The Host (Book Review)

They’re back … aliens that is! And they are taking over the human race! What are we all to do?
Stephenie Meyer’s latest book The Host (unrelated to her popular Twilight series) is about alien body snatchers.

The story focuses on a body snatcher called Wanderer, a tough character until she takes on the body of a human named Melanie Stryder, a strong Arizona girl.
When the body snatchers take over human bodies, the humans’ personalities lay dormant in the body or simply vanish. But Melanie made a promise to her brother that she would come and find him if they got separated during the alien attack. So when Wanderer takes over Melanie’s body, she still lives inside. Everyone knows that Wanderer has taken over Melanie’s body because body snatchers leave a huge scar when they take over a human. But they don’t know that Wanderer and Melanie co-exist.
I couldn’t put the book down because I hoped it would be as good as the Twilight series. It was enjoyable, but it didn’t really catch my interest until the middle of the book, chapter 24 to be exact because I finally understood more about Wanderer once she was captured by the humans. I learned about her past and how she thought (instead of just knowing her as an alien). In Meyer’s other books, I saw the characters’ backgrounds and got to know them better. I couldn’t wait to see what happened to them next since I cared so much about them. But in The Host I didn’t get a chance to care about most of the characters.
The Host explores human emotion through a complicated love story. Melanie is in love with her former love Jared. Since Wanderer and Melanie share the same body, they share the same feelings (most of the time). So Wanderer thinks she loves Jared because Melanie does. Complicated yet? But Jared hates Wanderer for taking over Melanie. He’s cruel to Wanderer because he doesn’t know Melanie lives inside of her.
The longer Wanderer is held captive the longer she is exposed to human emotion, turning her into a kind-hearted person. Just when I thought things couldn’t get more complicated, one of the captors falls in love with Wanderer. I liked the focus on emotions; still I wish Meyer had stretched the story out a bit by adding more action and adventure.
This book is a complex love triangle involving two people in one body—Wanderer and Melanie—and Jared, which is probably why I didn’t like it so much (I’m not really a sci-fi person … sorry, Star Trek fans).  
Still I’d recommend this book to people who like complicated (and I mean very complicated) love stories, science fiction and are in touch with their emotions. Guys too, at least you might like the sci-fi parts!