#stephanie meyer's the host

[quadrantadvisor]

What if I scripted Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" into a TV show, and I kept all the rad as fuck sci-fi concepts and the messaging about human love and resilience, but I removed all the nasty bioessentialism and openly advocating for teen girls to date adult men. What then?

Probably would keep the focus on Wanda and Melanie's relationship, rather than the love square/jealousy plot. I never liked how after Melanie started "fading" in the book she basically became a nothing character. Also the way she completely lost all sense of self and/or rationality whenever her dude was around was uh. Dumb.

Also the cast of the human survivors are so potentially interesting, but we never spend any time with them. They could have sub-plots! We could get to know them! The funeral scene of that one guy would be way more emotionally effective if he like. Actually had a character before dying.

We're keeping all the alien species as they were described, like the telepathic underwater plants, or the polar bears with hand blades, or the bats who communicate entirely by singing. Also benevolent parasitic communism. That's good as is.

But yeah every scene with Jared or Ian needs to be at least slightly reworked, so we can get them to the level of "flawed yet compelling" instead of "irredeemable assholes". And we're aging Melanie up a few years, that's going to solve a lot of our problems from the get go.

Uncle Jeb and Jamie are mostly good, they can stay. And the basic plotline of the human characters being rightfully terrified of Wanderer because of what her species has done to the human race, but as a result mistreating her, since there's no way for her to adequately communicate she's not a threat to them, and then slowly learning to accept and to trust. Honestly that slaps. I love when characters get the shit beat out of them because of Circumstances. I love when people who think that they have to be enemies, because they have every reason to be, because not only are they on opposing sides but they have actively harmed one another already, decide to become family instead. Favorite storyline, has the same vibes as that one ATLA fanfic where Zuko's taken captive on a water tribe ship, y'all know what I'm talking about [you likely do not know what I am talking about].

Basically The Host would be one of my favorite books ever if it didn't suck so bad. Also no one ever cared about the movie adaptation. A TV show could be so kickass. Thank you for attending my ted talk.

[painting-peaks]

Ian O'Shea really said "I would still love you if you were a worm" and he MEANT it bless his heart

[counting-rock-stars]

I just finished Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, and The Host by Stephanie Meyer (both great btw). So, I here pledge assistance to the all knowing tumblr community, grant me your prophecy.

Also if you have any other book recomendations please let me know

[cosmic-theory]

“Eight full lives,” I whispered against his jaw, my voice breaking.

“Eight full lives and I never found anyone I would stay on a planet for, anyone I would follow when they left. I never found a partner. Why now? Why you? You're not of my species. How can you be my partner?” “It's a strange universe,” he murmured. “It's not fair,” I complained, echoing Sunny's words. It wasn't fair. How could I find this, find love–now, in this eleventh hour–and have to leave it? Was it fair that my soul and body couldn't reconcile? Was it fair that I had to love Melanie, too? Was it fair that Ian would suffer? He deserved happiness if anyone did. It wasn't fair or right or even…sane. How could I do this to him? “I love you,” I whispered. “Don't say that like you're saying goodbye.” But I had to. “I, the soul called Wanderer, love you, human Ian. And that will never change, no matter what I might become.” I worded it carefully, so that there would be no lie in my voice. “If I were a Dolphin or a Bear or a Flower, it wouldn't matter. I would always love you, always remember you. You will be my only partner.”

[foxintheferns]

Diving into the world of smeyer’s The Host. Going to start writing fic (man oh man there’s approximately two fics out there for this fandom & holy hell it’s sad) while getting back into my current Twilight works and I’d love to get a sense of how alive the fandom is!

