Parasite (Parasitology, #1)

by Mira Grant

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.

• ISBN10: 0316218952
• ISBN13: 9780316218955
• Publish Date: 29 October 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

I loved Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, but haven't ready any of her work since. Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed this just as much!

Parasite is centered around Sal Mitchell, who used to be Sally until Sally had a seizure and drove into a bus. Everyone thought Sally was dead, until Sal woke up, presumably saved by the medical tapeworm living inside her. But Sal has no memory of life before the accident, and must relearn how to be a person.

In this future time, tapeworms are humanity's saviors. The specially-engineered parasites are tailored to solve the problems that people took pills for in the past -- allergies, mental health issues, diabetes, etc. Better living through medicine is for chumps, let your tapeworm take care of you! And the mastermind behind the tapeworms, Steven Banks and his company Symbogen, are especially interested in helping Sal adjust to her new life, and the fact that they get to study what happened to her along the way is just a bonus, right?

The problem is, people are starting to act strange, falling prey to a "sleeping" sickness that anyone in our world would recognize as "becoming a zombie". Why is it that zombie pop culture never exists in zombie books, so no one recognizes "hey, that person is becoming a zombie!"? Between Symbogen and Sal's father, a general working for USAMRIID, Sal finds herself right in the middle of the trouble.

Much like in the Newsflesh trilogy, chapters are separated by pieces of writing that give you little clues to the overall picture. In this case, it is journal entries and research notes from the creators of the tapeworms and excerpts from a very odd children's book, sometimes quotes from the characters.

I tend to skim over real sciencey stuff, but the sciencey stuff here wasn't too difficult to understand and I didn't skim much of it. I wasn't overly surprised by the reveal near the end of the book -- it's not difficult to guess the direction things are going in. I really enjoyed this and intend to jump right into the next book.

[Quirky Cat]

Parasite is the first novel in the Parasitology series by Mira Grant. You may also know her as Seanan McGuire, as Mira Grant is simply a pennames she uses for her science fiction works.
The novel is set in the not too distant future, where scientists have managed to come up with a new way of treating conditions, providing medicine, and keeping people in general good health. And it’s one you’d never expect to hear: parasites. Through the use of a modified tapeworm people can expect their daily medications to be released into the bodies. They can avoid having to take pills, or get yearly shots, or anything else that would be required for their daily basic health.
It sounds kind of creepy, right? They must have hired an amazing marketing team to get people to sign up for it, but hey, I can see that happening.



Warnings: Parasite covers some intense subjects. It covers car accidents, brain death, memory loss, to graphic details of the human body, how parasites work, and everything in between. I don’t think any of it was too much personally, but you never know what can set a person off. I will say that somebody with any medicinal phobia might be better steering clear, just to be safe.
Whenever I read a novel that borders on being a horror or thriller, I get really worried about the animals mentioned. So I’m going to include a secondary warning/promise here. None of the animals mentioned in this novel get hurt. No matter how tense a scene gets, they’re all fine at the end of the day. I promise.
Parasite was one part science fiction and one part thriller. It was so perfectly written that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it. Whenever I wasn’t reading it I found myself theorizing about what was actually going on. I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
I remember as I was reading how struck I was by all of the scientific facts included in the novel. I’m no expert by any means, but I’ve been around enough of them to tell when somebody has thoroughly researched their subject matter. And that’s exactly what Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire did here. Actually, in the end, she even included special thanks to all the experts she received help from. I love that extra mile she took because it made the story feel so much more disturbingly real.
I really enjoyed the characters Mira Grant created here. They were all so different and personable, on their own levels. I’m not always the best with names, but I had no trouble telling all the major players apart here. Even the secondary characters were distinct.
I absolutely adored the way she designed SymboGen. I can absolutely see a company behaving that way, much as I hate to admit it. I remember when I read the blurb my first thought was “wow, that company must have a great PR team!” and amazingly enough, Mira Grant actually included excerpts of their ads. It added an extra level of realism, and admittedly a little bit of smug satisfaction on my part.
Other excerpts were included at the beginning of each chapter as well. Sometimes it was parts of a fictional children’s storybook, other times it was a part of an article or a journal entry. The little details here really made it feel like a collection of real events, instead of a series of fictional ones from a science fiction novel. It was a nice touch.
I’ll admit that I totally guessed the major twist revealed in the end. Truthfully, I imagine most people did. But that didn’t take away an ounce of my enjoyment. If anything, I was eagerly looking for any and all evidence to support my theory. It got me further invested in the plot.
I honestly can’t wait to start reading Symbiont. Luckily for me, it just became available at my library, so I won’t have to be waiting long. As far as I know, there’s just one more novel after that, Chimera. I’m pretty sure the series has been concluded, but I could be wrong. Actually, only being one book in I’d be okay with being wrong. I wouldn’t mind seeing more to this series.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at RabidReads.ca.

