Always love seeing new stuff from my favorite girl Saoirse. :) ( )

Reviewed by: Robin
Book provided by: Publisher
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

I went into reading this movie companion not really knowing what the original novel was about. But I did enjoy Stephenie Meyer’s other works, The Twilight Saga, so I decided to give this a chance. It wasn’t actually the novel just a movie guide of sorts so I figured that it would be a nice change of pace. I found out that I was surprised.

I found out that the story is somewhat loosely sci-fi-ish…if that is even a word. Well, I made it a word for this review. You see just briefly it is an unusual type of love story. Beings that inhabit humans by taking over their brains erasing from what I understand memories and replacing them with others use said humans as the ‘Host’ for their bodies. So to understand this you picture your body but your mind is that of an alien. In this story we follow Melanie Stryder and her alien named ‘Wanderer’. The twist is that Melanie is strong and doesn’t give up her memories for the Wanderer to take over. Instead the Wanderer is filled with Melanie’s memories and falls for Melanie’s boyfriend Jared.

To me this was a really informative look at the whole process of taking the novel, turning it into a script, choosing actors, locations etc. I enjoyed reading the different takes from the actors; the interviews with the directors, gophers and even Stephenie Meyer. The visual and special effects were interesting to learn about. The unusual locations that helped to bring the story off the pages to make everything more realistic, although it made have seemed desolate to some it made the story romantic. The depths we go for love. Even the bond that formed between Melanie and Wanderer was fun to explore.

Even if you don’t read the actual novel but are thinking of going to see the movie you just might want to pick up this insightful companion before you go. This type of novel usually isn’t my genre when it comes to reading but I found that I want to go buy The Host and read the whole story and not just the snippets from the companion. Who knows I just may have taken myself once again outside the box when it comes to reading. Mark Cotta Vaz has done a great job with the behind the scenes looks that takes us from novel, to movie script and onto the final movie adaptation. ( )