The Host

Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: fiction, science fiction, romance
Publication info: Little, Brown and Company, 2008
Pages: 619

Novel #3. I'm very hesitant to write this review.

You may ask, Have I no integrity? Have I lost my taste? Does a grade mean so much to me that I'll stop at nothing? The only answer I can give is an awkward shrug and a shuffling of feet.

Before I am attacked by offended Stephenie Meyer fans, I will say that think this book isn't too bad. I even enjoyed it at times. I was told that people who can't stomach the romance-heavy Twilight novels may find this book more palatable. They may be right, but I'm not going to read Twilight to find out for sure.

The premise of The Host is actually pretty interesting. Earth has been taken over by an alien species, called souls, that live by inhabiting the bodies of other creatures. Meyer isn't the first one to try this idea, but she gives it an interesting twist by telling the story from the point of view not of a human, but of a soul. A soul called Wanderer. She has been on many different planets before this one and therefore has a lot of experience, but she has never come across a challenge such as her human host presents. Her name is Melanie Stryder, and she will just not go away. She keeps showing up in Wanderer's thoughts, to the point where she can influence the soul's feelings and behavior.

Interesting, right? But I have left out a key element that so far has been at the center of every one of Meyer's novels: romance. It is love for a man, it turns out, that is keeping Melanie alive. It is love for a human that leads Wanderer to go against all the norms of her alien society. It is love that Meyer assumes the reader is most interested in. Maybe most of them are, but I came to this book expecting to read a science fiction novel, for that is how the book is marketed. I've read a fair share of science fiction and more or less know what to expect. And while I appreciate Meyer's efforts at shaking things up—her novel is much more character-driven than most science fiction—let's not pretend that this is what it isn't. This is a romance. A science-fictiony romance, but still a romance.

If you like romance, great. You'll probably like this book. I hear it's more tasteful than the Twilight series (although it does have its moments of, shall we say, too much detail). I myself am not totally against romance, but I do have my limits, and The Host flirted with those limits. Although my experience was far from terrible, it's pretty safe to say I've read my last Stephenie Meyer novel.