The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Imagine Earth has been taken over little by little by alien beings that implant themselves into our human bodies and take over our lives as if they are us. They do it slowly so nobody will notice, then by the time we do notice they are already everywhere and drawing attention to yourself as a human will only make them take you down as well. They are peaceful beings that are trying to salvage the planet that they find so beautiful. They mean no harm to humans, only to fix what we have taken for granted and destroyed. These aliens are tiny silvery beings that implant themselves into the spine of human bodies and after they are inside it leaves a silver ring that shines in the eyes of anyone that has been changed. This is how the remaining humans can tell who is human or not.

Melanie Stryder has been captured during the rebellion and has been implanted with the soul named Wanderer. Upon waking up Wanderer can hear Melanie talking to her, but Mel is not supposed to be there still. This is where the struggle begins. Melanie is protecting the ones she loves and that is very hard when the enemy is literally inside your head, she must protect her every thought. We follow Melanie and Wanderer as they set out to follow clues in Mel's mind that will lead them to her brother and Jared, the man she loves. Wanderer has grown sympathetic to the humans and their plight, but the Seeker that is assigned to Wanderer to find information on the remaining humans will not let up and is determined to figure out what is being hidden in Melanie's mind.

I will start by saying that the first part of the book is hard to follow the first time you read it. It is science fiction and is giving you a background to work with and you understand it SO much more if you read the book a second time which I highly recommend (loved it even more the second time!). Once you get through understanding the invasion and takeover part and you get into the story and struggle between Wanderer and Melanie it rolls much more smoothly.

The complicated love triangles that are tearing at the characters really drew me in and definitely made me pick sides. The people, relationships and surroundings were all so believably written that you forget this is an alien story. There is so much that goes on in this novel that is quite long but after getting through those first few chapters I was completely sucked in. I never found myself wanting to quit or willing myself to continue on just to find out the end. I enjoyed this book so much and really hope that Stephenie continues on and makes companion books.

I really liked the Twilight saga, but this is so far beyond that. This book is so well written and truly showcases Stephenie Meyer's writing much more so than Twilight did. This story is so different from anything I have read before and I highly recommend it to all of my "reader" friends.