The Host

After making a name playing with the kiddies with the teen-lit Twilight franchise, author Stephenie Meyer finally moves to the big table with The Host. Taking a page from Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Master, here Meyer envisions a more dystopian Earth than even the cynics expected, one in the last stages of the ultimate eviction notice. Nebulous beings are entering the final stage of repossession, inserting centipedal critters in the base of human skulls, which carries a passenger that displaces the original inhabitant. One such displaced person is Melanie, who is still fighting the good fight against her new tenant Wanderer as she tries to reunite with her uninfected soul mate. Soon the Stockholm Syndrome sets in, leading to one very unusual love triangle. While ostensibly science fiction, The Host is still grounded in a realistic milieu that invites an easy suspension of disbelief for even non-aficionados of the genre. While at times a little too descriptive for its own good (at more than 600 pages, it could have been tightened just a little) Meyer’s adult debut still makes for efficiently compelling summer reading.