Title: The Host; A Novel

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Reviewed by: Amy J Ramsey; http://www.trinagon.blogspot.com/

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publisher's Address: 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Pages: 624

Genre: Science Fiction

ISBN: 978-0316068048

Rating: 5 Stars

Earth has been invaded by alien life-forms. These parasitic aliens are called Souls and live in what they consider to be a peace-loving unity, similar to the way bees live in a hive together. They require Hosts in order to survive. The centipede-like body is inserted into the Hosts brain by the Healers, then the alien takes control of all functions of that body as its own and the original occupant disappears. The Souls chose to take over Earth when they noticed the violent and barbaric tendencies of the human race. They wanted to eradicate the evil and destructive ways that the humans were destroying their own planet. They wanted to bring peace back to Earth, but the Souls could not foresee one human entity, Melanie, fighting back to gain control over her body that the alien, Wanderer (Wanda), had stole.

When Wanderer (Wanda) came to Earth and was implanted into her human Host, she had no clue as what this planet would be like. She had never had a Host that had such strong emotions and desires before. She never questioned what happened to any of the Host's original occupants that was their before her, until now. When Wanda started to receive strong, emotional images from her Host's (Melanie) memories, she tried to resist and force her into disappearing, like all the rest of her Host's she had lived in before on different planets. Melanie was extremely strong-willed, determined and frantic to get her messages across and refused to disappear. Wanda had only one choice left and it was to discard this Hosts body as faulty and acquire another one. Out of desperation, Melanie released the images she was protecting from this alien, of her younger brother, Jamie and her lover, Jared. Wanda felt the desire and love Melanie had for them, as her own, and yearned to find and protect them. Melanie remembered a secret hideout in the desert that her crazy Uncle Jeb had claimed, just incase the end of the world came. She persuaded Wanda to search for the location. After almost dying of exhaustion, hunger and thirst, a group of human rebels found her and took her prisoner back to their underground cave.

Wanda is reunited with Jamie and Jared, but even though Jamie accepts Wanda for who and what she is, Jared is enraged with hate for the alien that stole his lover's body. Wanda has to prove to them that she does not want to cause any humans harm and that Melanie is still alive inside her. With few human friends at her side that trust her, she has to find out a way to control Melanie's desire for Jared, her personal feelings for Ian (her human companion and bodyguard), give hope back to the world for the human race to survive and deal with the alien Seeker that has been tracking her from the beginning.

THE HOST is the best novel by far that I have read and will bind the reader emotionally to the pages until the end. Stephenie Meyer is a wonderful, vivid and intriguing writer. THE HOST is a beautiful and romantic love story that will take the reader above the stars and into a different universe.

Stephenie Meyer is the author of the bestselling Twilight series. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three young sons. To recieve more information about her, visit her website http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/