Parasite by Mira Grant
Parasitology # 1
Publisher: Orbit
Number of pages: 512
My copy: ebook review copy from Netgalley
A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.
We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.
But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives…and will do anything to get them.
* * *
Mira Grant is back, and she’s not writing about zombies. This time around, she’s writing about worms — tapeworms, to be exact. Genetically engineered parasites that everyone in a future world has, that somehow keeps the world healthy. It seems impossible, but SymboGen Corporation made it so, and everyone in the world has those tapeworms that they try to keep healthy. Even Sally Mitchell, a girl who survived a freak accident. She was almost dead, but suddenly, she’s alive, with no memory of her old self. She’s considered a SymboGen miracle, and she tries to live her life as normally as she can while she tries to live a new life from the old Sally that everyone knows. But it’s not so easy, especially when people are starting to have a sleeping sickness, the kind where people start to shamble like…well, zombies. And they’re getting violent. And somehow, they’re always all around Sally.
So Parasite got me excited because this is Mira Grant, the woman who wrote my most favorite zombie series so far. When I started reading this, I kind of felt bad that she wasn’t writing about Shaun and Georgia and the rest of the Newsflesh gang, but I was excited to dive into this new world that she wrote. As with Feed, Parasite‘s world-building is very detailed, so much that I felt that if I tried to look for research about the SymboGen implants, I felt that I would find some. The articles and the passages inserted in between read like real ones, and I actually read them instead of just ignoring them (like I do sometimes), so I can get into the story.
Sally/Sal reminded me a little bit like Georgia, but less of the bad-assery that the latter had. I liked her, because she seemed like a genuinely nice person, albeit a little confused. But it’s understandable given her predicament. I liked her family, too, even if it felt a little strange that they seem to be all high-profile ones. Truth be told, almost all the characters in this book seemed to be different shades of gray — I’m not sure who’s really a good guy or if they’re somehow a part of the bad group or something. The only person I was convinced was on Sal’s side was Nathan, her boyfriend, but then sometimes I don’t feel that too much, either.
The story was action packed at some, but it got a little too long and rambly at some point. I knew Feed was also like that, but I didn’t really notice it then because I got the topic (blogging) and I liked the zombies. In Parasite, I struggled a little, because sometimes I felt like I couldn’t keep up with the science talk. Kind of like how I felt sometimes with Deadline. That being said, though, there were a lot of parts that kind of made me go “WTF?!” because of pure…well, strangeness of it. Like, I don’t know, extracting x number of pounds of tapeworm from someone’s body? Er, right. :/
Overall, though, I liked Parasite. As always, there was a time when I truly worried for the characters, and I really wanted to get to the bottom of the story. Of course, since this is a part of the series, I didn’t get most of the answers I wanted because they will be revealed in the next books. My prediction did come true, though, and I saw it coming the moment it was explained in the book. I won’t say what it is, but it’s definitely kind of…well, surreal and again, WTF?!
If you’re a fan of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, Parasite may be a hit or miss, depending on how attached you were to the former. I liked Parasite, though, even if I terribly missed my zombies. But there were some kind of zombies in this book anyway. Not quite the zombies I know, but I’ll take it anyway. If you’re into medical science fiction (is my term correct?), then you will probably enjoy Parasite.Â
Now the next question is: will you ever agree to have a tapeworm inside you if it would make you live longer?
Number of dog-eared pages*: 8
* Since this is an ebook copy, I counted the total number of highlighted/bookmarked parts. :D
Favorite dog-eared quote(s):
After all, what’s the point of helping create an apocalypse if you’re not going to be around to see it?
But there were too many people I truly cared about for me to ever agree with a plan that started “we’re going to wipe out the human race.”
Rating:Â [rating=4]
Other reviews:
Eveline’s Books
Tea & Fangirling
Comic Stories About Love and Heartache by Various Authors, edited by Elbert Or