I finished The Host. Now, I'm a sucker for a happy ending but I also appreciate a well-executed tragedy. In books and other forms of entertainment, may I emphasize, not in real life. If you have not read this book and would like to, turn back while you still can, for here there be spoilers.
Though, in this adult book, more well-known characters suffer death than in her young adult Twilight series, her main characters are warranted a safe and sunny close. As safe and sunny as one can be in a post-plundered world where you're forced to live out your days in a cave.
I thought, for just one moment (okay, quite a few moments) that Wanderer would die. I'm ecstatic that the humans whom she entrusted her life to would ignore her suicidal wishes. I'm thrilled that both of our leading men got their respective girls and vice-a-versa. But I figured that Meyer was doing something very clever with a little something called foreshadowing. Maybe, maybe not.
There are at least two instances in which a captured soul has imploded its human host's brain, and in effect itself, rather than endure the fate of being extracted and killed. Throughout the story, we learn about the self-preservation of our narrator, Wanderer, who comes from a place of uncontested honesty, selflessness, and supposed altruism. As she is thrown into circumstances of forced union with those creatures she has always believed to be 100% cruel, untrustworthy and undeserving of consciousness, she begins to inspect and identify the character of human beings, both individually and as a whole.
She is confused that humans have been misrepresented. That the rebels who hole up in caches together and leave only to steal what they need to survive are not criminals; rather they are survivors. Especially considering that their knowledge of the alien offensive prevents them from becoming fully invaded by what they call the centipedes. That knowledge allows their minds the capability to resist if they are captured. Which is exactly the situation Wanderer finds herself in with her host body, Melanie.
When those souls destroyed their human hosts from the inside out to avoid withdrawal, I believed that it could have been foreshadowing for the ultimate decision of our protagonist, Wanderer. That, when she chose to sacrifice herself for Melanie rather than for herself and her species, she would die. Just as the centipedes who also chose self-destruction did, only in her case it would be because of an informed altruistic decision, not self-preservation or an incorrect assumption of magnanimity. Not because she was told that what she was doing was benevolent and helpful but because she experienced for herself what the right thing to do would be.
No such luck. Wanderer survives. Which is fine. Because, for all intents and purposes, she did follow through with her promise to forfeit her life for Melanie, for Jared, for Jamie. Maybe I'm just one of those readers who's content with the idea that, sometimes, the main characters don't or can't survive but, even though it was all nice and bubbly that Wanderer was saved, I still think it would have been such a beautiful ending if she had been allowed her true sacrifice. I understand why she wasn't. Because we had to see a real change in her character in that she would be willing to give up the ghost for a human AND see a real change in the character of the humans in being willing to save a soul.
So I'm content and, to be honest, quite pleased with this story. I enjoyed it. And though, like Twilight in that it also dealt with a love triangle, I feel like the emphasized relationship was between Wanderer and Melanie. Which is as it should have been. It bugged me when Melanie and Jared embraced and kissed as soon as they met. Even if you think another human of the opposite sex is the last of its kind, I should hope that a romance still takes more time to blossom. This was the same formula she used in Twilight. Bella and Edward supposedly fell into an unbreakable and eternal love based on. . .um. . .based on. . .oh, I know this. Get back to me. Then in comes Jacob, whose story of unrequited love for Bella seems real and, if not based on the charm and loveliness of Bella, at least based on the fact that we get a glimpse into how they spent their days together, getting to know one another. As people who eventually fall in love do! In The Host, Jared is Edward and Ian is Jacob. We rooted for Jacob (if you rooted for Edward, you've got a real twisted idea of a proper relationship) and we rooted for Ian (if you rooted for Jared, you didn't learn your lesson.)
I wish Meyer would write her females as more than swooning damsels. And that the romance between two individuals (or three or even four if you're Stephenie Meyer) would be better disclosed. Maybe, if she spent less time talking about molten lava and the heat of Jared's lips and more about why Jared is such a freakin' great guy, I'd be more apt to believe Melanie's, and subsequently Wanderer's, desire for him.
Other than that and the 9 chagrins I counted, I'd read this again. Especially considering a little bird told me that Meyer's in cahoots to bring it to the screen. Commence the message board arguments about who should play whom!! There's a fun topic for a blog. Message boards. And the idiots who patrol them. Next time.
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