Hostile and implacable aliens have completely taken over the Earth and their motto is leave no survivors! Every human must captured and destroyed! But these sneaky little bastards don't use guns or bombs in their war against humanity. Theirs is the ultimate cruelty ... they are body snatchers! They implant their tiny worm-like bodies into their victims and they take over, destroying the human mind and absorbing their memories, thus blending into human society. By the time humanity figured out what was going on, it was too late. Still a few ragtag bands of resistance fighters are holding out on the fringes of the now alien society.
How do these aliens justify this ruthless takeover? Well, they are just nicer than we are! We don't deserve to survive because we are too mean and violent.
One of these aliens, Wanderer, is a bit of a misfit. Although she has lived on many planets and occupied several different host bodies, she has never really found the place were she felt at home. So she ended up on the alien's latest conquest, Earth, planted in the body of Melanie Stryder.
Melanie Stryder, along with her brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared, have managed to escape the alien occupation. One day Melanie sees a cousin of hers on TV and decides she has to go find her. She leaves Jamie with Jared and sets off alone to find her cousin. In the process, she is captured. She tried to kill herself by jumping down an elevator shaft, but the superior alien medicine has repaired her body only to insert the tiny Wanderer into it.
Wanderer wakes up in Melanie's body to the unwelcome discovery that Melanie is still hanging on inside the body's brain. Although Wanderer has control of the body, Melanie lingers in the brain, arguing and fighting with Wanderer. As Wanderer becomes more familiar with Melanie and her memories of Jared and Jamie, she too starts to care about those who are nearest and dearest to Melanie's heart.
The other aliens begin to suspect that all is not right with Wanderer and a Seeker is placed to watch her. The Seeker mission is to seek out and capture any remaining humans and Melanie's memories may hold the key to discovering more human holdouts.
Wanderer doesn't like the Seeker at all, and on a trip to Arizona, she manages to elude the Seeker. Giving in to Melanie's need to see Jamie and Jared, Wanderer sets off into the desert to find them. Hiking in the Arizona desert is not for neophytes and Wanderer is nearly dead when she is found by a band humans and is taken into their cave hideout.
These humans are not happy to have Wanderer among them. Fortunately for her, Jamie and Jared are part of this group and Wanderer is not summarily killed. Instead, she becomes a willing captive, which makes Melanie inside her very happy, happy to be with her little brother and happy just to be near Jared. Wanderer's sufferings at the hands of the humans are rather harsh, but not as harsh as they could have been, given the anger of the survivors. She bears their anger and never fights back because the aliens don't get angry. Eventually the people come to trust her and she becomes a part of their little survival group, giving them inside information and access they desperately need. As Wanderer worms (ha-ha) her way into the hearts of this struggling community, she begins to understand the crime her kind has committed against humanity.
This was an interesting and absorbing story. At first, it was rather disconcerting that the whole story is told from the point of view of the alien, Wanderer. The outrage of destroying the personality of the host bodies is not dealt with very deeply, although Wanderer does come to realize that taking over humans for the "good" of the species is a ridiculous justification for destroying the very essence of what it is to be human. Also, although this is touted as an "adult" novel from an author that has specialized in young adult fiction, the sex never goes beyond kisses and cuddles, which just didn't feel right. I kept waiting for the real deal and it never appeared. I think she missed an opportunity to develop her alien character more deeply by having Wanderer experience physical love.
Another quibble I have with the book is the ending, which I felt was a little too soft. I kept wanting the humans to confront their alien oppressors and that never happened. They continue to exist on the outskirts of the alien society and never force their conquerors to confront the enormity of their crime against humanity.
But otherwise, I did enjoy the book a lot. The other worlds are only touched on lightly, but sound fascinating. Stephenie has a marvelous imagination and paints a detailed and engaging picture, even frightening in how easily these insidious aliens were able to take over and rule the world without a shot being fired. I hope she writes more science fiction and I am looking forward to reading those stories.
Review by Keith Brooke in The Guardian.
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