Friday, August 15, 2008
The Host
15-AUG-2008:
I have just finished reading this book by Stephenie Meyer, and someone finds a good book she shares it with her friends. :-)
The human world was a brutal world of deception, war, abuse and suffering. The Souls (i.e. the aliens) invaded earth with the mission to "make the world a better place". The Souls were always gentle, kind, polite and helpful. All of them. Violence, anger, irritation and cruelty were foreign to the Souls. And they could not lie, except if they were Seekers. The Seekers job was to hunt down humans so that the body could be used as hosts to the Souls. The Souls were also parasites, you see. They could not live without a host body. Soon the entire human population was wiped out and the Souls ruled the earth. Well, almost the entire population since some of them did manage to go into hiding.
The narrator is Wanderer and she was a Soul put into the body of Melanie Stryder. Melanie wasn't dead. She was still in her head. Her memories became Wanderer's. Her feelings became Wanderer's. To cut the story short, the two soon became friends and they set out to find Melanie's boyfriend (Jared) and brother (Jamie) who they believed were still human.
They found Jared and Jamie, together with 30 over other humans living hidden in a cave in Arizona. Although Melanie still looked like Melanie but her soul was not her. The humans hated her so much, particularly Jared, they hit her and kept her as a prisoner. So my question is, can you bring yourself to slap the person you love even though inside he/she is not the same person anymore. After all, that is still his/her body. Wouldn't you feel bad leaving a bleeding wound on the face of the body you love? Or does the body not have anything to do with who you love? I guess that's more than one question. :-)
So anyway, among the 30 odd humans was Ian who subsequently fell in love with Wanderer (not Melanie's body). It came the day when Wanderer had grown to love Melanie so much that she decided to separate herself from her host and give Melanie back her body. Ian was devastated. He held on to the cryotank that held Wanderer's soul (a silvery, glittery ribbon - or a worm depending on how you see it), while Melanie, Jared and Jamie went in search of another suitable body for her. Ian said he didn't care what Wanderer's body looked like, he loved her. So again, my question is, can you really love someone for who he/she is on the inside ONLY without any consideration of the physical appearance? What if Wanderer had come in an old woman's body? Would Ian still love her. He said to Wanderer "It's not your eyes, but your expressions on them. It's not your mouth but what you say with it. It's not your body but what you do with it." Touching huh? Isn't physical attraction part of the built-up of love?
The story ended with Wanderer leaving her comfortable society of kind, helpful Souls to join the brutish human community that she had become to love so much. The reason? The Souls were kind to everyone and they love everyone the same way. Without the concept of hate, how much meaning does love actually hold? The humans can hate but they can also love so much more. Their love is ... I forgot what's the word the author used ... was it selective? Individualized? I'll find out when I get home, but the point is we give our love to only selective people, which makes them so special. Which makes them feel so special. And which makes the love so intense. It is how I can never love another person's kid the way I love Dom. :-)
This book was a good read. Although it didn't touch me as much as the Twilight Saga but nevertheless I couldn't put it down.
