Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The Host

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The Host by Stephenie Meyer

14 reviews

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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depmythmoon's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

“Love simply is where it is.” (pg. 44)

“You never know how much time you’ll have.” (pg. 80)

“Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached.” (pg. 141)

This story follows our (2) main character(s) Wanderer/Wanda and Melanie. Wanda is a species called “souls” who require a host species for them to live. Wanda’s special because she’s lived on more planets than most other souls all the way back to The Origin, which is like their home planet. They have mostly invaded Earth, but there are some rebel groups and lone humans that remain, which is where Mel comes in. Her body is captured and given to Wanda, but the procedure doesn’t go as planned. We follow them and see the struggle of which alien will win out over the other; who will get to keep the body?

This book really felt like a blast to the past, when Twilight and Divergent were still popular. It is just the kind of story that younger me would have eaten up and developed an obsession with similar to the chokehold Twilight had me in as a kid. I’m kind of glad I didn’t read it at that time because I wouldn’t have had any rest from Wattpad and Fanfiction dot net. I also really liked Wanda as a character, overly self-sacrificing nature aside. This story does a good job at showing how complex—and sometimes hypocritical—we can be as humans as well as the intensity and illogical ways of love.

Now, my biggest gripe with this story has got to be the age gaps, lying about ages, and the abuse. Of course, you expect there to be some hostility when there’s an alien parading around in the body that belongs to the love of your life, but there are some things you just don’t do. Strike 1 was the fact that they’re 17 and 26 when they meet (I get there are some age gaps like this in real life, but tell me what a 17 y/o could offer to a 26 y/o?? End of the world be damned.) Strike 2 was the way Wanda was treated and collecting bruises and injuries like they were infinity stones just because she’s an alien. Strike 3 was the second underage relationship where the girl happily lies about turning 18 just so her man doesn’t feel guilty… and she’s proud of it. She’s not even 17 technically because her birthday was coming up and she added a year. That just ruined it for me cause there really is no reason Ms. Meyer couldn’t have made them AT LEAST 18 or even 21. Yuck.

I’m still going to watch the movie to see what was changed (their ages, hopefully) and what was kept. I’m genuinely kind of bummed that I can’t fully see where this story goes due to Ms. Meyer shifting her focus to the Twilight franchise, but the ending and epilogue were a decent stopping point if she chose not to go further.

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skillyillian's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

i reread this for the first time since i was 16-17 and it did not hold up as well as i had hoped. there's parts that are still good but some stuff just gave me the ick. The characters are really well built, with their own personalities and flaws, and the worldbuilding post-alien-takeover is intriguing. i liked hearing about the other alien races. the plot takes ages and ages to get going, and even then, the action parts are very minimal. it's 600 pages of wanda getting to know people and being scared of all of them.

my biggest complaint is the romance plot. Jared and ian are toxic as fuck in their own ways. they each have a girlfriend living inside the same body and don't respect the other woman they're sharing with. Ian wants Wanda but tends to ignore it when Wanda says Melanie doesn't like him touching them. Jared touches them but acts like Wanda isn't also feeling it. He ignores that she's in love with him and whenever Ian brings up Wanda's feelings about something, Jared is completely shocked that she would have an opinion or feelings in the first place. He's cruel to her for almost the entire time.

the other issue is that stephenie meyer continues to be someone who cannot let an FMC age above 20 years old. like at all. melanie and jared met when she was SEVENTEEN and he was TWENTY-SIX. i don't give a shit if you're the last humans on earth, knock that the hell off. if anything it worsens the power imbalance. and at the end, they go to find a new body for wanda and collectively choose an actual child. wanda lies about her body's age because ian is a "respectable man" so if he knows her age he won't want to be with her. but the entire time, from the second wanda becomes aware she's in another human body until the very end, it's made obnoxiously clear that she's teeny tiny itty bitty in every way. between those two things, there's not a chance they didn't realize she was a minor. turning 18 doesn't magically age you out of looking like, or being, a teenager. HAVE YA LOST YA MIND BOY, CUZ I'LL HELP YA FIND IT.

that's two different relationships, both of them main character end game romances, where there's a girl who is unquestionably and visibly a minor, who is with a much older man. melanie isn't a minor by the end of the book but it's still made clear that she and jared slept together before she was captured by the souls. this is the kind of shit that influences teenagers to think there's nothing wrong with a grown ass man flirting with them. at the very least, either age the girls up or make the men younger.

anyway, point being, the characters and world are thoroughly written, the plot is slow going, and stephenie meyer is yet another author who says her book is for adults but is writing FMCs that end up being just another tiny, translucently pale child bride. if she would change their ages so they're not children having sex with adults, and write people who respect the consent of everyone involved in a relationship, book would've been scored way higher.

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jessthanthree's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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refrejarator's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of my favourite romances at the moment - tense and mysterious in all the right places, and a tear-jerking, emotional whirlwind. Plus the love triangles are so fun, and have an interesting dynamic.

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