As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love. Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.
D0wn10ad Mirr0r. I love the characters, the plot, the writing style, everything I love everything about it! All the relationships are strong, the love is electric, and you feel everything they feel. This book has all the feels and it was such an emotional read for me. I cried a LOT, but I also smiled and laughed. The ending was done in such an incredible way. The host was so unique, I haven't read anything like it since.
View all 25 comments. Jun 04, Railee rated it liked it. Talk about an emotional roller coaster!!!! This book was very difficult to rate. If someone were to ask me, "Was it good? It was ok. Probably not. Was it exciting? On occasion. Was in interesting? Very much so, in my opinion. Was it weird? Were the characters well-developed? After the first half of the Talk about an emotional roller coaster!!!!
After the first half of the book, yes, I suppose. The Host is about a species of aliens who call themselves Souls. They are born without bodies and can not live very long without one, so they live like parasites inside the bodies of other creatures, completely taking them over.
These "souls" come to earth and take over the bodies of mankind, living peacefully as they experience the new world around them. The main character of this book, through whose eyes the events of the story are witnessed, is a soul named Wanderer who takes over the body of a young woman formerly known as Melanie.
When Wanderer realizes that Melanie is still alive inside of her body, she tries desperately to fight her out, along with the painful and wonderful memories of the man Melanie is in love with. Eventually, Wanderer falls in love with this man, too, through Melanie's memories and the two of them set out to find him. I don't usually read Science-fiction, and so maybe that's the reason I found this book so odd. I wouldn't have picked it up, knowing the storyline as I did, except that my sister had it in her room and I was bored.
It was interesting to read the descriptions of human emotions through a character who's never felt them before. Happy, sad, angry, jealous, confused, hurt, obsessed, offended, frustrated, loved, hated, admired, rejected It ended the way I wanted it to, which made me happy, but There were just a few things I would have changed had I been the editor of this book. There were two in this book that were completely pointless, like she just wanted to write them.
There was one that was almost pointless, but I can see why she would think it necessary. I'm not against kissing in books or anything like that, but there is such a thing as overdoing it to the point of ridiculousness. I wished there would have been more after "the problem" was fixed. Hopefully anyone who's read the book knows what I mean by that. To me, the book really got interesting near the middle, and it kind of dragged a little before that. But it wasn't really boring That's it! This book was uneventful for how long it is!
But I wasn't ever bored, exactly. Stephanie Meyer is too good of a writer to allow that. There was always something I enjoyed about it, but there was just enough that was weird or not quite right about it that I can't say that I loved it.
In conclusion: I don't know exactly what I think of this book. It was enjoyable! I'm not sorry that I read it! But it was weird, and I would have liked it better with a few changes here and there. View all 15 comments. Nov 01, Shannon rated it really liked it Shelves: sci-fi , Aimed at the adult science fiction crowd, as opposed to the Young Adult Twilight fanbase, The Host isn't about science or where the human race is headed, but about what it means to be human, here and now.
Earth has been quietly, non-aggressively conquered by a kind, pacifist species unable to lie or deceive, who go by different names on different planets in different languages. Here they call themselves "souls", while the rebel humans who have slipped through the net call them "parasites". They a Aimed at the adult science fiction crowd, as opposed to the Young Adult Twilight fanbase, The Host isn't about science or where the human race is headed, but about what it means to be human, here and now.
They are silvery, ribbon-like sentient creatures small enough to hold in two hands, covered in feathery antennae. Inserted into the back of a host body's skull, they take over a host's mind and motor functions to the point that the host's mind is completely subsumed: in effect, killing them.
That is, until Earth, where the hosts fight back. Wanderer has lived full life cycles on nine other planets - a record among her kind - before taking a human host, a young woman called Melanie. Unfortunately, Melanie's not going away without a fight, and on top of the gamut of new and intense human emotions Wanderer must contend with, she also struggles to take complete control of her host and find the memories Melanie's keeping from her - memories of her brother Jamie and the man she loves, Jared.
They'd managed to elude the alien takeover, until Melanie was caught. As Wanderer gradually gets to know and understand Melanie, she dreams more and more of Jared and Jamie until she finds herself ruled by Melanie's desire to find them, a desire stronger than the need to keep them safe from the parasites.
While the story is very different from Twilight , the writing is much the same, and there are certain qualities in the characters that are becoming almost Meyer trademarks.
