The Host

“But there were whispers of this: of human hosts so strong that the souls were forced to abandon them. Hosts whose minds could not be completely suppressed. Souls who took on the personality of the body, rather than the other way around. Stories. Wild rumors. Madness.”

This quote foreshadows the struggle that Wanderer will endure when Melanie remains present in their body. It also illustrates the difference between humans and the other groups that the souls have colonized: Humans have a unique capacity for resistance, which highlights the theme of The Meaning of Survival.

“Love simply is where it is. My host loved Curt’s host, and that love did not die when the ownership of the minds changed.”

This quote captures a key facet of the souls’ colonization of humans: Being in a human’s body shapes their mental and emotional experience, underscoring the transformative power of empathy. That the Comforter’s host’s love for her husband transferred to the Comforter also foreshadows Wanderer’s experience falling in love with Jared. Finally, it hints at The Power and Complexities of Love, as even the suppression of one’s personality—a kind of death—cannot destroy love.

“No one could compare what had been and what was now and not admit that Earth was a better place thanks to us.

You murder an entire species and then pat yourselves on the back.”

This quote reveals a deep rift between how Wanderer views the invasion and how Melanie views the invasion. Wanderer still sees things only through a soul’s perspective, so she sees the erasure of human consciousness as a small price to pay for peace. Melanie points out the hypocrisy of wiping out a species and then judging that species for its violence.

“I went along with the words—Melanie’s words—as they flowed easily from my mouth; I even added my own lighthearted laugh at the end. It was dishonest of me. Shameful behavior. But I would not let the Seeker know that I was weaker than my host.”

This quote explores Melanie and Wanderer’s shared body as a symbol of coexistence, showing them united in their distaste for the Seeker. Part of what allows them to work together early in the novel is their determination that the Seeker not be allowed inside Melanie’s body or given access to Jamie or Jared. This also illustrates Wanderer’s growing loyalty to Melanie over her own species.

“‘Enough,’ I said out loud, cringing away from the whiplash of pain. ‘Enough! You’ve made your point! I can’t live without them either now. Does that make you happy? Because it doesn’t leave me many choices, does it? Just one—to get rid of you.’”

This quote shows the discomfort that comes with empathy. Wanderer is conflicted, wanting to continue living in Melanie’s body but experiencing the pain of living without Jamie and Jared. While she threatens to separate from Melanie, Wanderer instead attempts to reunite with Jared and Jamie.

“I took a deep breath, trying to tell myself that I wasn’t going along with this. I was simply trying to get more coordinates from her, that was all. When I had the whole story, I would find someone—a different Seeker, maybe, one less repulsive than the one assigned to me—and pass the information along. I was just being thorough, I promised myself.”

This quote explores Wanderer’s struggle to rationalize her decision to go find Jared and Jamie. She knows that in some ways she’s betraying the souls, but she cannot help herself due to her growing love for the people Melanie loves.

“That’s how we realized you were here, you know, she said, thinking of the sickening news headlines again. When the evening news was nothing but inspiring human-interest stories, when pedophiles and junkies were lining up at the hospitals to turn themselves in, when everything morphed into Mayberry, that’s when you tipped your hand.”

This quote functions partly as exposition, revealing how the souls’ early takeover of Earth progressed. It also contrasts the souls with humans, depicting the former as far more honest and nonviolent: Ironically, the absence of violence makes humans aware of the violence being done to them.

“No, she thought slowly. It doesn’t feel that way to me. I think…Well, I think that maybe…you’re dying to be human. There was almost a smile in her thought as she heard the silly double meaning to the phrase. After all the planets and all the hosts you’ve left behind, you’ve finally found the place and the body you’d die for. I think you’ve found your home, Wanderer.”

This quote reveals that just as Wanderer has transformed through empathizing with Melanie, Melanie has also gained empathy for and understanding of Wanderer. This moment also foreshadows that Wanderer does feel that Earth is her true home, where she intends to have her final resting place.

“I did not let Melanie see the secret I protected. I used her own defenses against her and threw up a wall in my head to hide behind while I thought of the information for the first time since implantation. There had been no reason to think of it before.”

This quote shows the strategies that Wanderer must employ to survive on Earth among humans, creating an ironic parallel with Melanie, who similarly shields her memories from Wanderer at times; even in their conflict, there is an underlying similarity. The secret Wanderer is guarding becomes crucial later in the novel, when Wanderer reveals it to Doc only once she has gotten him to promise to protect the souls he extracts.

“I had never seen the ugliness of treating an unconquerable spirit as a defect as clearly as I did now, looking into Ian’s eyes.”

This quote illustrates Wanderer’s transformation through empathy; she has begun to understand why the souls’ erasure of humans is wrong. While they do bring peace, it comes at the cost of individuality. That it’s Ian who causes her to realize this foreshadows their growing affection for one another and eventual relationship.

“Where else have you ever had this?

Nowhere, I confessed, feeling only more depressed. But it doesn’t make me belong. Not the way you do.

We’re a package deal, Wanda.

As if I needed reminding.”