Please give me your take below! :-) <3

[thatsimpleperson]

So I have question for my stranger things friends. How would y’all feel about this AU I’m thinking about writing a fic for? So essentially it’s an AU based upon “The Host” by Stephanie Meyer. I know the book is questionable but I would fix some stuff at least. No creepy age gaps or unconsented kisses. So essentially it would be Stobin centric (platonic of course). So Steddie would be Melanie and Jared and Ronance would be Wanda and Ian. Dustin would be Jamie. I have big plans and changes if I do write it. Like i changed it to where El is also a soul and she is put into robins custody. It would also have side ships like Byler, Lumax, Jopper, Murray x Alexei and some crack ships like Billy x Tommy (they both suck in canon so they can suck together). I’m hyperfixating on the host and I have consumed all the content I could find so I apologize in advance.

[mashmouths]

everyone pray that my alarm wakes me up pretty please i cannae be late for work again or they will terminate my white ass -_-

[dddemigirl]

The Host got me fucked up, I just wish that the author wasn’t a racist Mormon that always writes pedophilia into her books. Makes me wonder if someone’s projecting about her own relationship. Got the book used years back so its not like she got any of my money.

[queenfruffalumps]

You're telling me these two shared a body and it didn't get even a lil fruity???

[sweetbee0108]

being in a dead fandom is so sad all i want is ian x wanda smut but noOoOo smeyer's best book came after the twilight series so either everyone was hooked on or bashing that with no time to read a book about a love square during an alien invasion

the movie is great imo but the book is infinitely better

[quadrantadvisor]

Was desperate enough to use the search function to find posts about The Host by Stephenie Meyer and I just wanted to say, I love your takes and I agree with everything.

The love square never made sense. Jared and Melanie were impossible to root for because the sole basis of their love was that Melanie felt safe with him and Melanie was the last woman on Earth to Jared, and then neither of those things turn out to be true so all they have is intense sexual chemistry. And especially in contrast to Ian and Wanda, how and why am I supposed to care about them? And there is no reason for Wanda to love Jared. I get her falling in love with him through Melanie’s memory of him, but the reality ought to have shattered that illusion for both of them IMO. Especially for Melanie, because he’d rather scream at and hit her body rather than even entertain the hope she might be in there. Sure, he protects it from other humans, but then he abuses it, so that’s not in fact protection; it’s possession.

The gender bioessentialism never made sense. Sure, Wanda’s in a female body and can make the choice to reproduce, which is super cool. But given that her sense of gender hinges on that ability to reproduce and given that that ability is super rare, why would other Souls gender themselves? I think being agender or someone who just didn’t give a damn about pedantic human gender roles would have been super interesting for Wanda’s character and I think it would have added more dimension to her and Ian’s relationship. He barely had to struggle with the fact that the body she was in belonged to an attractive cisgender girl and he was a cishet man, in spite of Meyer’s weak attempts to call that into question. The gender question might have thrown him for more of a loop.

Contrast that to Jared’s very comphet interpretation of his relationship with Melanie, and ooh baby, we’ve got a stew!

Also would have liked more exploration on ethics in general. Why do the Souls care about the well-being of the organisms on the Fire Eater planet but not on Earth? Instead of stopping from eating them, do they steal their bodies too? And the humans killing other humans in an attempt to save them: Is it okay to murder them if they’re the ones doing the murdering, like before?

Sorry for the long ask. I just have a lot of thoughts. Please feel free to block and ignore if this is too weird. Genuinely no intention to bother or offend and I’m sorry if I have.

Oh man I'm always ready to rant about The Host with people!

Yeah I feel like Meyer thought she was saying something really deep about human nature and the way that our instincts drive us? And there is something there, like, your body having a reaction to another person and that affecting your behavior is interesting! In my opinion she just went WAY too far with it, and it makes the characters seem unrealistic and childish. The ways that both Melanie and Wanderer act around Jared are bizarre (this may partially be my ace spectrum talking but like, c'mon.) Jared just kinda sucks, also. The whole idea that there's this inherent magnetism between MEN and WOMEN and that that physical attraction is the most important thing in the world is so heteronormative and amatonormative and uncomfortable

And the book was SO CLOSE to having an interesting take on gender! Examing the genders and/or lack thereof of a body-snatching alien species could be so fun! There's even the mention of the alien species with three genders, and talking about their family structures. You would think that something like that would indicate a more expansive view on gender, but really it's just an extrapolation of more bioessentialism. Because that species has those biological sexes, their families MUST be steucturedin this way, because that's what's natural for them. There's no room for variability or different sorts of feelings. She completely equates gender with biology, even when that biology is being coopted by a hitchhiker.

