The Host by Stephenie Meyer

If you don't already know, Stephenie Meyer is the author of the hugely popular young adult vampire romance novels, beginning with Twilight and followed by two (soon to be three) sequels. Vampire romance novels aren't really my thing, but when I learned that Stephenie Meyer is also a BYU grad, I thought maybe it was worth seeing what the fuss was all about. I read Twilight and it was surprisingly entertaining - I had some issues with the writing, but not so much that I couldn't enjoy the book. I had a harder time getting into the sequel, so I made it about 70 pages in and haven't managed to get farther than that.

The Host is Stephenie Meyer's first book written for adults. I was curious, but not curious enough to shell out for a hardcover that I didn't necessarily know I would like, so I got it on "Zoom Lend" at the library. This meant that instead of putting a hold on the book and waiting for likely a very long time, I paid $2 up front for a 2-week loan. This in turn meant that I had exactly two weeks to finish the book, and so I stayed up a little late last night to make it through the last 50 pages before I had to return the book.

It took me a little time to get into the book, and I attribute this in part to the fact that I didn't quite know how to read it at first. I know Stephenie Meyer as a writer for young adults, and the book had a sort of largish font that made me feel like I was reading YA literature. But the book was about adult characters and being marketed for adults. I just didn't know if I should compare it to YA literature or adult literature, and neither comparison seemed to quite fit so I didn't have a reference point for knowing if it was good or not.

But I finally let myself get drawn into the story. The novel takes place on earth in the not-too-distant future. An alien species (the "souls") that live only by taking control of the bodies of sentient beings (but are nevertheless quite peaceful) has overtaken the human race, except for pockets of resistance. One soul, Wanderer, is given a human body and finds that the mind that once lived in this body still lives and communicates with her, and the soul (who, as all souls, acquired all the memories of her host) finds that she wants nothing more than to return to find the people her body loved as a human. (Does that even make sense? I'm not quite sure how else to explain it). The story revolves around her experience joining a small colony of human resistance, all of whom initially distrust and fear her, for good reason.

I actually really enjoyed the book. It wasn't a challenging read by any means (the writing is solid, but simple), and I sometimes feel like Stephenie Meyer goes into emotional overload (the emotional overload wasn't nearly as dramatic in The Host as it was in the teenage vampire love novels, but it was still there). And given the subject matter, it wasn't quite as thought-provoking as it might have been. But it was entertaining, and fascinating to me to see how she created and then melded this alien world with the human world, and was able to make the alien souls residing in human bodies quite distinct from the humans, yet still believable. In fact, her treatment of the host species and their experience was the most interesting and believable part of this book for me.

I think it's pretty amazing that Stephenie Meyer had not written anything before a few years ago and has taken the market by storm the way she has.