The Host

Name of Book: The Host

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Illustrator: none

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 9780316068048

Audience: 15 and up.  Young adult readers will enjoy the challenge of what is considered to be an adult novel.  Although intended for adults, the reading level, word usage, and content mostly attracts an adolescent audience.

Summary: Melanie is a 20-year-old human who has been living on the run. She is eventually captured and her body becomes a “host” by a soul known as Wanderer. She grows to love and care for Wanderer. Wanda, the nickname given to Wanderer, is naturally inclined to do good and is disgusted by violence. She feels guilty about the unrest her presence causes amongst Melanie’s loved ones, and throughout the book she puts others before herself and eventually puts Melanie first – again.

Literary elements at work in the story: Science Fiction/Fantasy.  The Host is engaging and well written. The characters are likeable and the symbolism offers clear descriptions about life as a human.  It is an excellent fantasy novel for those who normally do not like to read science fiction.

Theme: What is it to be human? The blessings of human existence, the value of the soul and faith in the world.

Perspective: The Host has a first-person perspective – from the point of view of an alien soul named “Wanderer.”

Theology: This story allows the reader to revisit creativity and watch it continue. With the contrast of beautiful, overlapping human emotions and the atrocities we are capable of, The Host describes humanity very well. “This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds,” Wanderer reflects. It has “the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions . . . the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached.” Such descriptions of human life can bring critical thinking and contemplation to persons of faith. Just like us, Wanderer, or “Wanda” comes to realize all that makes up harmonious life. While conscious of all the blessings in the world, readers can relate, as we too are aware of the war, pain, disease, and horror that come with human existence. When we experience illumination there is also darkness, all that is good is challenged by evil, and joys are often met with sorrows.

Apocalyptic undertones are mentioned through the characters of Jeb and Maggie. These dedicated “survivors” choose to live separately from the rest of civilization as they wait for disaster. As youth and adults sometimes feel anxious about the “end times,” a discussion about these characters and the disaster they expect can be compared and contrasted to the prophesies of tribulation that can be found throughout the Bible,

Scripture: In the Book of Hebrews Paul wrote the congregation in Jerusalem just before the prophecies in Matthew 24 were fulfilled with the Temple being defiled and the city overthrown. He had known pain and suffering, and he tried to prepare the people for what was coming. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you …”(Hebrews 12:11,12,15)

The blessings of present life are often taken for granted. It is unfortunate that so many are blind to what comes after existence in the physical world. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. (Revelation 3:17-19; NIV)

Faith Talk Questions:

1. What real-life example(s) can you share about the contrast between light and dark, good and evil, joy and sorrow? What Biblical example(s) do you know of?
2. Why should you not be anxious or fearful of “end of time” predictions?
3. Why are we so blessed when others must suffer?

This review was written by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Gina Craft.

Teens and Faith: Three Short Reviews

Regular contributor Virginia Thomas offers three shorter reviews of books related to ways that teens engage questions of faith.

Title:  Preacher’s Boy

Author:  Katherine Paterson

Publisher: Harper Trophy

ISBN: 0064472337

Audience: Ages 10 and up

Summary: Robbie Hewitt decides to give up believing in God. He’s heard the visiting minister condemn wicked thoughts and deeds and suggest that the world will end in 1900.  He’s in trouble because he has disrupted church and, as the preacher’s boy, the congregation holds him to an unreasonably high standard.  If the world’s coming to an end he wants to get in a lot of living before then; he wants especially to ride in a motor car.  Robbie’s oldest brother is severely handicapped physically and mentally and Robbie envies the time and attention Elliot gets from his father.  He also fights with the rich Weston boys who make fun of Elliot. His life is complicated by two drifters who camp in his hideout, Violet and her alcoholic father , and a fake kidnapping plot.  Finally a ride in a motor car restores Robbie’s faith and the new century begins with a joyous ringing of the church bells.

