I've Finished The Host :)

I really got rolling on this one after a couple hundred pages! Here's the summary I wrote for a online YA lit class I'm taking over the summer:
"This book is being touted as Stephenie Meyer's first book for adults, but it is also being promoted in YA circles (see her website and MySpace sites!). I therefore wanted to read it and see if it is appropriate for middle school libraries, which minus a smattering of higher-level vocabulary and a couple of PG-13 love scenes, it is perfectly fine for all secondary collections. If you labeled the Twilight books YA, this one would be as well, but it is not controversial. I suggest getting a few copies!

The book opens with the introduction of our narrator, a parasitic alien named Wanderer, who is one of the peaceful Souls that deliberately have taken over Earth. Though she has lived eight different lifetimes on eight different planets, she is ill prepared for the intense emotions and vivid memories that her new host, a human named Melanie Stryder, saddles her with. Melanie is a resistance fighter-- strong in body and mind-- who refuses to vacate the premises as she should, and she battles Wanderer for consciousness in a most literal sense. Wanderer finds herself experiencing and then assuming as her own Melanie's two great loves, her little brother Jamie and fellow rebel Jared. Along with this, she also has to deal with a growing hatred of the Seeker, a sort of alien FBI person, who is suspicious that Wanderer is not in control of her mind.

Stephenie Meyer's books all revolve around the theme of choice, and The Host is no different; Wanderer's new emotions coupled with Melanie's memories lead her to make crucial decisions that turn her away from the calm, logical Souls and headlong into the confusing and violent world of humanity."

We'll have copies of this in the library in the fall! Kira-- and everyone else-- feel free to discuss!

:)
Mrs. P