Release Date: October 29, 2014Publisher: Orbit
512 Pages
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.
Sometimes humanity is the reason we can’t have nice things.
Imagine a world where there is no more illness.
That’s right, no more colds, flus, diseases, even cancer. Now imagine in
that same world, people willingly let themselves get implanted with
tape worms. Yup, you read that right. Due to science
and research, scientists have discovered a way to keep the human race
healthy. All that’s needed it a regularly implanted tape worm into your
system.
When I sat down to read this with my blog partner,
Emily, I had never read any of Mira Grant’s work. I didn’t really know
what to expect, but Emily assured me I wouldn’t be disappointed. And I
wasn’t. In this futuristic world that Grant
has created, a company known as SymboGen has developed bio-engineered
tapeworms that allow their human host to remain healthy. This seems all
fine and dandy until people start acting strange – sleepwalking but
violent strange.
Sally Mitchell is one of the many who have received
this parasitic worm implant, and thanks to this implant, she survived a
life threatening car crash. The only lasting scar is the amnesia which
has robbed her of any memories of who she
was before the crash. Six years have passed since the accident and
Sally has had to relearn everything. She now has a job, a boyfriend, her
family, and SymboGen paying for all her medical expenses.
Parasite is mostly told from Sally’s – or Sal, as
she likes to be called now- point of view. At the beginning of each
chapter/section, we get a little scientific background told through
interviews and journals from the three scientists
who discovered the worms. But for the most part it’s Sal’s voice that
we’re listening to. We follow her confusion as people all around her
succumb to this “sleeping sickness” and then we follow her determination
to find out what’s really going on with SymboGen
and the implants.
Grant’s writing style is very precise and
intriguing that I was sucked in, wanting to know more, wanting to know
if my predictions were correct. Though the pacing was slow at times, it
never really bothered me. It fit the style – how we
wait forever for information that’s vital but when it comes we’re like
“YES!”. Her characters were clearly defined and so real. Sally, the
reluctant heroine who at times was hard to like because she was so empty
and damaged, but I felt for her. Her life was
stolen, in more ways than one, and she’s just trying to find the truth
and survive it. Nathan, Sally’s boyfriend, was a highlight for me.
Nathan is one of the few who refused the implant and his devotion and
trust is Sally is heartwarming.
Never doubt me. I'm always right.
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