The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

This book is catorgorized as Adult Fantasy. I'm not a big fan of fantasy. When I bought this book I wasn't sure if I would like it or not. Stephenie Meyer has only written the bestseller, fabulous Twilight saga before and I wasn't sure how Stephenie would go from Teen Romance with a hint of Fantasy to fullblown, as I had thought, Adult Fantasy.

Stephenie Meyers first book out of the Twilight series was phenomenal. Really. It was pretty slow in the beginning, but about 80 pages or so into it it picked up, big time. You know 80 pages isn't big at all for a 619 page book, right? When Wanderer and Melanie started to really talk to her, it was interesting. I like how Wanderer descibed her pain and feelings for the two men Melanie had lost. The feeling had gotten so powerful, she just had to find them. And that is when the books takes off.

I was so sad in many, many parts of this novel. For Wanderer and Melanie both. In some parts when Melanie spoke often you just felt trapped. Like whenver Melanie was trying to help Wanderer in terrible situations, she couln't.

The love in this novel was very powerful. Wanderer loved many people and Melanie loved them too. It hurt when they didn't love them back for how much they were feeling.

After reading 3 fabulous books in the mind off Bella in Twilight, you might've thought that they would have huge similarities and that they were, actually the same people. Because, truth be told, some authors DO write different novels and the main characters DO act the same. But here in The Host, this wasn't the case. I didn't not think of Bella whenever I was with Wanderer and Melanie, at some points I actually thought how much they were SO different. It was incredibly great.

Stephenie Meyers writing is the most unique I have seen lately. Her vocabulary is huge and her interest in the characters in apalling. You just cannot like her writing. You can't.

Read On!

Kelsey