My baby sis called me last year and said there is this book I HAVE to read called The Host. She said it was right up my ally, all sci-fi and stuff, hmm she seemed really chipper about it so I knew something was up. "Whats the catch" I asked, "No catch" she says "you'll really like it I promise I can't wait to discuss it when your done." Hmmm still a suspicious note in her voice "baby sis" I say "what are you not telling me?" A pause then in a voice only my baby sis can use she says "Weeellll, it's by Stephenie Meyer", I know I've heard that name before, quick scan over my bookshelves "Wait a minute, you mean that Twilight chic?!?" Not really my cup of tea, way to much blubbering teenage angst (though the basic premise isn't that bad, but more on that later) "I know I know, it sounds bad, but I promise this book is better then the sparkling vampire stuff, really!" I'm still not sure, but baby sis and I really do have amazingly similar taste in books, so I decide to give it a try for her. 
A couple of weeks later I'm at the bookstore searching the shelves for this book, finally I find it buried in the adult sci-fi section no where near the young adult fantasy table dedicated solely to Team Glitter and Team Fuzzy. "Well" I said to myself "I guess there is some hope for this book yet if it is shelved in the adult section...I hope." I took myself and my new book home and geared myself up for another tale of supernatural angst. As I got into the book, I actually found myself really enjoying it. The premise of a race of aliens that travel the galaxy "invading" various planets by attaching themselves to a host of the indigenous dominate species was pretty cool. Ms. Meyer really got a lot of alien background and the history of the main character Wanderer is really interesting. The author still uses a first person perspective, which still gets you stuck in a teenage girls head way more then I like, but it is at least tempered by the alien that also lives in her head so it ends up working pretty well. The "new Earth" that is created for us in this story is pretty amazing, especially because the alien essentially don't change a thing, continuing to live our "human" lives with everything from jobs, to grocery shopping and school. Having the main alien character be revered for the many different planets she has lived on and the various species she has inhabited was a minor stroke of genius because it gave the author a way to give us very rich and detailed accounts of what life and society is like for the aliens. In the end it still ends up being a convoluted love
quadrangle story, but with a tad less angst and a lot more alien shoot outs. I have to give my baby sis a shout out and say I really did enjoy this book. Since this is already a long winded rambling post I won't go into plot detail, but if are a romance fan, or a Twilight fan, or a sci-fi fan you will probably really like this book, just try not roll your eyes so hard at the overly emotional parts that they get stuck :-)
What did you think of this book? Did you think the alien story outweighed the overly angsty parts? Would you ever think to pick up a Stephanie Meyer book? Would you pick it up because it is a Stephenie Meyer book?
*I actually do like a lot of the Twilight Saga, just not the character of Bella at all!
i am glad that you actually read it...like I said, it was a good book!!!!!!! o silly sister when will you learn that I am always right.
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