The Host by Stephenie Meyer

First a blurb from Stephenie Meyer’s site:

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining “wild” humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie’s thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer’s mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.
Read Excerpt here.

So the aliens have invaded but Melanie Stryder refuses to give in to her “soul”. They actually end up having conversations with each other and learn a grudging respect for the other and so much more as the book goes on. When Melanie and Wanderer go looking for Jared they find themselves enmeshed in a huge cell of human rebels that are not all that welcoming to the new alien, to say the least. Melanie loves Jared yet there’s another man that’s starting to fall for “Wanda” as they’ve dubbed her. How does Wanda deal with the feelings she has for Jared and those she’s feeling with Ian? It’s not an easy road.

Although this is unlike any story I’ve ever read (not usually a sci-fi fan) I found this to be a wonderful story of love, respect and acceptance in so many different ways and with so many different people. I thought it was incredible to see both Wanda and Mel and the humans dealing with every day issues of survival but learning that just because someone is different (ok, alien) it doesn’t make them a bad person.

Grade: B+

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