History Literature / TheHost2008

&&* BettyAndVeronica: Subverted, though Ian and Jared fit the bill all right. The subversion comes from the Archie being actually two people in the same body, with Ian only interested in Wanda and Jared interested in Melanie. Honestly, it could be viewed as a metaphor for a guy loving you for your mind/personality vs. a guy loving you for your body (although in fairness to Jared, they did confirm that Melanie's mind was still intact in there).

* BettyAndVeronica: Subverted, though Ian and Jared fit the bill all right. The subversion comes from the Archie being actually two people in the same body, with Ian only interested in Wanda and Jared interested in Melanie. Honestly, it could be viewed as a metaphor for a guy loving you for your mind/personality vs. a guy loving you for your body (although in fairness to Jared, they did confirm that Melanie's mind was still intact in there).

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: But only the ones who've got human hosts, and only because their host would have known it first (assuming that the host ''did'' speak English, of course. The story's set in America, though, so for our purposes it's a moot point).
* AndIMustScream: Happens in a few cases, although generally it seems that the human's mind is destroyed upon them being possessed.
* TheAlcoholic: Doc has shades of this.

** Sharon and Doc remain estranged for a lot of the story over their respective views towards Wanda, but in the end, she does wordlessly reconcile with him by dragging her mattress back next to hers after Melane and Wanda are separated (and after Doc gets a female assistant Sharon may have realized could be competition if they didn't fix things).
* BackAlleyDoctor: Doc, like every other person who's still human, lives in a cave and drinks too much. But he's the only doctor who isn't a body-snatching alien. Given his efforts to remove the souls from their human hosts (which are unsuccessful until Wanda helps him, with those failures and the deaths they cause contributing to his drinking) he also embodies aspects of a SoleSurvivingScientist.

* BenevolentAlienInvasion: The "souls" see themselves this way, at least.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Melanie and a few other people attempt suicide to prevent being captured and taken over.

** An example of this happening on another planet is mentioned by Wanderer near the beginning - an "entire forest" of "See Weeds" starving themselves of sunlight and dying before the souls could use them as hosts, as they couldn't physically run (what with being sentient plants).
* BettyAndVeronica: Subverted. Ian and Jared fit the bill all right, the subversion being that the Archie is actually two people in the same body with Ian only interested in Wanda and Jared interested in Melanie. Honestly, it could be viewed as a metaphor for a guy loving you for your mind/personality vs. a guy loving you for your body (although in fairness to Jared, they did confirm that Melanie's mind was still intact in there).

* BizarreAlienBiology: Leaving aside the fact that they have no eyes (or mouths?), [[AlienBlood have blood and other tissue that's silvery in color]], and are effectively a very squishy, gracefully flowing centipede with brain-controlling tentacles, there's also their [[BizarreAlienReproduction reproductive method]], which involves [[spoiler:the queens essentially committing suicide by splitting apart into thousands upon thousands of tiny little babies]].
** Not to mention the other species the souls have captured. These include gelatinous floating creatures, aliens with double-sided hands and four hearts, and [[PlantAliens multiple species of sentient plants]].

* CallASmeerpARabbit: A JustifiedTrope in this case. The souls only know the native language of their host, so they use the closest Earth analogue to describe other alien races that they've conquered. Notable examples include the Bears (four-arms with double-sided hands, along with four hearts), the Dragons (gelatinous floating blobs), and the Dolphins (three sexes, each with either three, five, or seven legs).

* DeathByChildbirth: The soul's reproduction system is a suicidal process for the Mother.

* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: A borderline case occurs towards the end when [[spoiler:Kyle's girlfriend turns out to be brain-dead, leading the humans to place the soul back inside of her]].

* ExtremeDoormat: The normal way for souls to behave towards each other, much to the annoyance of the human characters when watching it on television or interacting with Wanderer. On top of Wanderer's natural disposition, add that she is constantly terrified and uses it as a survival strategy to avoid antagonizing her (understandably) hostile captors. She gets better about it as she feels less threatened and learns more of human culture. [[spoiler:At the end, it is revealed that Wanderer was actually far LESS doormatty than the average Soul all along. The new character Sunny is portrayed as not only being far worse than Wanderer in this regard, but also as being the normal and average for her species. It becomes rather obvious that if Souls and Humans are ever going to be able to coexist on Earth, it will take not only Souls protecting the Humans from other Souls, but also Humans protecting the Souls from other Humans.]]

