Nocturnal Book Reviews

Parasite is a very interesting book in its own right, but let's face it: it's not Newsflesh trilogy. I'm a huge fan of the latter, and I think it's one of the best post-apocalyptic dystopian works I've ever read, so the comparison to it doesn't do this novel any justice.

It's fascinating and really creepy, because Mira Grant took parasites, these invisible monsters we are vaguely aware of, and made them our enemies. I tell you, - that parasite that lives in cats and makes you exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia? I'll be having nightmares from that one.

So, in not so far away future humans live in symbiosis with certain parasites which once implanted take care of all our diseases and give us pretty good, healthy life. However, as we know, if something sounds perfect there must be a catch. What kind of a catch the reader finds out very early, and it's the specifics and the scale of it all is what this book is about.

Sal Mitchell, our heroine, came back to life few years ago after a huge road accident which should have left her dead. She never recovered her memories and had to start living and learning from scratch. She is a peculiar gal with a charming, unique and simplistic outlook on life, and she is technically the property of SymboGen, the company which created the miracle parasites and which does huge amounts of tests on Sally.

As it typically happens in Mira Grant's book, Sal and her boyfriend, Nathan, who works as a parasitologist stumble onto a huge conspiracy while the world starts experiencing strange "sleeping sickness" and while they unravel the full scope of the conspiracy the plot development is split between scientific reports from the past and the events in the present.

I personally really liked Sal, but at the same time I found the novel slow and suffering from info dumps. By the time everything picked up we came to an abrupt ending which made me feel like the book was deliberately split into two parts which is the least favorite ending the reader can get.

So, it was good, but at the same time, it wasn't Mira Grant at her best. Read at your own peril.