The Host

title: The Host
author: Stephenie Meyer
how I read it: once from the school library, once before I gave it to my Dad for Christmas, once as an audiobook

Melanie Stryder has done the unthinkable: she has stayed present and conscious in her own body, despite the Soul who controls it. The Host tells a classic “tale of the bodysnatchers” story, with a twist; this time, the story is told through the eyes of Wanderer, the parasitic alien creature who’s doing the snatching. Melanie floods Wanderer with memories of Jared until he is all that either of them can think about. Soul and Host become reluctant allies in their goal to save the man that they both love.

The first few pages of The Host are slow and a bit difficult to understand. I had to push my way through the first chapter in particular and I nearly put the book down. I'm glad that I persevered, because once this book takes off, it's impossible to put down. The story is well-paced and suspenseful. I found myself rereading exciting passages multiple times because I loved the fact that Meyer managed to surprise me.

The love triangle - three people in two bodies - was interesting and fun. While this idea has been explored before (that two-timing Rio in love with both Jem and Jerica, anyone?), Meyer made it seem like a fresh and completely original idea.

This book has some flaws. There are very few shades of gray in the characters. For the most part, they are either "good" or "bad". While a few of the characters do change and grow, they tend to do it in a very sudden and jerky fashion. They flip from "good" to "bad", or from "bad" to "good" quickly and without much personal anguish. Wanderer (renamed Wanda by the humans) was particularly cloying at times. While I really did like her, her goodness bordered on boring. She also never seemed to grapple with the moral issues of being a parasite, despite coming to love the humans.

With Stephenie Meyer's meteoric rise to fame, it's hard not to compare The Host to the Twilight series. In my opinion, The Host is a far more interesting and original book. I know that this is probably going to shock (and possibly annoy) a lot of people, but I didn't really like Twilight. I found the female lead one-dimensional, weak, needy and almost kittenish. Wanda suffers the same fate in many ways; she is submissive and almost too "good". But because of the way that Souls are portrayed - as gentle and nonviolent by nature - it was much more acceptable to me to have a weak female lead. Still, I hope that if Meyers writes any more books, she'll drop the whole "damsel in distress" plot and write a stronger, more independent female character.

This book made me want to: build a bunker and stock it with supplies. Oh, who am I kidding. I've wanted to do that for years.

Verdict: Despite its flaws, this was a good story with strong pacing and likeable characters - well worth reading!

Sequels: none as of yet.

Blood and Chocolate

title: Blood and Chocolate
author: Annette Curtis Klause
how I read it: print book from the library

Vivian is a werewolf. Her pack – hard-partying, hard-living, dangerous and wild – lives in the human world but also apart from them. As the only female teenager in the pack, Vivian is a bit isolated. While she grew up playing and roughhousing with The Five – five young males of about the same age as her – now that they are no longer children, the energy between them has changed. She misses her father who died not long ago, and she and her mother have a volatile, changeable relationship. Vivian longs for something more; and she believes that she has found it in Aidan, a human (“meat-boy”) that she meets at school.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced book. The story was unpredictable and exciting. It drew me in and kept me turning pages until the very end. I was especially fascinated by the depiction of werewolves as both violent and sensual animals.

While there were no explicit sex scenes, this book is very sexually charged. Sex and power are inextricably linked, and Vivian has absolutely no qualms about using her sexuality as a tool. I have to admit that some of the messages in this book about love and sex left me feeling very uncomfortable. The ending, in particular, left me feeling unsettled. Don’t get me wrong; I have absolutely no problems with sexuality in young adult novels. Sexuality is such a huge part of adolescence that it would be utterly naive to omit it. But after reading this book, I was left wondering about the author’s intent. I can’t really discuss my thoughts here beyond that without spoiling the book, but I’d be very happy to discuss further with anyone through email.

Despite these issues with the book, I really enjoyed the story and especially Vivian’s character. While she is not always likeable and I couldn’t always relate to her, she is an extremely strong female character. She knows what she wants, and she is fully confident in her ability to get it. She has both human characteristics – longing, loneliness – and wild, feral werewolf qualities that meld together to create an extremely interesting character.

This book made me want to: run really, really fast.

Verdict: a tight, compelling read. I do think that this book should be previewed by parents and discussed afterwards with younger teens.

Sequels: nope! This is a standalone book.