4 of 5 members found this review helpful.
“This is Stephenie Meyers first "adult" novel. Don't confuse adult with any kind of "mature audience only" labels...there is nothing in this book that would make it inappropriate for all the junior/young-adult and young at heart-adults that loved Stephenie Meyers Twilight series.
That said, don't expect this book- or its characters- to have the same magic as Twilight. Although the book was billed as "science fiction for people who don't like science fiction", frankly if you DON'T like sci fi (I do), you may not enjoy it (I did). The characters- although throughly believable- aren't strong enough to carry you into a new genre, the way Bella, Edward, Alice and Jacob carried many of us non-vampire types with enthusiastic surprise into their story.
The Host is the story of Wanderer, a non-violent alien soul implanted into a human host - the body of a girl who was named Melanie. Wanderer's species has taken over the earth, and most of the human bodies on the planet. Very few non-host humans are left, and those are hunted by the "Searchers." Most human personalities disappear when the new species is implanted into their bodies, but Melanie was so strong that her consciousness remains in her body with Wanderer, including her love for her brother Jamie, and a man named Jared.
Wanderer finds herself feeling Melanie's emotions, and having mental conversations with her. Initially these cause great conflict, but later the two girls sharing the same body become allies- most of the time. Melanie convinces Wanderer to go into the desert to search for her brother, the rest of her family, and Jared, the man she loves.
Wanderer eventually finds them, and a small community of unconverted humans living underground. Jared reacts with anger and violence to seeing the body of the girl he loved taken over by an alien, as do most of the community, with the exception of "Uncle Jeb" Melanie's uncle and the leader of the renegade humans, who prevents Wanderer/Melanie from being killed, and accepts her into the community.
The rest of the story chronicles the conflict of Melanie loving Jared, but not wanting Jared to touch or love Wanderer in her body, Wanderer having her own feelings of love for Jared that she absorbed from Melanie but not wanting to act on them and hurt Melanie, Jared hating Wanderer and not believing that anything of Melanie is left...and finally of Ian who comes to love Wanderer in Melanie's body.
The book is in written in first person from Wanderers point of view. There are some juicy attraction/emotional conflict scenes, lots of "what about the other side of the story/ethics" conversations, musings over all that is good and bad in the human race, touching moments of non-romantic love and self-sacrfice, and some slightly different takes on familiar sci-fi themes.
One of the most notable paradoxes is that Wanderer- the member of the "bad-guy/take-over" species- is the most noble and unselfish character in the book, and is often an example of true humanity to the humans. My only objection to the book is that there is a "mercy-killing" by the doctor of one of the human characters.
Overall, it's a good read and I liked it...but not as well as Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.”