You're so right about Ian and Wanderer, I would love more examinations of how different she is from humans, including in a gender sense, and them having to deal with that as a part of their relationship. Setting up Jared as someone very entrenched in social norms and Ian as a foil to him in that way sounds really interesting!

Soul society and ethics are SO fascinating. I do sincerely think that Meyer is an compelling fantasy and sci fi world builder, if nothing else.

It's late and I feel like I'm a little incoherent but I love getting to chat about this book, it's so infuriating but so fun, now I want to read it again.

[light-miracles]

StephEnie Meyer's The Host: "Seeker is a small, short haired brunette"

Me, a Twilight Fan trapped in hell: Seeker is evil Alice Cullen, I get it.

[darkfictionjude]

Progress Update 6

Some good news, I’ve been working, I’ve been writing, I’ve been getting that bread (hyperbole I do this for free) and… no I haven’t written a word for episode 2 (I do have that episode all mapped out though).

That’s because I’ve been reworking on episode 1. Adding things people have wanted. The episode is still relatively the same it follows the same action I just added more dialogue options and settings options. Other things such as vices, hobbies, clothing style I’ll leave for the next episode.

I don’t know if I should update Episode 1 by itself or have it be updated with episode 2. Saves will probably break either way (I don’t know how that all works yet tbh). I might do a poll or smth idk.

Now if all goes well episode two could be coming before the new year. By this track I could be releasing two episodes per term which would be cool (maybe more in the summer).

anyway until next time ta-ta 💜

[eternal-apidae]

why did Stephanie M did that weird age thing at the end of the Host?

Excellent question anon!! Let’s get into it!

So for context, The Host (2008) is a book based on an invasive species of aliens that need host bodies to operate on alien planets. The 2 main characters of the book are one of the invading aliens, a “soul” and her human host body that is still alive and well even when the alien is operating her body. The grand finale of the book has the alien give back the human body so her host can go back to living her life. BUT! the humans involved in the story have grown attached to this specific alien and find her a new body. Not a big deal except SM wrote it the weirdest way possible. The running theory in the book is that the longer a human was human before an alien took over the more likely they are to remember their own lives. so while our favorite humans from the story go looking for a new body they choose one that is noticeably young so that the alien doesn’t have to worry about the human host being alive inside the body. BUT! the alien has paired up with one of the adult males in the story and so when she wakes up in the new body she lies about its age so that her partner won’t object to hanky panky and make her wait until her body is old enough.

There’s a lot there. It is Stephanie Meyers writing so it’s filled with her usual sexism and weirdness that makes a lot of people question her sanity. I am a white person so i don’t know how to go about commenting on her racism. i will say she didn’t dig herself into the same hole she did with Twilight (2005) but the invading alien 100% have a savior complex about taking over planets, they said something of the lines of “We come to experience and make it better.” or something to that effect that i wish i had my copy of the book in front of me to check. But they fit the definition of colonizers so take that as you will.

Stephanie has a history of using similar tropes and just weird things that she insists on including in her writing. What anon has come to me about is the weird age thing and let’s dive into that. There already has been a lot of commentary about the age gap with Bella and Edward from Twilight but i bring it up because it’s a trope SM writes often. The only book i can think of that doesn’t have a weird age gap is her spy/espionage book The Chemist (2016) but i haven’t read a couple titles that popped up in my deep dive for this ask.

