At times we all feel a little hidden, like there are things in this world preventing us from being ourselves. The worst feeling comes when you realize that things are completely out of your control, the realization that you are helpless. Put these two feelings together, now you’re fading away and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Melanie in “The Host” knows what it’s like to be helplessly fading away. She is one of the few human souls that remained in their body after an alien soul was placed into their body.
“The Host” is set in the future world, when violence and crime have reached their highest points. “Souls” are alien creatures that are placed into human bodies to take control of the body. The humans body is then called a host. Souls see the humans as violent creatures, in their eyes they are just making our world a better place. In normal circumstances the human that used to control the body disappears as the soul takes over. The only evidence that a human had even lived in the body is a few memories that they leave behind. Those memories eventually fade away too.
Wanderer is placed into a body that already has someone in it, and unlike most humans she isn’t going to simply fade away. Melanie is determined to regain power over her body and kick the invader out.
Wanderer and Melanie can see what the other one is thinking. This is dangerous though because there are other humans that have not been captured that Melanie is trying to protect. Wanderer gets glimpses of memories in Melanie’s mind and she too falls in love with the man in her dreams and even the little boy. Together they set out on a mission to find Melanie’s family and fulfill her promise to return to them.
The thing I disliked most about the book was the beginning. It was boring and hard to get into. I didn’t start to like the book until the center. The beginning doesn’t explain things very well and it’s confusing. It doesn’t fully represent how good the book actually is. The author could’ve tied together some of the loose ends and improved it a lot.
The book was long but at times (like the beginning) it could’ve been longer and gone into more detail. Other than that the length was about right.
The story was not biased at all. The main character had the mind of an alien and of a human. At times they would each side with their origin but both sides were presented in such a way that it was hard for me to decide which I agreed with. Throughout the whole book I was unable to decide if I thought that the aliens had unfairly taken over the world or if they had good reason to.
Reading this book will make you think about love. It makes you wonder if anyone would go to extremes just to find you and fulfil a promise (like Melanie did) or if you would do that for someone that you love.