The Host

The Host
Stephenie Meyer
619 pages
Publisher: Little Brown
Source: library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

So, true story, I own a copy of this novel.  I bought it the weekend it came out in 2008 and never read more than the first chapter.  I just couldn't get into it even though I really wanted to.  The years passed, we moved, it didn't follow us, and I decided I needed to read it once and for all - so I got it from the library.  So instead of reading my pristine copy I read one where the binding was falling apart and it smelled strongly of vinegar.

This book is, obviously, by the Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight variety, so I assumed that I would automatically love the book.  But I didn't love it as much as I thought I would, though her premise is pretty awesome: Wanderer is an alien from another planet whose species has invaded earth and has mostly eliminated the human race by implanting themselves inside humans and taking over their bodies.  But when Wanderer (Wanda for short) acquires Melanie's body, Melanie is not willing to give up without a fight.

It sounds like a five star plot to me, but here's why I didn't rate The Hose five stars: it was slow and there wasn't a lot of action.  I expected for a 600+ page novel there to be action, but I guess instead it was 600+ pages because the plot moved slowly.  Towards the end my interest picked up, but the action still didn't.  There were a few occasions that I felt there was potential for a lot of action, high speed chases or intense interrogations or something, but that never happened.  Wanda/Melanie had no problems at all executing there illegal activities - it was almost too easy.  Still, it was a good novel and I'm glad to have finally read it.