I can already hear the same complaints and criticisms as I've read regarding the other series, but I'm not sure what these people are expecting - highbrow literature?
The earth to move beneath their feet? Some people are never happy, and will often read a book determined to hate it. With one book they complain that something was mentioned and then seemingly forgotten, in another that something was repeated too many times.
Personally, I didn't have a problem with the repetition in Twilight and I don't have a problem with it here. I think the first readjustment to my assumptions was with the alien race and Wanderer in particular. When I read about the book last year, I assumed the aliens are aggressive and cruel and the humans would be portrayed as humane and vulnerable.
That's how it usually goes, after all, though I don't care for it. The opposite is true here however: the humans are portrayed as greedy, deceitful and violent - which we are, pretty much, especially when cornered - while the souls are kindly, generous, non-suspicious, terrified of humans and - apart from the Seekers - couldn't harm a fly. Especially Wanderer. It's not easy having a pacifist as your main character and narrator, especially one who's easily scared.
But Wanderer has her moments of strength too, and resourcefulness, as well as her moral dilemma which is what really carries the story. Regarding the other characters, I really didn't like Jared, and Wanderer's attraction to him is one of the weakest points of the story. The point is made that she loves him because her body, Melanie's body, loves him and responds to him, and her mind too in a way.
But it just didn't gel for me, probably because he doesn't come across well. His own dilemma - that the woman he loves is trapped inside a body ruled by an alien - gives him some excuse, but really, what's this thing Meyer has about women loving men who treat them horribly?
Edward was pretty mean to Bella in the beginning, remember? Anyway, I liked Ian early on and it was pretty frustrating, the way Wanderer treated him etc. The themes of the novel are pretty obvious, and definitely well-meaning, but still interesting.
Questions of whether humans deserve to live on when we are so cruel to each other, and waste resources etc. The souls don't even use money, they take only what they need, and treat everyone with the same kindness.
This raises the age-old issue of individuality, which is often the victim - and the ace up humans' collective sleeve - in such stories. Definitely one of the things I liked about this book was the conflict between Melanie and Wanderer, having two minds in one body with one more dominant than the other. It reminded me of Annon and Riane in Eric van Lustbader's Pearl Saga, a boy in a girl's body whose individual identities are slowly merging yet still conflicting - written so well, I think Lustbader created a whole new gender.
It's simpler here because they're both female, but other problems arise because of it - like loving the same man, or of Wanderer wanting to respond to Ian but unable to because her host body lusts after another man. Among other things ; Because I didn't like the characters as much as I did in Meyer's Twilight series, I didn't fall in love with this book. It's an oft-times exciting story, with moments of tension and uncertainty, but I would have liked to understand the souls more - I didn't really understand where they came from or how they came to be, it's kind of like the chicken-or-the-egg: if souls can't survive without host bodies, how did they come to be?
How did they get inside their first hosts? Not enough to annoy me, but it's there nonetheless. In short, if you enjoyed the Twilight series, you'll probably enjoy this because it means Meyer's style won't aggravate you; if, on the other hand, you didn't enjoy them, and you have bitched and moaned about her writing style like so many other people, I'd rather you didn't read The Host , not 'cause your criticisms will be wrong, but because you're missing the story.
I should know, I've bitched and moaned about books I don't like often enough before. But I don't usually go on and read more books by the same author, unless I'm hoping they'll have improved.
And I think Meyer's writing is improving, but it is what it is: simple, unadorned, reflective, introspective but not too much , and clear. Even the repetition is necessary, which I think is true of Twilight as well. View all 37 comments. Nov 29, Matthew rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult , kindle , , own , sci-fi. Not a bad sci-fi story. A little like the Twilight series - some of the formula poured over into here. I feel like the creativity level was a lot higher as Meyer was working with an alien species of her own creation and not necessarily the myths and legends of the vampires and werewolves.
My only issue is that it seemed to drag on a bit at times. This was only compounded by its length. This is one of those books that I think could have benefited with a trimming. I think this book was advertised as Not a bad sci-fi story. This is an interesting place to bring up the argument about what makes a book YA? I have seen some books designated YA and it seemed to be only because one of the main characters is a teenagers.
Other times, there are books where all the characters are adults that feel so YA it's not even funny! I don't think you can go wrong with this one if you are looking for a thrilling, sci-fi, YA novel - if you don't mind a bit of filler!
