The Host Chapter 32

RIP Michael Crichton (my second favourite author) and my fish, Dresden, who both died within two days of each other.

We're past the halfway point here, yay! Let's recap:
Aliens known as "souls" (I refer to them as "Yeerks") get their kicks by inserting themselves into host bodies and then proceeding to act exactly the same as the hosts for no specific reason. Earth has been taken over completely by Yeerks except for Melanie, her brother Jamie, and her lover Jared, who is nine years older and as such is referred to as Pedobear. Melanie gets captured by Seekers, who are Yeerks whose job it is to crush rebellions from the humans. Yeerks are nice, fair, honest, blah blah but Seekers tend to be a little bloodthirsty. When a host is taken, the host's consciousness is supposed to fade into obscurity, but when Melanie is implanted with a Yeerk known as "Wanderer", she refuses to die, so the two of them are essentially sharing one body. Melanie's feelings influence Wanderer's feelings to the point where Wanderer loves Jamie and falls in love with Pedobear, despite never having met them. The two of them decide to go find Jamie and Pedobear. There's some plotline with a crazy uncle Jeb who maps out a way to the human colony on a photo album and they somehow find this colony, where uncle Jeb has been living, along with a bunch of other insignificant people, Jamie, and Pedobear. Everyone except Jeb and Jamie hate Wanderer at first, but eventually they all come to love her, despite the fact that she is whiny and overly self-sacrificing. Only a few persist in hating her: Pedobear, who wants to kill her and despite this fact she still loves him like a pathetic victim of Stockholm Syndrome and someone named Kyle, and someone else named Brandt, who I hypothesize is a ghost. People who like her in particular are Jamie and Ian, Kyle's brother. That's pretty much it. It sounds awesome but trust me, it's not.

Chapter 32- Ambushed

Jamie was sound asleep, curled into a tight ball in the top corner of the mattress. He didn't
usually sleep so compactly, but he had good reason to at the moment. Ian was sprawled across the rest of the space, his feet and hands hanging off the edges, one appendage to each of the four sides. For some reason, this was hysterical to me. I had to put my fist in my mouth to choke back the laughter as I quickly snatched up my old dirt-dyed T-shirt and shorts. I hurried into the hall, still stifling the giggles.

Okay, wow, it's not that funny. Also, whenever I have friends sleep over, that's how we sleep. I'm generally the Jamie in this scenario. Whenever I sleep with Danielle her elbow ends up in my back. ALWAYS.

“Good morning, Ian,” I said. “I'm just done. Did you sleep well?” Does she not sound like a Stepford Wife? Seriously. Also, it appears that we might have some action! It isn't Ian at all, but his brother Kyle!

“Ian's still sleeping,” Ian's voice answered. “I'm sure that won't last forever, though, so we'd
best get on with this.” I was so confused when I first read this. I guess I just ignored the first part and just saw "We'd best get on with this." I honestly thought I skipped a chapter or something and Ian and Wanderer were meeting in the bathing room for a covert quickie. I must be tired.

There was no air to scream with. This kind of reminds me of the Alien tagline: "In space, no one can hear you scream." I don't know whether she knows when she steals from other science fiction. Let's count the influences: The X-Files (when she says "trust no one", plus just the whole alien thing), some John Wyndham influences (Chocky, Consider Her Ways, The Chrysalids), Animorphs (blatantly), Alien...I'm sure there are others.

Anyway, now Kyle is stalking her throughout the dark bathing room. This part is actually legitimately well written. I don't even like this book and I'm creeped out. And unlike so many of Smeyer's books, I'm creeped out when I'm supposed to be creeped out, not when I'm supposed to be thinking "aw, that's so romantic!"

Anyway, Kyle caught her and they're struggling on the rocks. I believe he's trying to drown her now. Ha ha, Kyle's stupid. Apparently he's so heavy that he can CRUMBLE ROCKS. And the rock under his feet is crumbling and he's going to fall and...I would say die, but Smeyer is incapable of killing off characters. Now he fell and she's climbing up him to get back on solid land. Ohhhhh I SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING. Kyle's going to die and everyone is going to think that she killed him and they're going to turn against her. Which I just now realized is the plot of X-Files episode "Ice" where people are going insane up north and Mulder finds a dead body and everyone thinks he killed this guy and that he's been infected by these worms that make people act weirdly. OR she's going to save his life and everyone will love her forever and ever and Pedobear will realize his mistake. It's always 50/50, but I'm going with the saccharine option. Melanie urges Wanderer to just walk away and let Kyle die, but Wanderer goes to save him.