So I'll start off with the bad news. The Host was written by Stephenie Meyer, who was also the author of the Twilight saga. Now, I will admit to reading Twilight and enjoying it, but the entire series was ruined for me when the movie came out. When Meyer wrote The Host, though, she did a complete 180 from anything and everything Twilight. When I first started The Host, I didn't think it would be that good because of how Twilight turned out, but boy was I wrong. The Host drew me in like it was taking over my body and allowing me no choice but to finish reading it. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down, it was that good.
The
Host is based in a futuristic world where extraterrestrials have taken over
multiple planets and worlds and have made it to Earth. The aliens are parasites
who take over a planet by attaching themselves to the inside of a life-form and
taking over their consciousness, essentially outing that person’s mind from
their body. Knowing the basic story-line, the title makes complete, simple
sense, yeah? The story starts off in the perspective of a human who gets
captured and taken over. For the rest of the book, though, the story is told
from the perspective of the extraterrestrial in her body. But the human that
Wanderer (The ‘alien’) has taken over has a stronger mind than most humans. She
fights and is still aware of everything going on around her, which is not a
normal thing for these creatures to experience. Usually the humans just kind of
go away. This human in particular, though, stays inside her body, though she
does not have complete control of it anymore.
The
parasites, as the humans call them, claim that they take control of other
species to make the world a better place and to create peace. They don’t lie,
they never use force with each other, they keep their bodies healthy, and they
do everything right to create world peace. The one thing they seem to have
missed, though, is that they are ousting human beings from their bodies,
rendering that human basically nonexistent. If that’s not wrong, then I don’t
know what is.
The Host may not be super relatable, but
there are some strong points mixed in there. For starters, the book enforces
the idea of working together and getting along with others. I mean, we are all
taught that we should be nice to others and try to work civilly with them,
right? There’s also the whole bullying thing, too. I’m sure we’ve all been
treated unfairly at one point or another. In the book, you will also see the
bullying turn into a friendship, which may sound cheesy, but it’s not all that
unrealistic. It’s not like a complete 180 switch, it’s more gradual and almost
unnoticeable, which is how it sometimes goes in life.
Now,
I won’t lie, The Host is a somewhat
lengthy story, but for how much they had to cut out of it to make the movie, I
was surprised at how well it still managed to follow the original story-line. I
think it was a really good movie, though not everyone would agree with me. In a
review Brad Brevet writes, “Even the
lowest of expectations could not prepare me for the amount of awful that is The Host” (Brevet). Now, that is kind of
harsh if you ask me. I honestly did not think the movie was all that bad. Yes,
it is dull in comparison to the book, but I still do not regret the fact that I
went to see it. So, if you read the book and like it, then great. You will most
likely find some enjoyment in the movie, too. If you don’t read the book, I
would still recommend seeing the movie. It’s not like those movies based on
books that are hard to understand because of key information being cut out.
It’s entertaining, and I definitely do not agree with those critics that say
mean things about it.
So
read it, watch it, and enjoy it! Don’t be afraid to get involved with The Host just because it came from the
same author who created the super-cheesy, vampire- and werewolf- obsessed
Twilight Saga. It has a completely different genre and story-line, and I think,
if you are anything like me, you will love it!
“It’s
easier to come up with new stories than it is to finish the ones you already
have”
--Stephenie
Meyer