View all 26 comments. Apr 30, Tatiana rated it did not like it Shelves: , tres-annoying , why-the-hype. I just can't comprehend why so many people are rating this book 5 stars. Seriously, why? I understand we are in love with Twilight, but it's not a good enough reason to support this mediocrity.
I was extremely disappointed by Breaking Dawn, but decided not to be a hater and give SM another chance. So I opened The Host. I have to say, I have never had to put this much effort into reading a book in my life. If I didn't know who SM was, I wouldn't even bother to read after page 10, it was that bori I just can't comprehend why so many people are rating this book 5 stars. If I didn't know who SM was, I wouldn't even bother to read after page 10, it was that boring and uninspired.
But because of SM, I continued on, especially after some people told me that it would get better after about pages. Oh boy, were they wrong! I was more like pages.
It took me 3 days to get through first pages to compare, it took me probably about 3 days to read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. After that I just skipped through the rest of the book within a couple of hours. You can literally read every 50th page and not miss anything! There is absolutely nothing going on in this book! Pages and pages of conversations between Wanda and Melanie.
And both these characters are so undeveloped, it's hard to tell them apart. In fact, it's hard to get attached to any character in this book! They all are so flat and dull. Trust me, it is neither. The sci-fi backdrop of this novel is laughable. Altruistic "souls" that save planets from cruel species, among these "cruel species," believe it or not, are: Flowers, See Weeds, Bats It is just plain ridiculous!
There is very little romance in the book either. A couple of kisses between underage girls and older guys is all you get, in spite of the fact that this is SM's "first adult novel. Give me a break! So many reviewers say that this book has a deep meaning, that it shows "what it means to be human" and demonstrates that we can "extend the status of "human" to other entities," etc.
I think these people have never read actually good books. In fact, I don't think they have ever read anything but Twilight before. This is definitely the end of my love affair with SM's writing. I think she struck gold with Twilight, the rest of her creations are just plain bad. You may disagree with me, but this is the reality.
View all 27 comments. Feb 13, Lissa added it Shelves: Nothing is happening. Nothing has happened. And the aliens who invaded still make junk food. An alien invader who could read the mind of its host would learn to only make food with essential nutrients and stuff, to keep the populace as healthy as possible. They wouldn't waste time and effort making junk food.
This book literally put me to sleep. I said I was in the bath for an hour. I was asleep for half of that time. And then I was so mad that the book was so shitty I got out of a perfectly nice bath. And it's made me half sad and half really fucking angry. I like Twilight. It's not the best book or series in the world but it is special to me because I burned out my reading after doing a literature degree, and it took me a year to even pick up a book.
Twilight was that book. It welcomed me back into the world of reading, and I've slowly been enjoying it more and more for the past two years. It was easy to read, fast, and relatively painless until you start looking at the deeper aspects. This book is fucking stupid. I don't care how much worldbuilding has gone on or how many different species of aliens there are or even what it's like seeing their worlds from their perspective.
Which I should, becasue that is what is awesome about sci-fi. But who the fuck would want to live their life as an inter-connected sea weed? Or a land-based plant? They don't do anything. They just grow and reproduce. They don't live. They just exist. In Animorphs, the book series by Katherine Applegate the idea pretty much mirrors I know it's not original but I grew up with it so bite me , the Yeerks evolved alongside the Gedds, and the Gedds were pretty crappy hosts anyway.
The Yeerks were expanding to give their brethren better hosts so they could experience the world like everyone else: notably, Yeerks are blind, and they love being able to see through their hosts. Souls are obliterating entire races just because they think they can do better. How the hell did souls evolve and how the fuck did they evolve so that they need to be surgically implanted?
The Yeerks evolved a way of doing it themselves, with anaesthetic solutions to dull the pain of drilling into the brain. The souls literally makes no sense. To gain the abilities to take over the brain of another host you'd need very specific evolution, and when technology is introduced evolution stops. This is why humans haven't evolved for a very long time, because they've been using tools and technology for ages - manipulating the world around you, adapting to change such as wearing clothing in colder climates leads to no need to evolve, for example, fur.
So how do you get a soul from its pre-parasitic days to a parasitic state via evolution if they need to be surgically attached? In Twilight, red-eyed vamps are the bad guys and golden-eyed vamps are the good guys I don't remember if anyone says what colour eyes the vamps who drink donated blood from a bag have.
