The Host – Stephanie Meyer

Genre: YA / Science Fiction

Not being a big Stephanie Meyer fan I was not looking forward to reading this but as the suggestion came from a friend with decent taste in literature I thought I’d give it a go and I'm glad that I did.

Basically, ‘parasites’ from a far distant planet invade earth and use human bodies as hosts to survive, as these small silvery creatures cannot survive as they are on their own.  Enter Melanie, a teenager, who plays host to one of these creatures, Wanda.  Only Melanie’s personality doesn’t allow her to be possessed and we watch as Melanie and Wanda first fight each other and then fight for each other.  We see how they both fall in love and make friends and how these friendships blossom and bloom until Wanda becomes ‘one of them’ and the story ends.

Although much better written than Twilight, I found the open ended ending horrible as there is no real closure as to what happens to the characters, and I’m sure everyone would love to know.  Despite my initial resignations about reading this, the thought that I’d have to gouge my eyes out, and the few paragraphs and chapters that I felt I needed to plough through, I was quite surprised and actually rather enjoyed it, despite it taking me almost two months to finish.