This quote deepens the symbolism of Melanie and Wanderer’s shared body. While Wanderer might be useful to the community, she cannot belong there any more than she can belong in Melanie’s body because she is not human. While the novel does ultimately suggest that Melanie and Wanderer cannot remain in the same body, it is more optimistic about the prospect of souls and humans living together; indeed, the very fact that Wanderer now has a human name—“Wanda”—implies that she does belong.

“‘See? That’s my point. Body and soul. Two different things, in my case.’

‘I wouldn’t want it without you.’

‘You wouldn’t want me without it.’”

This quote illustrates a major conflict within Wanderer and Ian’s relationship: They cannot be together because her body is Melanie’s. Moreover, she doubts that Ian truly loves her rather than the body she’s in. Ian reassures her, but Wanderer does not believe him.

“‘Let me go!’ I was finally able to choke out. The words were garbled. ‘Get away from me! Get away; you’re monsters! Torturers!’”

This quote is a turning point for Wanderer because she must grapple with the dark side of humanity. Wanderer is disgusted by what the humans in the caves have done to the souls inside the hosts. She sees that the humans do not view souls as people, and it wounds her.

“For the first time, Jeb spoke to me as if I were a soul and not a human. I had a sense that the distinction had always been clear to him, though. He was just a courteous monster.”

This quote characterizes Jeb, who is an integral secondary character. Jeb is often Wanderer’s champion, integrating her into the community. At the same time, she realizes that Jeb has never forgotten who she truly is, even if others have. This reveals Jeb’s pragmatism, which has helped him keep the community safe.

“We do not willingly kill, but our bodies are not weak, either. Our attachments may look like soft silver hair, but they’re stronger than your organs. That’s what’s happening, isn’t it? Doc slices up my family, and their limbs shred through the brains of yours.”

This quote reveals more about the symbol of the souls’ silver fluid. Wanderer points out that while it might appear easy to destroy, it is actually stronger than human organs. This foreshadows the importance of the secret she holds, which is how to separate host and soul without killing either.

“‘If you trusted me, I could probably get you anything in the world you wanted.’ I laughed again. It was just the stress fading, making me giddy. But it was funny to me. Did he realize that I would do exactly that for him? Anything in the world he wanted.

‘I do trust you,’ he whispered. ‘With all our lives, I trust you.’”

This quote is a turning point in Jared and Wanderer’s relationship. Throughout the novel, Jared has been cruel and skeptical of Wanderer. However, when she goes among the souls and returns willingly to him with the supplies that will save Jamie, Jared knows that she is actually trustworthy.

“The father had his arms around both the mother and the child now. He looked down at his host body’s biological son with staggering tenderness in his eyes.”

This quote captures the transformative power of empathy, showing how souls are being changed by their human hosts; this couple is raising a human child, and the soul community is allowing them to do so. It shows that there may be a path forward for the souls and humans to coexist, foreshadowing the Epilogue.

“This was not the kind of torture I’d expected: a personal crisis of conscience, confused and complicated by love for my human family. Very painful, nevertheless.”

This quote explores Wanderer’s internal conflict as she grapples with her loyalty to her species versus her loyalty to the humans. She wants to help her human family, but if she gives away the secret of how to separate souls from their hosts, it could lead to the murder of millions of other souls.

“Even if Jared had never asked me for this, even if Jared did not exist…Once this path had occurred to me, I would have had to proceed down it. I loved her that much.”

This quote shows how much Wanderer has changed through empathy. She is willing to die to give Melanie their shared body back, because she loves Melanie. This also shows that the power and complexities of love extend to platonic love, as Wanderer will die to help Melanie.

“The shortest, the most important, the most heartbreaking of lives. The life that would forever define me. The life that had finally tied me to one star, to one planet, to one small family of strangers.”

This quote shows Wanderer’s growth. She has lived on eight other planets and lived eight other lives, but Earth has become her home, and the humans in the cave have become her community.

“‘But I love her, Ian.’

He closed his eyes, and his pale lips went dead white.

‘But I love you,’ he whispered. ‘Doesn’t that matter?’

‘Of course it matters. So much. Can’t you see? That only makes it more…necessary.’”

Wanderer revealing that she plans to leave Melanie’s body highlights a conflict central to Wanderer and Ian’s relationship. She loves Ian, but she cannot be with him while in Melanie’s body.

“With Ian it was different, so very different, because Melanie didn’t love him the way I did. So when he touched me, it was deeper and slower than the wildfire, like the flow of molten rock far beneath the surface of the earth. Too deep to feel the heat of it, but it moved inexorably, changing the very foundations of the world with its advance.”

This quote explores the power and complexities of love. Wanderer does not respond to Ian like Melanie responds to Jared because Melanie’s body is in the way. However, contrasting similes involving heat—the quick burn of wildfire versus the slow “flow” of lava—reveal that the love between Wanderer and Ian is no less powerful.

“Happy and sad, elated and miserable, secure and afraid, loved and denied, patient and angry, peaceful and wild, complete and empty…all of it. I would feel everything. It would all be mine.”

This quote reveals Wanderer’s hope for her future within the new body that the humans have found for her. She wants to experience all that it means to be human—the tensions and complexities expressed via a series of antonyms—which she was not able to do while she was sharing a body with Melanie.