I’m a huge fan of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series. So, I decided to give her Parasitology series a try. This is a very interesting series. In this world, scientists have genetically modified tapeworms and made them help to medicine, instead of a hindrance. They can be tailored to an individual and help them with issues like epilepsy, like our main character Sally Mitchell. However, you know what happens with you play with Mother Nature.

In this book, we meet Sal. She was born Sally Mitchell. That is until she gets into a car wreck and goes into a coma for a long while. When she wakes up, she is completely different. She asks to be called Sal and has to go through a lot of occupational therapy, learning the basics of walking, talking and dressing herself.

By the end of this book, things have already started to take a turn for the worse. People are turning into “Sleepwalkers”. They act exactly what it sounds like. They walk around like they are asleep, but they also have a fierce appetite. They try to eat you. So, in a way this is almost like a zombie story, but yet not.

Sal and her boyfriend, Nathan, go on a search to learn more. Sal gets a note that quotes a book from Nathan’s childhood. This is a story that is mentioned throughout the series. It talks about going through the broken doors and not being able to unlearn what you’ve learned.

While, I really enjoyed this series, it doesn’t compare to the Newsflesh series, in my opinion (that is not a putdown for this series, just shows my love of Newsflesh). What does make this story great is Mira Grant’s ability to write characters that you truly care about. Not only was I highly invested in the main character of Sal, but also in many of the secondary characters. Tansy is a character that is a little off kilter, but an amazing character. She is extremely loyal to those she has as her family, but she really doesn’t have a conscience outside of them. She has no problem killing you if you try to hurt her family. Adam is childlike, but also much smarter than a child in other ways. Very smart, but emotionally a young child. Fishy, who thinks he’s living in a videogame, is fearless. I mean, if he gets killed, he can just use another life from the game. He is someone I would like to have at my back anyday. Dr. Cale is a real interesting character. She was instrumental in creating these worms, but she also saw what was going on well before anyone else. Her partner, Dr. Banks, chose greed over caution, so she left and been underground ever since. But, at the same time, Dr. Cale will do just about anything to learn more. She is all about knowledge. Sherman is one of the scariest guys, though he doesn’t always seem that way. He’s able to charm his way into anything. If you’re a character driven reader, like me, I can’t recommend Mira Grant enough.

Narration
Christine Lakin was a new-to-me narrator before starting this series. She did an amazing job with the narration of this series. Her voices and tone were perfect for each of the characters. She really brought out Sherman’s charm, Fishy’s crazy, Adam’s childishness. I loved her voice for Tansy and her crazy. I really enjoyed her narration and will be looking for her in the future.

[Artemis]

As a fan of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series, I had high hopes for her next horror-science fiction trilogy and boy did she deliver. That being said – this is not Feed. Parasite is incredibly different type of novel than Grant’s predecessor Newsflesh trilogy.

Review continues below:
https://artemisreads.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/review-parasite-by-mira-grant/

[empressbrooke]

Parasites are definitely not as glamorous as zombies, but Parasite was just about as fun as Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. They share many similarities - secret labs, slightly-psychotic-yet-childish bodyguards, epidemics caused by well-meaning scientific advancements in public health, large entities with nefarious purposes (a corporation this time around).

Parasite feels a little less fully formed than Feed did, likely as a result of taking place so much earlier in its epidemic. In Feed, the story started when the world was already chin-deep in the zombie outbreak, and Grant was able to explore the effects it had on every imaginable aspect of life. Parasite is a near-future that is much nearer to the present than Feed was, and therefore there isn't as much world building to do. Despite that, it was still a ton of fun and worth reading if you enjoyed Grant's previous books.

Edited to add: How could I forget the highlight - a mention of my favorite local ice cream, Jeni's, which has become famous enough to serve as an alibi for amnesiac parasite hosts everywhere.

[violetpeanut]

I love when you cook something low and slow. It may take a long time, but it's totally worth it in the end. All the flavors have mingled together and the meat is tender. This book is like that.

Read my entire review here

[clementine]

Parasite would have earned a full five stars if it weren't for the utterly predictable "surprise" ending.

As soon as I found out Mira Grant, author of my beloved Newsflesh series, was writing a new series, I was thrilled. I picked up Parasite on sale on Boxing Day and made it my first book of 2014.

And it was good. It was. It was exciting, innovative, creepy, and compelling. I liked the characters; they weren't as awesome as Georgia and Shaun of Newsflesh fame, but they were likeable. I liked that there was no extraneous love triangle plot; I liked that Sal's boyfriend didn't end up being a complete jerk who she dumped, which is such a tired trope at this point. (We'll see what happens, of course - I wouldn't be surprised if something happens to Nathan. If Mira Grant has taught me anything, it's to trust nobody.) I liked the medical thriller angle, and I liked that it's a pretty blatant critique of the medical industry.

