Bookworm Review: The Host

Jan 11, 2010 by Cynthia    4 Comments    Posted under: Bookworm Reviews

Ranking: Guilty Pleasure

For a girlish twist to the classic tale of alien body snatchers, check out Stephenie Meyer’s novel, “The Host.” Publishers Weekly recently announced this first attempt at adult fiction by the “Twilight” series author the third best selling book of 2009. Meyers herself claimed the story is “kinda my favorite thing I’ve ever done,” and let it slip that she envisions it as a three book series. Plus, a movie adaptation is currently in the works. With some initial trepidation, curiosity demanded that I give “The Host” a try. Would this alien by any chance sparkle, like some particularly popular characters from the Meyerverse?

Well, she doesn’t sparkle exactly, but she does shimmer. “Like a living ribbon…her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of them, billowed like pale silver hair.”

Meet Wanderer, a tiny parasitic alien capable of taking over the mind and body of other living creatures. The aliens systematically (and without any seeming guilt) farm out life forms on different planets, so whenever a host dies of natural causes, the alien is transferred and essentially reincarnated into the next body, with memories of the previous life intact. This particular “worm” (as the humans call the dreaded invaders) has lived in nearly all the known worlds but can’t seem to stick with just one as is common with her species. So she gives Earth a whirl, whose human population has been decimated by the alien settlers and where only a few scattered pockets of human resistance remain. The book begins with one such “wild human” survivor, Melanie, who has just been captured and whose body will soon host Wanderer.

While at first Wanderer’s bodily possession is an outright violation to the reader, she is ultimately sympathetic as a character, a sort of benign tumor. (Somehow Meyers manages to make a parasite a more mature and infinitely more likable individual than Twilight’s protagonist, Bella Swan.) However, Melanie’s incredibly strong will is not so easily subdued and Wanderer (or Wanda, as she is later called) cannot quiet all the whispers of Melanie’s determined thoughts, especially some nagging memories yearning for one particular human male named Jared. Who naturally happens to be pretty dreamy.

Exploring relationships, love and sacrifice in highly unusual circumstances, this novel is certainly more romance than it is horror/sci fi, and it’s pretty convoluted love geometry at that. Wanda is slowly consumed with Melanie’s latent emotions for Jared and soon joins Melanie in pining for him helplessly. United by their love, Wanda and Melanie reach a hidden stronghold of alien-free humans, where Jared now resides. He in turn cannot separate Melanie from Wanda emotionally or physically (and cannot hurt Wanda without hurting Melanie, not that it stops him from physically abusing her nor does that stop either of them from being hopelessly in love with him). Add to that love triangle another human, Ian, who falls in love with Wanda (despite her being the enemy and inhuman and all) and as a result can’t help but be indirectly attracted to her host Melanie. Top it all off with a smattering of illicit underage lust and you have a recipe for unfulfilled longing and dramatic suspense that lasts nearly 600 pages. Thankfully, in this Meyer novel there’s no “imprinting” on human/vamp hybrid infants or vampire fang-assisted birthing, but we will still classify this as 4 stars: a guilty pleasure.

Chickster Rating System
Five stars: Stellar all the way around.
Four stars: A guilty pleasure.
Three stars: Some great moments but leaves something to be desired.
Two stars: A bit dull.
One star: Rubbish. Don’t bother.

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