** It never occurs to the souls (including Wanderer, at first) that maybe they shouldn't be taking over the minds of every species they run across and essentially wiping them out. One species commits mass suicide to escape them; rather than rethink their system the souls cheerily continue infesting the ones who didn't escape in time, pausing only briefly to regret the waste of host bodies. They also tend to babble about humans being violent, while at the same time making an organized effort to "[[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide discard]]" all "wild" humans.
*** Even after Wanda comes to the conclusion that HumansAreSpecial and shouldn't be hosts, she doesn't extend the same consideration to the other species that the souls have conquered. For that matter neither do the humans, who are more than happy to ship disembodied souls off to other worlds to inhabit hosts there.

* GambitRoulette: Jared initially believes everything Wanderer does is proof that she's secretly a Seeker trying to infiltrate the group. This starts to annoy the others since he keeps it up way too long and even Jared starts to realize how ridiculous he's being.

* GoodVersusGood: The conflict between soul society and the free humans gradually develops into this, as Wanderer teaches the humans how to gain the moral high ground [[spoiler:by getting rid of souls without harming them, thus denying soul society their excuse to identify themselves as the peaceful side of the conflict]].
* GuiltComplex: Wanderer feels that everything that goes wrong is her fault. Sometimes she's right to feel that way but most of the time it's the complex.

* HeelFaceTurn: Wanderer's joining the side of the humans. [[spoiler: She is not alone in this; other souls like Sunny and Burns do the same.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Melanie attempts suicide in order to prevent the hosts from using her memories. [[spoiler:Wanderer attempts suicide, but the others intervene at the last second.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Wanderer has one when [[spoiler:she discovers the doc is attempting to remove souls from humans, killing both in the process. She hides herself away for two days and doesn't talk to anyone]].

** She also tries ''[[spoiler:to trade her life]]'' to save the life of the Seeker, who has hounded her for months and [[spoiler: killed one of her friends]].

* HumanityIsInfectious: Souls develop genuine feelings for their human host's loved ones through memory, which has led to Wanderer and other souls developing an appreciation for humanity.
** At one point, Wanda notices one soul in a human's body who loves her human son enough that she has been granted permission to raise him as his own person.
* HumansAreSpecial: According to Wanderer, who has experienced being most of the sentient races of the known universe, humans have more individual variation and a deeper range of emotions than any of the other species. However, this assertion might be unfair to those other races, since they were never truly given a fair chance to express themselves. And Wanderer is emotionally biased in favor of humans anyway. In any case, humans are objectively special in the sense that they are the first species to resist possession.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played perfectly straight ''and'' completely deconstructed. On an individual level, Humans are far more violent, hostile, hateful and generally dangerous than the naturally meek and friendly Souls. On the society level, humans have in the past committed genocide against their own species and harmed the environment of their own home world. Souls would never do such a thing, and can't imagine themselves doing such a thing - thus refusing to realize the truth about what they have become. They are oppressive genocidal tyrants now, and the few of them who start to realize it are having a very hard time living with themselves.

* IndestructibleEdible: Twinkies in an abandoned house.
* InspectorJavert: The Seeker

* InSeriesNickname: Some souls have these since [[NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom their names tend to be mouthfuls]]. We get Wanda for Wanderer, Sunny for Sunlight Passing Through the Ice, Pet for Petals Open to the Moon, Fords for Fords Deeps Waters [[spoiler: and Burns for Burns Living Flowers]].
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Doc says a variant of this [[spoiler:to Wanderer, right before her HeroicSacrifice]].

* JailbaitWait: Jared refused to sleep with Melanie until she turned eighteen. [[spoiler:Wanderer took note of this, and lied about her new host body's age so that Ian wouldn't have the same scruple]].