In The Host, the parasites give people a shine around their pupil. Meyer may be reading too deeply into the whole 'eyes and the window to the soul' thing. Ha ha, I just made a funny. And the book opened with a scene that was just contradictory. Don't say something is really fucking easy and then go and show exactly how not-easy it is.
Fucking fuck fuck can you tell I'm exasperated? And where is the conflict? No idea what information it is or why it's so important they get it. Suspect it's something to do with the location of the rebel base.
Insert Star Wars joke reference here. I read pages and nothing has happened! At least in pages Bella had met Edward! Such as no prologues, for example. Sometimes inciting incidents are happening on the first page!
The first chapter! It's totally awesome when that happens. But why should I bother reading the rest of the book when I've given it pages to give me anything and all it's done is wasted my time? I mean, why should us newbies stick to the rules when veterans can break them and still rake in a payload?
I know the answer to that. They're famous. And it boggles my mind WHY. I hope Meyer wrote this in her spare time for herself because I fucking love light sci-fi and I hate to think she sat down and decided the market needed this. This book should be ashamed to call itself sci-fi. But it's just made me fucking mad. Mello and Cory, I should have listened to you. I'm so sorry. Forgive me.
I can't write any more because the nap in the bath made me sleepy and when I get sleepy I get emotional and I refuse to cry because I hate a book so fucking much.
View all 47 comments. Feb 20, Lucie V. Body and soul. Two different things. What if you then found yourself surrounded by violent aliens who hated you and hurt you and tried to murder you, over and over again? He is definitely one of my all-time favorite characters. He is so kind, and thoughtful, and amazing. I love him. The Host takes place in a post-apocalyptic reality. Parasitic aliens have taken over the Earth, they travel from planet to planet, and are implanted in host bodies to experience what it is to live as different species.
They are virtuous and peaceful beings, trying to perfect our world and to create a utopic planet where human violence and greed do not exist anymore. When a Soul is implanted in a body, the host's consciousness usually fades away, but not in the case of Melanie Stryder.
When a Soul is put into her body, Melanie refuses to give up and disappear, and her mind battles with the Soul's mind Wanda as the story progresses. I love that the main character is Wanda, the alien, but since she is sharing a body with Melanie's consciousness, we get to know them both intimately, and we realize that the Souls might not all be as bad as they seem.
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Celebrate the 10th anniversary of twilight! Here is a little something I wrote to pass the time Those where the good days. My thoughts on this book are well… It's in development hell It would not be a hard sell If it would just come out The Seeker will be so rad Werewolves and vamps were a fad This wait just makes me so mad Why can't it just come out! Your just wasting time now Twilight was your cash cow Why did you stop writing Meyer? There was info on her website that I occasionally check hoping for news on this book.
Ah well. And for those still wondering, since the day I wrote this review, I have waited 2, days for this book to be written. This amounts to Slightly over a quarter of my life. In another six years I can add the meme of Sirius Black shouting about how long he waited. Edit March 13th, List of things that happened before The Seeker which shock me: 1.
Wonder Woman movie 2. Avengers movies 3. Me going out on actual dates 4. Kingdom Hearts 3! And it was horrible : 6. Power Rangers Remake with cameo from the best ranger ever Kimberly, don't me 9.
An allegedly bad Stars Wars movie? I don't actually watch SW, but Solo sounded like a miss. How did that beat The Seeker! My trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Butterbeer is terrible, btw. While that number oddly satisfies me, that means it's also I'm not 30 yet!
So there is still hope that this book get's written before then. Stephenie has a countdown on her website! Probably not. Edit The Next Day Quar. Day 48 It's not The Seeker. It's Midnight Sun.
I'm so sad right now. Well, maybe this means she's writing Seeker I've never been so crushed man. This is awful. I'm happy for those of you who want Midnight Sun, but as someone who is nearing 30 I've kind of become against Edward in recent years. Like, him sneaking into her room to watch her sleep if creepy af. It's time to celebrate this momentous day! Break out the fireworks and the confetti! Grab a glass or open a bottle of your favorite beverage and grab you some cheesecake because today's the day!
Bit surreal to think about it. I was in college when I began this, and now I have a steady career teaching and a house. I'm a somewhat competent adult. It's odd. Anyway, here we are. Time to update the list! List of things that happened before The Seeker which shock me continued:
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