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I wanted to like this book more than I did--to see that Stephenie Meyer can pick a topic not meant for shallow teenage girls and write on a deeper level--but I think this book is more of the same, sans the vampire excitement. I liked the idea: an alien soul inhibiting the host body of a girl who doesn't want to relinquish her control and the conflicts that arise, particularly in romance. There are some interesting topics, like what defines humanity and are we living worthy enough for the planet we are entrusted. The story isn't as page-turning as Twilight, but mulling nonetheless.

My problem with Stephenie Meyer is her characters. They seem shallow, unbelievable, and small variants on her same cookie cutter. Her girls in particular are, well dumb, always jumping to the wrong conclusions, never wanting to believe they could be loved. Your damsel in distress. I am often exasperated by the emotion and stupidity of her female characters. I tried to allow for the alien learning curve, but when solutions and realizations are painfully obvious to me chapters before they are explored by the characters it creates frustratingly slow plot progression.

The mold for guys is more frustrating because they exhibit none of the characters I am drawn to, and even ones I despise. They are always big, strong, forceful verging on the abusive side of controlling with a scary tendency to irrational jealousy and anger. They are emotionally immature, intense, and display their passion with an abnormal display of affection and cheesiness to the women who make them crazy with love. I don't trust intensely passionate men. (I did like Jeb's character but he wasn't a main romantic interest characters so he didn't need to be intense.)

Because of this conversations were unrealistic. I could not imagine real people speaking this way so the story felt childish at times. The cheese is laid on so thickly in parts I could not swallow it. This is supposed to be a more adult-themed book, but in many ways I found it less adult enticing and more juvenile in tone. Her choice of juvenile-enticing characters is proof enough that her style is not intended for a truly adult audience.

Plus the middle dragged with insignificant humdrum and a lack of good character development. There was more that could have been explored with a two-spirit/one-body complex. And there were holes in this parasite species theory that bothered me. I didn't care enough about the story to think about them too much, but they were there and made her tale less believable. So creative idea, but the delivery and details didn't quite hit the mark.

(view spoiler)[What I did like in story development was the relationship between Ian and Wanda, how slowly and deeply it changed, until he could read and understand her better than she could and he could completely differentiate between the two souls. (hide spoiler)] What Stephenie Meyer is good at is passionate taboo romance. As for Wanda herself how she changed from first juxtaposing her ingrained annihilation justification with her extreme pacifist views to sympathy for humans and eventually protective love for the planet.

I still don't think Stephenie Meyer is a good writer, but she's a decent storyteller. Had Twilight not brought her fame, I doubt this book would go far. Creative plot idea, but it could have been so much more if she had explored the conflicts between Melanie and Wanda more thoroughly and left a morally obvious choice without a happy ending. Then it would have been a book for adults. The book was too shallow and slow enough that I probably wouldn't read it again.