If you live under a rock and are not familiar with Stephenie Meyer, she is the woman responsible for the Twilight series ... those black books with red pictures on the front that take up entire bookshelves at your barnes and noble. May of last year (two months before the final Twilight book came out) The Host was published.
I bought it for my Kindle as my inaugral read on the new device. And I really enjoyed it.
It's some time in the future and earth has been inhabited by Souls, an alien species that are parasites and require a host body to survive. They are thousands of years old and the little creatures can pretty much live forever, jumping hosts and planets as they see fit.
Wanderer is placed inside a human host, Melanie, and takes over all of Melanie's memories. Well Melanie doesn't want to disappear, so Wanderer and Melanie inhabit the same body / brain at great cost to them both. Wanderer takes on the same emotions Melanie has, falling in love with Melanie's boyfriend and brother, and wanting to find them and the rest of the human resistance.
It's billed as sci-fi but it really isn't. Meyer's talent is in character development and not so much background or technical plot lines. I have to say though, as a novel this was far superior to the Twilight books, and much better written. You still had some cheesy moments and some melodrama, but nothing at the level of Twilight.
Overall, a good quick read for a rainy afternoon. Just wish it fit one of my challenges! Though I have now heard there is an eReader challenge ... so if I decide to join that ... well I've already got one done!
Love, love, loved it. I'm making Blaine read it now, and I think he's liking it too. (Just science fiction-y enough to be right up his alley.)
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