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.
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.
Parasite
is a smart and interesting read that straddles the line between horror
and thriller perfectly, but it is not without its faults.
The storyline of Parasite is quite honestly brilliant for many different reasons. It is smart, interesting and enjoyable, it is also very original and imaginative. But where Parasite really wins is its ability to put that nasty, niggling thought into your mind, that thought which tells you that something like this happening is possible.
The good storyline is backed up with some impressive writing. Mira Grant has a nice descriptive style that I really enjoyed. Her world building is also very impressive especially considering the amount of scientific information that is crammed into the story. This could have easy read like a lecture or text book but it didn’t.
Grant also knew when to scare her readers, there were some pretty horrible and scary moments in this and also some moments of great suspense. There were also some great little touches. I liked how each chapter started with two different quotes taken from fake interviews and autobiographies, it really helped set the mood and also provided a good deal of information.
My main problem with this book was pace. The action, horror and suspense moments were really perfect but in-between those perfect moments this book nearly slowed to a stop and I found myself getting bored which was a real shame.
The characters were also very good. Sal and Nathan are the only real likable ones but that is not a problem the rest are there to challenge you and I was never really sure which ones you could trust.
All in all Parasite is a very interesting and very smart book which I really enjoyed. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series to see where it goes from here.
The storyline of Parasite is quite honestly brilliant for many different reasons. It is smart, interesting and enjoyable, it is also very original and imaginative. But where Parasite really wins is its ability to put that nasty, niggling thought into your mind, that thought which tells you that something like this happening is possible.
The good storyline is backed up with some impressive writing. Mira Grant has a nice descriptive style that I really enjoyed. Her world building is also very impressive especially considering the amount of scientific information that is crammed into the story. This could have easy read like a lecture or text book but it didn’t.
Grant also knew when to scare her readers, there were some pretty horrible and scary moments in this and also some moments of great suspense. There were also some great little touches. I liked how each chapter started with two different quotes taken from fake interviews and autobiographies, it really helped set the mood and also provided a good deal of information.
My main problem with this book was pace. The action, horror and suspense moments were really perfect but in-between those perfect moments this book nearly slowed to a stop and I found myself getting bored which was a real shame.
The characters were also very good. Sal and Nathan are the only real likable ones but that is not a problem the rest are there to challenge you and I was never really sure which ones you could trust.
All in all Parasite is a very interesting and very smart book which I really enjoyed. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series to see where it goes from here.
3 stars
Published
October 29th 2013
by Orbit. A free copy was provided for review. Image courtesy of Goodreads.
Review by Kate Phillips
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