MC- The Host. Innocence, Violence and Love Triangles

Better Late than never right?

I fell asleep xD so I’m writing this now instead.

Right, Today’s review was a toss-up between Book A and Book B... so I’m gonna flip a coin.

It’s heads, so Book A can be revealed to be...

The Host by Stephenie Meyer!

Now I know that I have previously made my annoyance at Twilight fairly obvious... I mean it’s decent enough but nothing special when compared to a lot of other vampire series.

I’ve been reading a lot of non-manga lately, and I blame HagelRat xD it’s always going to be her fault... damn her lending me good books and reminding me how much i love fantasy romances!!!

I’m not a sci-fi fan...

so I wasn’t actually keen on reading The Host when I got it for christmas last year alongside the Twilight saga. I gave it a try in the summer when the days got long and I’d exhausted my supply of stuff to do, and I didn’t eat or drink for a whole day.

I literally read it in one mega sitting.

My dad tried to remove it from my bedroom to stop me reading it that night like he used to do with the Harry Potters when I was little... needless to say I’m more stubborn than I used to be and simply kept awake until he’d gone to bed and took it back =D.

(HagelRat... I’m not sure you should tell Dad that...)

Anyway, The Host is basically a more adult novel from the queen of teen vampire lovers, and is set about a decade after humanity has succumbed to what are, essentially, alien invaders.

And I have to say... when reading the book, everything is incredibly realistic.

It's cited by Meyer as "Science Fiction for people who don't normally like Science Fiction" (Although I lent to to a sci-fi geek who LOVED it and bought their own copy.

The plot follows one of the race of “Souls” (alien parasites that possess “Hosts” from other planets, taking over their bodies and lives to live out however many lifetimes they want to on however many worlds they want to). The Protagonist Soul is a female called Wanderer, famous for being born on “The Origin”, the Hosts’ original world, and then travelling through almost all the worlds under the control of the Souls.

I need to point out right now that the Souls despise violence of all kinds. When they take over worlds their Hosts don’t realise until they have complete control.

Wanderer is placed in the body of a Human found in Chicago about five years after humans were thought to be extinct, and she discovers through the body’s memories that there are more humans alive and living somewhere near San Francisco in a hideout. A scary thought (since humans are naturally violent) but she can’t help the other Souls find the location because her body- Melanie -won’t let her access the memories.

Which, again, is worrying. Human souls are meant to disappear when a Soul is inserted. But Melanie is very present, she shouts at Wanderer and tries to regain control of her body.

Eventually, Wanderer makes the difficult decision to change bodies (skipping- something she hates the idea of as it’s disrespectful to the Host body.) and travels towards San Francisco.

See the problem here?

Melanie shows Wanderer what it’s like to be human through her memories, and Wanderer begins to love Melanie’s human companions as much as Melanie herself, and impulsively heads into the wilderness to find the hideout... and Melanie’s brother and boyfriend.

This is where things get exciting.

When Wanderer is captured by the Humans, she is beaten and starved underground, for she is everything the Humans in the caves hate.

Unexpected help comes from Jeb, Melanie’s eccentric uncle, and Jamie, her little brother. With the gun, Jeb enforces the idea that although in Melanie’s body, Wanderer is one of his guests, and slowly, some of the humans begin to befriend her.

Most of her wounds start to heal too xD

The book actually acts as an interesting representation of humanity through the eyes of total innocence. Wanderer can’t physically bring herself to be violent, and is traumatised when Melanie hits someone with their right hand in a moment of lapsed control, yet she accepts that human’s are naturally violent and forgives everyone who does her wrong.

She also can’t lie, and when one of the men tries to kill her and Jeb threatens him with the gun, she tries to convince Jeb that it’s better to shoot her instead.

I got incredibly involved in the characters and storylines, and whenever I start reading I do not put it down until the end. It’s admittedly slow to start, but the first chapters provide an essential background for the rest of the story.

Wanderer is by far one of the most likeable heroines (that doesn’t fight back) I’ve ever read. (There’s none of Bella’s whininess and she’s strong in her own quiet, more grown up way). Melanie’s contrasting temper and hardiness makes for interesting internal conversation between Soul and Host, and the developing relationships are on a deeper and much more insightful level when compared to the ones in Twilight.

And you’ll never see the twist coming.

This is basically as advanced, compared to Twilight, as flint daggers to machine guns.

Stephenie Meyer has done good.

And... I’ve held my fangirling off until the very end.

But I can’t keep it in.

There are two planned sequels.

AND A FRICKING MOVIE

I can’t wait.

I’m gonna go squeal in amazement again.

OMGEEE

MangaCat out!