| Stephenie Meyer, the author of the #1 bestselling Twilight series, delivers her brilliant first novel for adults: a gripping story of love and betrayal in a future with the fate of humanity at stake, featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies.
From The Publisher:
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.
Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.
Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.
From The Critics:
The body snatchers are coming, but they just want to talk-to themselves. Meyer, author of the Twilight young-adult series (Eclipse, 2007, etc.) concerning the latter-day adventures of werewolves and vampires, turns inward and cerebral with her debut book for adults. That is to say, her protagonists are no longer throat-rippers; neither is this novel wholly a bodice-ripper, even if it does involve a drippy, kissy-face romance and sometimes strays into the space-gothic genre. The problem for studly young Jared throughout is just who he's kissing, since his beloved, young Melanie Stryder-echoes of The Fellowship of the Ring there-has been swallowed up like poor Smeagol by an extraterrestrial being who turns out to be, well, pretty OK once you get to know him/her/it. Melanie has taken a spill down an elevator shaft while trying to avoid becoming one of the pod people. Fortunately, the aliens have a good health plan, and the great and noble soul called Wanderer finds Melanie's shell to be reasonably capacious and well-appointed enough to serve as a vessel. Yet Melanie hasn't been wholly evicted, and Wanderer and she find themselves locked in an uncomfortable dialog: "I hate you, the voice hissed in my head. Then maybe you should leave,' I snapped." Wanderer may have lived on six or seven planets-opinion among the ETs varies-and may have "been almost everything," but he/she/it has never taken on a liberated American woman. In time, just as things start to get weird in the sci-fi world, Wanderer and Melanie reach an accommodation-at least of a sort. Who has to wash the dishes? Who gets to do the kissing? ("His tongue twisted with mine, and there was no part of my mind that was not invaded bythe insane desire that possessed me.") Stay tuned, earthlings. A clever premise and competent writing keep this from turning into a pastiche, though after a couple of hundred pages, readers may wish that just one artery would get punctured. - Kirkus Reviews
Annotation:
A young woman?s body is overtaken by an alien who wishes to control her mind, but the woman refuses to give in to the alien force, and soon the alien is experiencing the same emotions as the woman. Both the alien and woman begin to have their sights set on the same man, in this quirky and original sci-fi tale.
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