* LongLived: The Souls. Other alien species are implied to be this as the Souls claim that humans have some of the shortest life cycles in the Universe.
* LoveRedeems: The main reason souls mistreat humans and humans mistreat souls is that they fail to form emotional bonds with each other across the species line. As the cause melts away, so does the effect.

** LoveDodecahedron: In three bodies! Ian loves Wanderer who falls for him in return but Mel is so steadfast in her love for Jared that the body causes Wanda not to respond to Ian and forces her to have feelings for Jared. Jared loves Melanie but there are hints that he is starting to fall for Wanderer as well.

** Generally all the names of the Souls are this since they take them from species they've been before or things they've done or personality traits.

* MightyWhitey: Race and species inverted with Wanderer in Mel's body. Also gender inverted, since the traditional Mighty Whitey is male.

* TheMindIsAPlayThingOfTheBody: The Souls are strongly affected by natural instincts and sometimes memories of their hosts. If a human host loved someone before the transformation and this feeling was mutual, it's very likely their souls will become a couple. It happens even if souls haven't met each other before.
* {{Moe}}: [[spoiler: Invoked by the choice of Wanda's final host, who is so petite and pretty that other people will naturally want to protect her and not suspect her of anything.]]

* NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom: The Souls that didn't take their human host's name have these, such as 'Sunlight Passing Through the Ice', 'Glass Spires', and 'Rides the Beast'.

* SenseFreak: Understandable, since in the story, [[HumansAreSpecial humans have the most (and most vivid) senses out of any species the Souls have ever taken as hosts]]. Wanderer's even warned about it ahead of time; apparently it's in the brochure. Humans are the only species the souls have ever encountered who have a sense of smell distinct from a sense of taste.
%%* SharingABody

* TimeAbyss: The Souls. They have been around for several thousands of years and can live forever (though they can be killed by outside means). They even spend up to centuries in hibernation when they are traveling in space. At one point, Wanderer, who has lost track of her own age she's been around so long, can only pinpoint an event as being "after the dinosaurs lived on Earth".

* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: As the souls are beginning to realize that adult humans are now growing resistant to alien possession, they instead pick up the habit of systematically "discarding" all adult humans. The horror and true meaning of this practice is only dawning to some of the Souls, and only gradually.

''The Host'' is a 2008 ScienceFiction novel by ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' creator Creator/StephenieMeyer, and was both her first sci-fi work and her first adult novel.

* TotallyEighteen: [[spoiler:Wanderer lies (to everybody in general, and to Ian in particular) about the age of her new host body - in this way, and for the associated reasons.]]

** Wanderer and Ian are a complicated case. Ian is in his mid-teens and Wanderer is inhabiting 21 year old Melanie's body when they meet, although in human years Wanderer is actually [[MayflyDecemberRomance around a 1000 years old]]. [[spoiler:In the end, Wanderer gets put into a another, permanent host body, who is around 17 years old, nearly a decade younger than Ian, though she still has all of Wanderer's life experience]].

* AdaptationDyeJob: Ian and Kyle have [[RavenHairIvorySkin black hair]] in the book. In the film, they're both blonde.

* SenseFreak: Understandable, since in the story, [[HumansAreSpecial humans have the most (and most vivid) senses out of any species the Souls have ever taken as hosts]]. Wanderer's even warned about it ahead of time; apparently it's in the brochure.
** Humans are the only species the souls have ever encountered who have a sense of smell distinct from a sense of taste.
* SharingABody

* StockholmSyndrome: We never get to know how much of Wanderer's transformation is caused by this dynamic. It is definitely not the only factor, and the reasons why she came to the desert in the first place are surely more important. But the classic pattern is definitely in place as she is captured, subjected to systematic torture and then gradually introduced and accepted into society. (While they don't beat her up very often, the constant sensory deprivation, permanent threat of death, rough living conditions and constant bullying could break almost anyone down.)

* WritersCantDoMath - After [[spoiler:Wes's death]], the book says Jeb's community has 35 living bodies in it. This number includes one body which is both Melanie and Wanda. Subsequently, this number is increased by 3: [[spoiler:Sunny and Candy are added, and Wanda is given a separate body]]; no evidence present of any bodies dying or leaving the community; yet at the end Jared says they are 37.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: In-universe. Souls kept television around after taking over the planet, but every single pre-invasion show (save, briefly, for ''Series/TheBradyBunch'') was booted off the air and replaced with the Souls' original programs. All of them fit this trope.

