The Host by Stephenie Meyer - a Book Review

It is present day Earth and the Souls have taken over. They invaded quietly and adapted to human life as is their nature. They took on the characteristics of the people around them and no one was the wiser. Everything became happier. Disease, famine, murder--they were disappearing. That's when the humans realized something was wrong. But it was too late. One of the last remaining fugitives was Melanie Stryder. But she was caught and prepared to become a host to a Soul. The Wanderer had arrived on Earth. It was thought that she might be strong enough to cope with implantation in an adult human since she had lived eight lives on eight different worlds. She was unique in that. After two maybe three worlds, Souls chose a home planet and stayed there. But the Wanderer had never found a home. She woke in her new host body to find what she had been searching for: a life unique from all the others. Five senses, strong emotions and a planet more varied and beautiful than any other. But there was a problem. This body, her body, still contained the mind of Melanie Stryder. The mind of the host was supposed to be erased when a soul claimed the body. But Melanie was very much present in Wanderer's mind.

Wanderer tried to ignore her, tried to fight her, tried desperately to unearth her secrets about the last few remaining humans on earth and where they were located. But Melanie fought. Melanie refused to give up the location of those precious few survivors, but her subconscious betrayed her. She dreamed of them and longed for them until Wanderer became attached to them and loved them too. The Wanderer caved and with Melanie's direction she set off to find the last few survivors of the invasion. But what if they refused her? What if they killed her? She was, after all, one of the body snatchers who had taken over the planet, and most importantly she had no way to convince them that Melanie lived on inside her.

Stephenie Meyer has created a novel that draws you in from the beginning and keeps you guessing till the end. Her unique first person writing style creates a way for her to convey the fullness of her story and the struggles the main characters face without the need for the omniscient third person point of view that is the mainstream writing style. She describes the main character's thoughts and struggles with incredible dictions and attention to detail. The reader becomes the main character in Meyer's novels acutely feeling the struggles and triumphs the character faces and is captivated by the world Meyer creates. Meyer's ability to create a believable main character doesn't stop there but continues on into the minor characters that are so vital to her stories. The actions and conversations between characters are carefully constructed to convey the feelings and personality of the character that is speaking without the overuse of phrases such as "he said," and "Jeb said." Instead of using such boring phrases to explain who is speaking, Meyer describes the body language of the character that is speaking, effectively conveying which character is speaking while adding the extra unspoken language that brings the characters to life. Meyer is an incredibly talented author who centers her stories on her characters and creates an ingenious plot simultaneously. I enjoyed her Twilight Saga and The Host. I can't wait to see what she creates next.