Originally reviewed on My Bloody Words. 
 Genre: SciFi/Romance 
 Rating: 7 out of 10 
 Buzzword: EMOTIONAL 
 Theme Song: "Get Outta My Dreams" by Billy Ocean 
 Favorite Quote: "It's not the face, but the expressions on it. It's not the voice, but what they say. It's not how you look like in that body, it's what you do with it. You are beautiful." 
 Pros: 
 Interesting premise and world 
 Mostly well-written prose (much more so than her other work anyway) 
 Romance is, of course, well-done and addictive 
 Highly emotional dialog 
 Cons: 
 Passive protagonist for much of the book 
 Some of the character transformations aren't believable 
 Characterization is just too similar to the Twilight series 
 Romance and scifi plotlines don't mesh well at all 
 Summary: Modern-day Earth has been slowly, systematically, and all but completely taken over by aliens. Gradually a species of parasites called "souls" have implanted themselves into humans and taken over their bodies, their lives, and their world. One such soul is called Wanderer. She is implanted into the body of Melanie Stryder. But Melanie doesn't go away quite so easily as some humans. She persists, bombarding Wanderer with memories, dreams, and feelings she beings to confuse for her own. In Melanie's mind are memories of human renegades, her boyfriend Jared and her young brother Jamie. Wanderer gradually begins to love Jamie as her own family, not to mention the handsome hero Jared. She sets out to find them in the Arizona desert, and finds not only those two, but an entire community of human survivors that don't take kindly to alien invaders. 
 Review: I'm not sure how to put this. I loved this book. And I hate that fact. 
 I loved Twilight and all the sequels. I've said it before. But I also said that they had A LOT of flaws. Most of those are the same problems I saw with The Host. Let me talk about the strengths first. 
 I was instantly drawn in by the inner dialog of Wanderer (nicknamed Wanda) and Melanie inside their collective head. Melanie was a very well-constructed character. I think there was a convincing transformation for Wanda as she gradually began to relate to Mel and develop feelings for the people in her memories. This is the best relationship in the book, and the one I believed the most. 
 This book has a much stronger underlying message than her other work. Whereas in Twilight the main character wants to give up her humanity, Wanda would give up anything to have hers. The world the souls created once they took over was beautiful and peaceful, like the perfect communist community. But humans, even in their tiny underground community, fight and argue and love and survive. 
 The romance is thick and it's the real hook of the book. The scifi element is, relatively speaking, rather weak in comparison. It basically becomes a means to an end to collide the proper characters in the right direction. But, nevertheless, I was just as engrossed in the romantic plot here as I ever was in Twilight. It just had a better story base to rest on. I laughed out loud multiple times. I cried through the last 100 pages, which I read feverishly at two a.m. yesterday because I simply had to get to the end. 
 And yet I am left with some serious problems. The main reason the romance was so compelling is that the characters are crafted in basically exactly the same way they are in Twilight. 
 [WARNING: Some minor character spoilers ahead.] 
 Wanda is basically Bella: self-depracating, self-sacrificing, torn between two men, and everyone loves her for some reason. Jared is decidedly Edward: physically perfect, caring, strong, but conflicted. And then Ian is sweet, protective, and attractive (aka Jacob). Regular readers might miss this or not care about it one way or the other. But, as a writer, I can't ignore it. And it bugs me. 
 A lot of the changes that the primary and secondary characters undergo is unbelievable. I'm thinking primarily of Ian. He is one of the human survivors, and his brother Kyle wants to kill Wanda even more than everyone else. But, somehow, he chooses to take the alien's side, even to the point of a physical confrontation with his own brother. 
 And, after about 400 pages, I had lost track of the conflict altogether. Things were happening to the characters, but I didn't have a sense of where the story might be going. It was just moving in no particular direction. But, when I did finally get to the ending, I loved it, tears and all. 
 So you can see my conflict. I had to give it at least a 7 out of 10, because I did enjoy it immensely. It's just hard to put my finger on why...