The Host

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, and suicidal ideation.

The Host is in part a love story focused on two primary romantic relationships: the love between Melanie and Jared and the love between Ian and Wanderer. These relationships are complicated because of Wanderer and Melanie’s shared body, and Stephenie Meyer uses the difficulties that arise from this to explore the intensity and complexity of love itself. 

The love triangle that develops between Wanderer, Jared, and Melanie illustrates this point. Melanie considers Jared her soulmate, and due to Melanie’s memories and feelings, Wanderer falls in love with Jared, who is in turn devoted to Melanie. That Melanie and Wanderer share a body would seem to allow both of them to be with the man they love, but the situation is not so simple: Jared wants nothing to do with Wanderer while remaining utterly committed to Melanie. When Ian asks if Jared is even sure Melanie still cares for him, Jared’s response is telling: “The body and the person locked inside it belong to me” (384). In a novel about possession, Jared’s language about Melanie ironically echoes the souls’ attitude toward the bodies they inhabit, underscoring the moral complexities that can come of intense love.