The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Published in 2008 (May)
ISBN: 978-0-316-06804-8

Rating: Liked it (4/5)

I must write this review without the benefit of having the book in front of me. The morning after I finished it, I took it to work with me, for some strange reason. It turned out that reason was that J turned up at the store. J is about the biggest Meyer fan there is, as well as a former employee of the store. (I am, actually, J's replacement -- not that she can really be replaced.)

I made J's evening for the second time (the first being informing her of a new Mary Doria Russell novel [review here]) by offering her the ARC.

The Host does contain the same kind of plot holes that the Twilight series contains, though I did find them less irritating on a personal level. "Plot holes" might not even be the right term in the case of The Host, but they are questions that Meyer left unanswered and which make her setting rather unbelievable, distracting me from the story.

The premise is this. Earth has been taken over by parasitic organisms that negate the consciousness of the host body. Wanderer takes on the body of Melanie, a woman so opposed to being a host that she threw herself down an elevator shaft in an attempt to escape (unfortunately the aliens have superior healing abilities and the shaft was not quite high enough to out-and-out kill her).

As in the Twilight series, Meyer puts forth the idea of fated couples, and Wanderer cannot control her need to reunited with Melanie's family, a younger brother and her lover Jared. And, of course, it doesn't help that Melanie's consciousness refuses to be subdued. The back cover copy describes the situation as "a love triangle involving only two bodies". Really, as the story progresses, it becomes even more complicated.

Though Meyer's characters never quite grip me as real people, I will say she does one thing well, and that's keeping the reader attentive and turning pages. Line by line, she kept the questions going, until I wondered if she was Donald Maass' dream client.

It's a wonderful book and a fascinating story, but Meyer's prose never quite makes you stop, breathless, to think over what she's put before you. No scenes live vividly in your memory after you've closed the book. As you are reading it, however, she is a storyteller of the first water and taking her hand is tantamount to forgetting your problems for a short while.

Cate

ETA - Since several people has asked: I personally would have no qualms in giving this book to any teen who's read the Twilight series, but then I am a liberal and not a parent. The best thing for worried parents to do is to read the book yourselves and make your own decision. Even better, read it with your child, then if anything comes up with which you disagree, you can talk with your child about why it's right/wrong.