The Host by Stephanie Meyer

I was not expecting this. At all. The Host takes place some years into the future. I forget how many, sorry. Anyway, aliens have come down to take over the earth, which of course means RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! And that is exactly what happens here because if the aliens catch you, they will take over your body and basically kill you. Our main character, Melanie, gets caught and now must have and alien inserted into her body. Which happens. Meet Wanderer. The alien. Melanie's mind was suppose to go away but it doesn't and there is now basically two minds sharing a body, with Wanderer being the dominant one. The rest of the story revolves around Melanie trying to keep her promise to her little brother, Jamie: to get back to him.

I was so surprised by this book. If you follow my bookish Instagram, you may know I can't stand Meyer's other series, Twilight. Many things I didn't like about that series is still in this book, but it works! Having all the attention be on the main character can be annoying if there's nothing special about them, but sharing a body with an alien is definitely worth having all eyes on you. I still am not a fan of the writing style, but I think I'm just numb to the poor writing at this point.

I found the characters to be, for the most part, interesting. My favorite, by far, is Wanderer. I think she is the most complex and has the most to offer to the story. I loved Melanie's drive and dedication to getting back to her brother. Jamie was clearly her number one priority, not the love interest, Jared. Jamie was a pretty cool kid, maybe a little too cool but he helped develop the overall meaning of the book. The reaction to Wanderer was, I think, accurate and realistic and it opened my eyes to some of the deeper meanings in this novel.

That's right! There is true meaning to this novel! I don't want to go into detail about what I learned from this book because I do think that everyone should interpret it in their own way but I will say it raised some questions about what it means to be human and why being a human seems to be a positive thing.

I was blown away with this book. I really did love it. The characters added tons of interest, it left me thinking for a week, and it was also a good story plot wise. I will warn you guys, it is a very slow burning book. If you want something fast paced and action packed you might not enjoy this book, but if you are more patient, I highly recommend this book. Even if you don't like sci-fi, give it a try and it might surprise you. There were obviously some issues I had with this book like the writing style, the attention to the main characters, and sometimes the they didn't have realistic reactions, but I can forgive all of that because the rest of the novel and the amount of enjoyment I got out of it makes up for its flaws. 4.7 out of 5 stars.