This was my second time reading The Host. At first I
was slightly apprehensive that I wouldn’t enjoy the book as much as I
remembered enjoying it the first time around, a whopping 8 years ago. But to my
happy surprise, I really did love this book, and feel like now that I’m a bit older,
I was actually able to enjoy the deeper themes of this book a lot better than
before.
First off, the premise of the world is really unique and fascinating.
A type of alien species have taken over Earth, as well as other planets through
the form of “possessing” host bodies. Aliens that are not malicious, nor evil,
but who are in fact bettering the world, making it a more peaceful place and
who are for the most part oblivious to hurting human minds.
Wanda is a soul who has taken up residence in Melanie
Stryder’s body, taking full control of her, and yet Melanie has not yet completely
disappeared from her mind. The relationship between Wanda and Melanie is by far
the most fascinating one, way before any of the romances that goes on in this
book. Two people having to share a body, one that is almost fading away, both with
conflicting feelings about love, family and romance is a theme that has – at least
to my knowledge – never been explored in any form of media, at least not to
this extent.
As a result, this book explores quite complex and deep
relationship dynamics, as well as the socio-political theme of having an alien
race taking over one’s world that are in fact quite peaceful, albeit a bit naïve.
You really can’t hate the souls (with the exception of the Seeker) and
throughout the book you find yourself rooting for both species equally (at
least I did).
This book is definitely a slow book, with a lot of internal
dialogue, and a slow build up of any action, but I personally think it’s
definitely worth it, and to me it never felt boring. My only complaint that I
had in this book was that – like with the Twilight books – the men in
this book were a tad too possessive at times. Jared in particular, with his
”her body belongs to me” mindset really annoyed me, even though I do understand
the context in which it’s being said. Ian on the other hand was incredibly
sweet, and so I’m really glad he ended up being Wanda’s love interest.
The ending was honestly done just perfectly. It was a happy
ending, but it also wasn’t 100% perfect either, with the main characters still
having some complicated baggage to rifle through in the future. I really, really
hope that Stephenie will at one point write a sequel to this book (as she
has hinted at several times) since I am definitely interested in how the whole
human-soul war thing will resolve, but I do also think this book is an excellent
standalone, since the main focus of the book is on the characters and their
relationships to each other, which is well rounded off.
0 Comments