She just might be the coolest writer around right now... so it's no surprise that Twilight author Stephenie Meyer's other book, The Host, will hit the big screen too!
No, there's no vampires or werewolves, but The Host is equally addictive! The novel is science fiction and romance rolled into one. Basically, what happens is that the earth has been invaded by aliens called "souls," which are entities that take over humans' bodies and erase their memories and sense of self. (They actually look like little silver worms that are inserted into the back of a human's neck during a surgical procedure). So basically it's like having the shell of a human with someone else's personality inside -- eeks!
Usually when the souls take over the humans, the humans don't resist. Their personality is wiped out. But in a soul named Wanderer's case, her human fought back.
Melanie Stryder, along with her brother Jaime and her BF Jared were on the run trying to hide from the souls when she was captured and Wanderer was inserted into her. Wanderer soon realizes that she is not alone in her human's body -- Melanie's sense of self is still very much present. Talk about hearing voices in your head...Melanie actually has another person inside her head!
At first, you can imagine the internal conflict Melanie and Wanderer have -- they hate each other, but then grow to love one another. Melanie tries to keep her thoughts to herself so she doesn't give away the location of her brother and BF because if she does, she knows that Wanderer will tell the other souls and they'll come to get them.
Soon Melanie's thoughts and feelings and emotions are revealed to Wanderer.... along with their location. Melanie's thoughts are so strong that Wanderer finds herself wondering sometimes if she's thinking something or if it's Melanie's thoughts. Melanie thinks of her BF so often than Wanderer finds herself falling in love with him as well. She then has to decide if she will betray Melanie by giving her brother and BF over to the souls.
They go on an adventure to find them -- and they discover a whole colony of humans who haven't been taken over by souls living in underground caves. The humans are very wary of Melanie because they don't know at first that it's still her in there.... plus they are afraid she will give them away to the other souls.
They keep her as a prisoner for a long time before they grow to trust her. Melanie and Wanderer and Jared find themselves in a very complicated love triangle only made more complicated when another human named Ian falls in love with Wanderer. So two men are in love with the same body but not the same mind. And Wanderer is in love with both men.
Talk about a love triangle... err... square! To find out the rest, pick up the book... or wait a bit longer and you'll be able to see it on the big screen!
-- by Lauren Cammarota
Photo: Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company
