Book Review Friday 10/17/08

Book: The Host
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Pages: 623

Possible Spoiler Alert. If you haven't read the book, and think you will, stop now.




So, I thought I gave the book a fair chance. I rested between Breaking Dawn and The Host so I wouldn't fall into the same trap that many other people did...comparing the two. It sat on my bedside table for a week before I picked it up, so I wasn't overly anxious to read it the minute my number came up at the library. However...

Overall, I didn't find it to be that different from the Twilight Series, though it's billed as Meyer's first adult novel. The emotions were all the same...adolescent whining about how something/someone was going to kill the main character. Predictable love. Happy endings. Blah, blah, blah.

Aliens, called souls, have taken over the galaxy, including earth, infusing themselves within each planet's main lifeform to create a happier, healthier, more peaceful life. It's at the end of the Earth's takeover when Wanderer is paired with Melanie, a rebel human brought back from an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Wanderer is met with a force within Melanie that won't allow complete takeover and the two "beings" compromise by trying to live with each other. Melanie is essentially a prisoner within her mind, while Wanderer controls all outward appearances.

Constant thoughts of the life Melanie left behind eventually drags Wanderer to a secret place where 30ish other humans are hiding out, including her love interest, Jared, and her brother, Jamie.

Bucking the clan-happy tradition of the usual souls, Wanderer leaves her world behind and becomes part of the human existence, amidst hostile feelings and actions by other humans who see her as a spy for the souls.

The premise of the book was great. A fresh outlook on an old idea--aliens overtaking humans. However, Meyer's falls short in a few key areas. Notably, she reduces the multitude of human emotions to three: love, hate, and jealousy. Humans were painted as being incredible violent, even in a setting where presumably, only 30 of them are left on the planet.

Also, I had some reservations about the book after finishing. For example, many of the people in the cave had paired off. However, death still overcame the clan. No one was exempt from the normal process of aging. So, why were there no initiatives to procreate. I would imagine that if only 30 people were left on the planet, many would find the need to add more offspring to the population. Eventually, without the births of other humans, this clan will eventually die off and there would be no human left.

Secondly, their diet. The book touched on what the humans ate most of the time, once the food from their raids was out. However, much time was spent cultivating a garden in the cave where corn, wheat (presumably for their neverending supply of bread), fruits and vegetables grew. But every day they ate the same thing...bread and onion soup.

Lastly, the ending. I hated it. It was too sugar-coated. Much like the ending in Breaking Dawn. I knew it was going to happen about half way through the book, but there was nothing I could do about it.

My opinon is that if Meyer wants to be taken as a serious author down the line, she's going to have to incorporate some real tragedy in her books. Otherwise, she will fall by the wayside when each book ends the same.

So my overall impression: Eh. It was an okay read. Intriguing in some parts, but certainly not anywhere close to the best book I've read this year. Or this month even.