* MoralDissonance: The Souls consider themselves peaceful, loving, and perfectly moral, despite the fact that their primary activity appears to be wiping out other sentient species (that is, the species still exists in a biological sense, but the individuals composing it are functionally dead). At best, it's slavery on a grand scale, but since what happens to the individuals is closer to murder, "wiped out" isn't pushing it too far.

* PuppeteerParasite: Played straight but ''very'' oddly, with the invaders being basically kind, caring, albeit not always particularly perceptive individuals who [[MoralDissonance just aren't really aware of just how atrocious their treatment of other species is]]. Some of the hosts survive the process, others do not, depending on a range of factors.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale: Wanda, while possessing Melanie’s body, makes out with Ian while Melanie is screaming, “No! Stop!” in her head. If they’d had sex, they both would’ve been effectively raping Melanie.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Wanda, while possessing Melanie’s body, makes out with Ian while Melanie is screaming, “No! Stop!” in her head. If they’d had sex, they both would’ve been effectively raping Melanie.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Wanda, while possessing Melanie’s body, makes out with Ian while Melanie is screaming, “No! Stop!” in her head.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Downplayed. Wanda, while possessing Melanie’s body, makes out with Ian while Melanie is screaming, “No! Stop!” in her head.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Downplayed but still messed up. Wanda, while possessing Melanie’s body, makes out with Ian while Melanie is screaming, “No! Stop!” in her head.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Leaving aside the fact that they have no eyes (or mouths?), [[AlienBlood have blood and other tissue that's silvery in color]], and are effectively a very squishy, gracefully flowing centipede with brain-controlling tentacles, there's also their [[BizarreAlienReproduction reproductive method]], which involves [[spoiler:the queens essentially committing suicide by splitting apart into thousands upon thousands of tiny little babies]]... well, yeah.
** Not to mention the other species the souls have captured. These include gelatinous floating creatures, aliens with double-sided hands and four hearts, and multiple species of sentient plants.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: On one world the Souls have already conquered the secret of their invasion got out too early and an entire continent's worth of its population committed suicide rather than [[FateWorseThanDeath be taken and used as puppets by the Souls]]. The Souls, of course, don't even stop to think that it might be their fault, [[NeverMyFault blaming the people themselves for being too unenlightened to see how much better being mind controlled would be for them]].

** It's also mentiond that there are a race called "Spiders" who, despite having a very short lifespan are all extreme [[GadgeteerGenius Gadgeteer Geniuses]], so FTL was one of the first things they made once taken over.

* HumanityIsInfectious: Souls develop genuine feelings for their human host's loved ones through memory, which has lead to Wanderer and other souls developing an appreciation for humanity.

** On a meta level, this is where The Host connects to Twilight. Both stories are about love between a creature who is monstrous but kind and his comparatively meek and fragile little lover, and about his struggle to contain himself and his people so she doesn't get hurt. In both cases, it has nothing to do with gender, it's all about species. However, it just so happens that the male happens to be of the monstrous species (vampire in Twilight, human in The Host) while the female just happens to be of the meeker species (human in Twilight, Soul in The Host).

* MoralDissonance: The Souls consider themselves peaceful, loving, and perfectly moral, despite the fact that their primary activity appears to be wiping out other sentient species (that is, the species still exists in a biological sense, but the individuals composing it are functionally dead. At best, it's slavery on a grand scale, but since what happens to the individuals is closer to murder, "wiped out" isn't pushing it too far.)

* RaceLift: In the book Melanie is described as having tanned skin and is part Latina on her mother's side; in [[TheFilmOfTheBook the Movie]] she is played by the white Saoirse Ronan (who is Irish, making this also crossover into FakeAmerican).

* StarfishAliens: According to Wanderer, there are a grand total of, uh, ''exactly zero'' remotely humanoid species in the universe other than humans. So much so that they have to give new names to different species due to new mouths.