Giving up faith and doubting God are familiar themes for adolescents.  Robbie’s choice of “apeism,” a conflation of evolution and lack of faith, is chosen honestly; God interferes with the lifestyle he thinks he wants.  But what happens when you give up God?  When you need prayer? When you have to make a choice?  When you want to give thanks? When an answer to your deepest yearning can only be a miracle? Robbie’s father is a Christian minister seldom seen in fiction: gentle, modest, open to new ideas, strong in conviction and charitable in relationships.  Robbie is one of Katherine Paterson’s most appealing characters.  Through his voice she examines a young person’s developing faith and understanding.

Title:  Armageddon Summer

Author: Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & Col.

ISBN: 0152022686 pb.

Audience: Ages 12 years and up

Summary:  Reverend Beelson is taking 144 believers to the top of  Mt. Weeupcut to await the End on July 27, 2000 when God will destroy the world and begin anew.  Fourteen-year old Marina’s mother insists that Marina and her four brothers join her there to prevent their destruction.  Marina’s father stays behind.  Sixteen-year old Jed follows his father to the mountain to look after him. He has been less than stable since his wife left him for another man.  In alternating voices, Marina and Jed tell their stories of the month on the mountain interspersed with county sheriff’s reports, Rev. Beelson’s sermons, the rules for Weeupcut’s camping facilities, and a physchologist on a radio talk show. Marina wants desperately to believe; Jed is firmly skeptical.  Events play out in a violent, dramatic climax as outsiders try to force their way into the camp to be safe with the believers. “Did we do wrong in believing? Asks Marina’s mother. “Never in believing, “ answers Marina, “just in what we believed.”

With the Left Behind series in the movies and news, Christians are prompted to ask what we do believe about eschatology or end times. This is a thought provoking, gripping book about belief, the search for belief, what happens when belief fails. Jed and Marina are well drawn, appealing young persons who survive the summer and begin to search for faith anew.  Before tackling this book is is well to know at least one basic fact about biblical eschatology: Acts 1:6,7.

Title:  The Heavenly Village

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Publisher: Scholastic Press

ISBN: 0439231493

Audience: Ages 9 years and up

Summary: The Heavenly Village is a place of peace and beauty with flowers, a river, trees, small houses and shops.  It is a stopping place for spirits who are not quite ready for heaven, for those who need to finish their stories. People are always arriving or leaving, something or someone is always being mended.  Here you will find Everett, a bank teller who needs time to see beauty he ignored on earth.   There is Violet Rose, a baker, who is still concerned for her cats. Dr. Blake was so busy on earth that he never had time for his family or to listen to his patients.  Now since no one is really ill, he listens to his patients for hours (and they think they are in heaven) and visits his home each evening, unseen by his family. And there’s Fortune, the rescue dog, who was a nuisance in Heaven but is quite useful in Heavenly Village.  There is some provocative idea on almost every page.  For example, God is surprised that no one wants to lose weight in Friendly Village.  Since they are not worried about what others think about their looks, they decide they look just fine. Or God usually sends a messenger or loved one to welcome a new spirit to Heaven.  He has learned that most people like to get a little unpacked before they meet the Creator.  This is a short, delightful, beautifully written plotless collection of characters and incidents.

What happens after death?  The Heavenly Village will stimulate discussion but not provide any answers.  The Bible gives us few details (and it’s well to know 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thes., Rev. 22, John 14 before you discuss  this book) but we can’t seem to get beyond time and space, beyond golden streets and gates of pearl and white robes. Rylant frees our imaginations. The book has more to say about life than the hereafter, about how we fail and how we grow.  God is depicted as gentle, wise, meeting the needs of all of his children but rather limited on earth. (Rylant is not concerned with sexist pronouns.)  Each chapter has a Bible verse introducing it and it’s worth some time to think about why a verse was chosen for a particular chapter. This is by no means a book of theology but it does stimulate theological thinking and it is fun.