The Host--Chapter 5

Business first. Gray Fox is on schedule for its ETA, and Blue Ghosts is still free-with-coupon over on Smashwords. Here is the coupon code: TU68W Go get a copy

So. Where were we?

...Wanderer's going to her counselor's office. I'm sorry. Comforter. It sounds like a blanket. And her "comforter" is kind of a wet one, if you know what I mean.

We find out that Wanderer has been avoiding her counciling appointments and refuses to call her comforter by name. Which is Kathy. Because calling posessed humans by the human's name makes her uncomfortable. It's like the soul doesn't have full posession of the body that they stole. 

Wanderer is working as a history teacher. Teaching soul history. Her class is the most requested in the university.

Is it Brigham Young U? It's BYU, isn't it.

Wanderer asks Kathy why she keeps a human name. Kathy explains that when the Yeerks Souls  arrived on planet, they had to pretend to be human and mantain the human's connections and relationships, so she and her "husband" Curt got into the habit of being human. And they don't want to break it now.

Wanderer asks how much influience the host normally has on the soul. This moves into a discussion about how much Melanie--and by extension, Wanderer--misses Jared. Because of course it does. Life has no meaning outside of relationships and sex. Then they discuss apperances and peanut butter, and Kathy asks why Wanderer keeps cutting her hair.

Wanderer answers that it pisses Melanie off.

Kathy is horrified that Melanie is still that present. But you know what? For a perfect, pretty soul, that sure is some penny-ante shit on Wanderer's  part. Let's cut off our hair to spite our inner human, y'all.

Kathy offers to recommend a new host for Wanderer. Wanderer refuses because it's her fault Melanie won't go away. Wanderer just isn't strong enough to surpress the woman whose body she stole. Yes. Because self hate is critical to good drama.

And hey, Wanderer's starting to come off as a whiny Bella Swan clone with even more privelage issues. It's time for S. Meyer to set the record straight for us:

“Listen to me. You are strong. Surprisingly strong. Our kind are always so much the same, but you exceed the norm. You’re so brave it astonishes me. Your past lives are a testament to that.”

Too bad we don't actually get to see Wanderer being brave.

Wanderer says she can't hand the host off to another soul. Kathy says Melanie would obviously be destroyed because she's defective. Melaine says "fuck all of you" and points out that being a xenocidal pacifist is a manifest contradiction and that Souls are all mostly terrible people. Wanderer replies (mentally) that the body is hers now, she's not giving it up, and humans have done such terrible things. The skreed against humanity in this book is really, really, really long, and it's not the last one we're going to hit. Stephenie Meyer hates humans. That should probably be the subtitle of this book.

Wanderer dismisses Melanie as a displaced non-entity occupying a corner of Oklahoma the reservation her mind. This body is hers, she likes it, and she won't let it be destroyed.

End of chapter.