When we last left off, things were still confusing as ever. We met the soul called Wanderer who’s just woken up in her new host body. She recalls the last scary minutes of her host’s life and also the face of a sexy boy. Turns out, though, the girl the body used to belong to might still be fighting Wanderer for control of the body (and for the love of the boy!!!) We also learned that Wanderer can’t access certain memories that she wants/needs.
Chapter 3
Wanderer wakes up and asks the Seeker and Healer if they’ve put her in a defective body because the memories aren’t working right.
Though there was no sound, there was a change. The atmosphere, which had gone tense at my accusation, relaxed. I wondered how I knew this. I had a strange sensation that I was somehow receiving more than my five senses were giving me— almost a feeling that there was another sense, on the fringes, not quite harnessed.
She can see dead people.
Or intuition, I guess. Whatever. I could have gone for some alien-meets-The Sixth Sense-love-story. Just kidding, no I couldn’t have.
It’s pretty annoying to read about Wanderer getting used to this body and what things are called. We have to read about her opinions on hospital walls and see her discover words like “doctor.” I get that it’s supposed to establish how these aliens adjust to their new bodies and memories and language, but I hate it.
The walls were light green— a calming color, but also the color of sickness. A poor choice, in my quickly formed opinion.
Wow, reading an alien perspective regarding hospital walls is, like, so insightful.
The Seeker explains that hosts who know what the souls do and were part of the resistance are able to fight the souls when they try to take over their bodies. They tell a story of another soul who this happened to. Apparently he came from “Blind World”. That sounds like the name of a fucking terrible theme park.
“Blind World?” I said again, my voice now disapproving. “Yes, well, some who have lived there prefer to call it the Singing World.”
I would hate that theme park as well.
The Seeker is super snarky and is like, “Some of us would call it Planet of the Bats.” God was Meyer even trying when she wrote this?
“We called this soul Racing Song at first— it was a loose translation of his name on… the Singing World. But he soon opted to take the name of his host, Kevin. Though he was slated for a Calling in Musical Performance, given his background, he said he felt more comfortable continuing in the host’s previous line of work, which was mechanical.
The soul was slated for a Calling in Musical Performance? What would that life entail for a soul!?! This raises so many stupid questions that I want answered!
Anyway, turns out that Kevin’s host was taking over the body for periods of time and the soul couldn’t remember these periods of time.
Omg. Do you think that is what’s going to happen in this story!? No way. No. Too obvious, right? Kevin’s host ends up attacking a Healer, so they have to put the body down basically. But don’t worry, the soul is okay!
“Kevin is seven human years old now and perfectly normal… aside from the fact that he kept the name Kevin, that is. His guardians are taking great care that he is heavily exposed to music…
Yeah…who the fuck would keep a name like Kevin when you could be Fords Deep Waters! Or Wanderer! Also, what kind of music is he being exposed to? I must know!!
We also find out a “skipper” is a soul that doesn’t complete the life of their host body. God, these names for things are fucking awful.
We also find out Melanie is the host, she’s twenty, and was looking for her cousin Sharon. Wanderer tries to remember more but can’t. But she sort of remembers a note being shoved under a door. Wanderer freaks out when she asks, “Did they find Sharon,” and realizes that she’s not the one who wanted to ask that. Oh god, this is going to get confusing really quickly. And also tedious.
Melanie continues to take control (except it’s weird Wanderer is aware of all this and not blacking out like Kevin) and lies, saying that since it’s been too days they’re too late to intercept whoever she was going to meet outside of Chicago.
We find out that the sexy guy she was going to meet is named Jared.
Chapter 4
So I think now we’re in Melanie’s point of view…because of the change in style…I’m confused. But this chapter is called “Dreamed,” so yeah.
Melanie tells us how hungry she is and that she has to feed Jamie. She’s not his mother, though, whoever he is. She breaks into a house and steals some food. But someone catches her!!
Oh, I see what’s happening here. This is how she meets Jared. She thinks she’s being intercepted by a regular old soul, but it turns out it’s another actual human. And the first thing he does when he realizes she’s human is…kiss her. And it’s her first kiss! Super cute, you guys. What a romantic story!
She kicks him and runs away, but he chases her down and proves he’s human too! He even gave himself a scar on his neck to blend in (cause that’s where they cut to insert souls). This guy seems pretty legit. They kiss again, and Wanderer wakes up from her dream in a cold sweat.
Wanderer points out to us that Jared’s fake scar was a pretty shitty disguise because the Healers use great technology to mostly make the scars invisible. You’d think they just would’t have scars in the first place. Okay, aliens.
Wanderer e-mails the Seeker that Melanie has a younger brother who had been hiding with her, and Melanie gets all upset. We also find out that Wanderer has someone in her life called a Comforter, who is apparently not a warm blanket on her bed but another soul who has some purpose…perhaps to comfort her. Apparently, Wanderer is embarrassed because she feels she needs to visit the Comforter already because Melanie’s voice in her head is getting stronger.
Melanie: Omg, I hate you evil alien in my body!
Wanderer: Then fuck off!
Shit is getting real. I seriously can’t wait for the cat fights over Jared.
It’s obvious why Wanderer is aware of Melanie’s takeovers: because consistency is for pansies.
Also, why would a Soul feel guilty for going to the coun…uh, I mean comforter? They seem to have a utilitarian outlook on life and the comforter’s job is to, well, comfort. Surely if a Soul is having a hard time, then it would benefit everyone if they sought help.
Or maybe I’m thinking about this too deeply. Whatever.
I agree! With all the tedious explanations we get about everything else, you’d think Meyer would explain why a soul might feel shame about needing help adjusting.
I have a few stupid questions about Kevin’s slated soul:
Would Kevin still have a ‘Calling for Musical Performance’ if he was a flower? Is there a Calla Lilly Choir performing somewhere, or perhaps the Sunflower’s take on The Lion King Musical? Are any of the really important questions I have about this book going to be answered?
You raise some very compelling questions! It sounds like he wasn’t only chosen for this life of music when he was on the singing planet because they specifically said he revoked that in favor of mechanics on our world!
I would watch the sunflower’s take on The Lion King Musical.
I have a feeling we may never know =(
So far in this book, the Soul’s pseudo Native American names amuse me as much as Ana’s (50 Shades) “Soul” i.e. her inner goddess. For a second I forgot 50 Shades was not written by Stephanie Meyer. At this point, I would reread any Animorphs book over this one. So glad you two are reading this book and not me. Thanks again for your public service.
I keep forgetting that too, so many of the same poor writing choices overlap. Especially what Matt pointed out about how Ana and Wanderer both react with the last word of the previous sentence and an exclamation mark.
On the table, there was some cheese.
Cheese!
I tried to read this in the AM, before coffee, and I was confused…
Tried to read it again now, with wine, still confused…
Confused!