Jared, and decides to go looking for him. Thus, a complicated love triangle ensues.
Stephenie Meyer wrote The Host just as she was wrapping up her bestselling series Twilight. With an English degree under her belt, the mother of three began her first novel just five years ago. Meyer says that her method of writing is telling a story that interests her and thinking about her audience later.
Her methods sure have captured my fascination. As she does in all her books, Meyer has a way of making The Host's supernatural creatures almost human. I found myself first starting to like and eventually love Wanderer's character. What is most intriguing about the story is that those who start out as villains become heroes and vice versa.
The reader is first made to see Wanderer as nothing more than an unfeeling parasite. As the story progresses, the reader begins to see humans act with cruelty while we begin to feel more connected to the souls. Meyer breaks down the barriers between species and universalizes emotions such as love, loss, and anger.
Another part of the book that I found particularly impressive was the dialogue between Melanie and Wanderer. Both voices come from one mind, yet the reader is still fully able to identify the two characters and see them as separate individuals. The most amusing parts in the story happened when Wanderer's attraction to Jared became apparent and Melanie reacted in a very "Oh, no you didn't" manner.
The only setback in my full enjoyment of the book was the rather slow beginning. Understandably, Meyer had to set up the storyline and give up some footing as to who these characters are before she creates any drama. Still, I was rather far into the book, wondering when any excitement was going to happen. However, once it did, I couldn't put it down until the end.
Because of the huge female fan base of Meyer's previous series, men may be a little reluctant to give this one a shot. In my opinion, The Host really is a book for all audiences, teenage and up. Men will most likely enjoy the sci-fi aspect of the book and women will focus on the love story.
Because of a couple of violent and slightly sexual scenes, I would not recommend this book to children. As for me, I am forever a sucker for Meyer's love triangles and look forward to the possibility of a sequel.