This is disturbing

[Amy]

I agree with a lot of your points, but I think where the "kindness" comes in is with the idea that once the Souls took over, war, murder (except in the case of resistant Hosts), violence, drug/alcohol abuse, etc. disappear. Souls are friendly and polite to each other. Food and medical care are available for everyone. Yes, they are parasites that destroy the Hosts' minds, but in a sense to them, what did they destroy - a world that was violent, unfair, and where millions starved to death or did not receive vital medical care. To the Souls, they were saving a world that was probably soon to destroy itself.

[Sierra]

Ida wrote: "Yes, the Souls have created a utopian world in a way, but only for their own species, so in reality their world is dystopian, because it is dependent on the oppression of others."

and

In essence they have in fact committed genocide on several different planets.

I completely agree to that. The souls always came off to be as murders. Ironical though, when wanda told the story of the fire planet, she made it seem like the souls felt bad about murdering the other intelligent life form on the planet for food.

I think that the souls never experienced the emotions to feel the guilt of murder and genocide until earth. Wanda at first thought it was her right to mel body but through human emotions learned that mel had the right to her own body. Also it was touched on that more souls who have human children wont be okay with a soul entering that child's body.

I still don't like the souls though. It struck me the wrong way that a soul could do whatever they wanted to your body including violating it even more by having sex with other people who you wouldn't have consented to. Souls to me violated a human's mind and body with no remorse

[Jackie]

I agree. The souls taking over bodies was very disturbing.
I think that because the book is told from Wanda's point of view, she see's her own kind as peaceful. It isn't until she comes to love Mel and the other humans that she realizes that she no longer wants to be a "parasite".

[tiffany]

actually Wanda knew what she was in the end and wanted to die and be buried next to Walter, and wes BECAUSE she didn't want to be a parasite

[A.D.]

I agree with you to an extent. The soul’s see themselves as good and justify their actions as being for the good of the human race – just like every other coloniser has done when taking over someone elses land. But I do think that Stephanie Meyer meant the souls to be good, and I think Wanda’s sacrifice at the end when she begins to see the soul’s actions for what it really is, shows that they are. I also think the reason why the souls have never seen it that way before is because the hosts say in the book that humans are different because of their emotions and so with the other planets and aliens they colonised, it probably did do them good. But I don’t think that human’s do necessarily die when the hosts take over. Part of who they are remains, like their attachments to the people the host bodies love (like Kyle’s girlfriend who loves him still). It was a good and original take on the whole alien takeover thing and I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes it in the next few books.

[Delia]

I totally disliked this book, had to push myself to finish reading it. Very badly written and to me boring.

[A.D.]

Ida wrote: "Ida wrote: "Amy wrote: "I agree with a lot of your points, but I think where the "kindness" comes in is with the idea that once the Souls took over, war, murder (except in the case of resistant Hos..."

Don’t get me wrong – colonisation can never be justified. I just understand what Stephanie Meyer was trying to do – take the alien invaders who are always seen as the baddies and trying to make you like them. I don’t know for sure if it was different for the other alien races and humans as I haven’t read the book in a while, but I always had the feeling that the experience for the hosts was much better because of the depth of human emotions.
As for Kyle, he was the most resistant to the souls so the fact that he was accepting of the soul in his girlfriend’s body shows that it isn’t as clear cut just how much of them remain when the host takes over. And that is true for the Seeker as well as the personality that irritated everyone was the human and not the soul. And as for Ian, I just think he could separate the two, and see Wanda even though she was in Melanie’s body. That’s why I’m looking forward to the next two books as this opinion might change.

[Sasha]

i actually loved this book it was really nice and creepy with no apologies.
to be honest i was more interested in the romance

[Kristin]

First, the souls had never been in such complex creatures before. Also humans hardly have the best track record. Whatever the souls did out of their belief that they made us better, we have done far, far worse. I think the ending brought the two together, even more than the human child in the park that they saw through the motel room.

[Ellese]

I always thought it was weird too...and sad...

[Anam]

I got so confused between the souls and the bodies,and some parts were very descriptive,that stopped halfway

[Stephanie]

Some of the worst things are done with good intentions. Looking from the outside the Souls only saw the bad in humans... The same way humans do to ourselves actually- we only see bad things happening on the news, we rarely talk about the good things happening in the world. It was mentioned in the book that other species welcomed the Souls' direction, the Sea Weeds being the obvious exception. So, they thought they were doing our planet a favor. But, as its mentioned in the book, once a Soul learned to love its host, they were doomed, as we see with Wanderer and Burns Living Flowers. So... on one hand yes, I agree with you. The Souls are completely opposite to what they are described as being. But at the same time, their intentions were good; they only meant well. But I still think that the Souls are truly good, most of them just don't understand what they've done to humans since they're used to being welcomed. I think the next two books in the series will dig deeper into the Souls, and what they'll do once they realize, as Wanda did, that they were wrong.

[Cheyenne]

Interesting discussion. I also did not care for the Souls in any way even by the end of the story. I did want it to work out somehow for Wanda(for the sake of Ian) but, I was ok with her being put into the ground as well. The Host is a story that, in my opinion, mirrors the themes of Dances With Wolves and Avatar. A group comes in with all these intentions to claim an area/people/etc. and make it "better" and end up doing the opposite. But then there's the ONE person who can see the error in that group's ways and tries to make a difference. My point is that this story isn't new, just a different take - which isn't a bad thing. But yes, I do think the Souls were very hypocritical at least per Wanda's view. They claim to be good, but they are essentially eliminating the humans as we'd know them... The Souls disgusted me and I couldn't figure out why the humans (once they figured them out) didn't fight back.