The biggest clues about why the hell SM writes some of this stuff is that she is mormon and her religious views definitely get added in writing in different ways. Mormons believe that a “delayed marriage” is a sign of delayed maturity so that’s the biggest thing i can think of when it comes to why SM writes this ideology into her books.

Returning to The Hosts age gap and Twilights age gap the circumstances are shockingly similar, one of the pair has been alive for multiple life times before they meet the other and they are suddenly complete. They felt so isolated and distant from their own kinds until they found their true mate. It’s crazy to me! The only difference the pairs is that in Twilight, Edward is an eternally mature 17 y/o and in The Host, Wanda is an eternally immature thousand of years old, in the book she estimates that she was born around earths big bang? or that her mother? was but she constantly moves from planet to planet and has to start the maturing process all over again with each species. She even states towards the end of the book that she was “barely a year old” because her time on earth had been that short and then!! she’s put into an even younger body!! The aliens defense within herself is that she doesn’t want to wait like her previous human host had because her human host was 17 (i think) when she found her mate and he made her wait for her 18th birthday before her would have sex with her. So she lies and says the new human host’s body’s birthday is in a week! which is just so silly to me! it brings in the question of if the aliens celebrate their host’s birthdays? which i genuinely don’t see that they would??

I do know that SM stated that The Host was based off a story she started telling herself while driving through arizona? one of the more desert states and so she probably started writing it and had to come up with some kind of happy ending? similar to twilight which was based off a dream and she wrote the meadow scene first and had to build a backstory around that and then find some way to give all of those characters a happy ending which is how we ended up with genuinely the most disturbing age gap in any of her writing to date.

Long answer short! i’m not sure! but i mostly blame mormonism and poor plotting!

Thank you anon for sending in this ask so i could talk about my favorite book ever and the absolute disaster that it is!

[elvencantation]

If I had a dime for every time I've liked a stand-alone scifi novel way better than a bestselling author’s super popular fantasy book series that has an even more popular media adaptation, I would have two dimes. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.

[one-thousand-and-one-fandoms]

Fixing The Host by Stephanie Meyer (pt. 1)

Make Melanie older. Age gap isn't particularly a problem as long as both are consenting, legal adults. Especially if one of your themes is lack of agency. Make Melanie at least 21, and then Jared can be 30 with no issue.

Change the protagonist. Make the story less about Wanderer/Wanda finding her place amongst humans and more about Melanie struggling with this new reality. I understand the need for a shared POV as Wanda and Melanie are sharing a body, but so much of the book is focused on Wanda learning what it means to be human, while Melanie is relegated to a sidekick.

Broaden the perspective of the humans in the book. If you want to tackle any subject with nuance, you must let all voices be heard equally without passing judgment (for example, what happened to Maggie and Sharon to make them resent the souls so much, aside from the obvious? Why is Kyle so angry at the souls (partly because of Jody but is that all?)? What are the stories and trauma these humans are carrying to behave the way they do?) To do this, perhaps it would be better to use a third person omniscient perspective rather than first person POV.

The individuality of one good soul doesn't negate the fact that Wanderer's species have taken over humanity and killed most of them. This is briefly touched upon by Jeb after Wanda sees the results of Doc's failed attempts at extracting the souls, but then it is immediately swept under the rug because the plot needs to move forward and there's no time to fully contemplate the ramifications of what happened.

Pacing. The story is super fast paced, which makes it very easy to read when I'm bored, but it doesn't allow for moments of calm or respite to process what I read. The plot just keeps coming. At some point, there are three plot points overlapping (the return of the raiders and their reaction to Wanda becoming a part of the community + Doc's attempts at extraction + Walter dying of cancer + Kyle trying to kill Wanda + the Seeker looking for Wanda) and none of them get the breathing room to actually explore them and the themes in depth.

That's all for now. If anyone else has read this mess of a book and has opinions on it, feel free to share.