But there were two things that I saw coming from miles away: first, that the woman who contacted Sal was Dr. Cale, and then the big reveal at the end of the book. And that's a problem, especially when I consider how the Newsflesh series twisted and turned like no other books. That was a legitimately surprising trilogy. This? Not that surprising.

Did that ruin it for me? Not at all. I really liked it, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next book. But I am definitely hoping that Grant steps it up a little bit, because I'm fully aware of what she's capable of.

[inlibrisveritas]

Parasite is the sort of book I avoid. It’s sort of a medical thriller, but on top of that it touches on some horror aspects that I have nightmares about. In sort it’s about Parasites and anyone who has a slight phobia against these things will not find a friend in this book, I was seriously wigging out while reading this and I had to take long breaks from it in order to keep from having a spike in anxiety. Adverse side-effects aside it is a really good book. The subject is handled in a realistic and really scary way, and I really enjoyed it even though it scared me to death.

This is set in the not to distant future of 2027. The world has changed but it’s easily recognizable as our own and all of the little tidbits of new technology were easy to see as an advancement possible in our own world. This includes the new medical practices which include an intestinal tapeworm that secretes medications and keeps their host from being sick. Sadly it’s not an idea that seems far fetched because in our not to distant past humans were actually taking pills with tapeworms in them to help them loose weight. If humans are willing to do that for something superficial as weight loss then I don’t see it as under heard if it was proven they could help with something as huge as actual medical problems. So in that respect Mira Grant really presented an easy to believe subject, and on top of that she even built a case for it. I will admit that some of the medical talk toward the beginning of the book was kind of boring and it wasn’t until things started to get really weird that I found myself really interested.

Sal is an odd one and I really liked her overall. She’s still learning about herself and how to handle the world around her due to a nearly fatal car accident that she made a miracle recovery from, unfortunately her memories were gone and she had to start over. I really loved that she was kind of a mess. She has trouble with word meanings, and things most humans know automatically like modesty and what’s weird and what isn’t. I was also really fond of Nathan, who through all of Sal’s issues stuck by her and helped her whenever she needed it. Though I think my favorite character was Tansy, who is a complete nutcase. Everything out of her mouth was a complete surprise and it was a toss up between cute/weird and downright insane.

The parasite angle of this has probably scarred me for life and if anyone ever suggests it as a medical procedure I’ll probably flip out, but I thought it was handled really well and the effect of everything was downright chilling. I’m use to medical thrillers being standalone, at least judging from all of the books my mom use to read. So I’m super excited that this is a series and after the ending Grant gave us I’m so ready for the next book. Overall the plot isn’t the hardest to figure out but there are a few curve-balls that really make this worth while, and even though I saw the ending coming I still felt a chill when I read it.

If you’re looking for a wild ride into a uncharted territory then I definitely recommend this. It has some serious detail in it and everything is carefully constructed, making this great for those who enjoy a bit of world building and realistic ‘proof’.

[celinenyx]

Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy featuring fearless bloggers and zombies instantly catapulted her into being one of my favourite writers. Parasite is the first book in her new series called Parasitology.

Twenty-year-old Sally had a car accident that made her legally brain-dead. Then she wakes up as a clean slate, having no memory of the girl she used to be. SymboGen, the company that provides genetically modified tapeworms to keep the population healthy, decides to keep close tabs on her. When people start getting the mysterious sleepwalker disease, Sal wants answers. However, once you start on the path towards truth, there is no way back.

Ms Grant has the amazing ability to create worlds I can't help but want to know more about. In the Newsflesh Trilogy it was a harsh world overrun with zombies, in Parasite it's a disaster scenario in the near future that could be real. The story is set in 2024, and basically the world is as it is now - with one tiny difference in health care. Because we wanted our world to be as sterile as possible, our bodies only got more and more sensitive to allergens and illnesses. SymboGen created the Intestinal Bodyguard by combining parasite DNA with human DNA that excrete the antibodies we need.

What I love about Parasite is how realistic it is. We're close to curing cancer - who knows what we can do in ten years time? Not sufficiently tested medication gets on the market more often than we would like to think about.

I really liked Sal as a main character. Even though she's technically only six (since she can't count the years before her accident) she knows how to take care of herself, and she doesn't let people walk over her. She has a steady boyfriend, Nathan, that happens to be a parasitologist. For once, a book that isn't about falling in love, but about being in a relationship! The romance aspect is very subtle and on the background of the story, and doesn't take away from the main focus - conspiracies and mysteries.

Mira Grant's books tend to be slow-burning epic kind of stories; I feel this is the same with Parasitology. She takes her time to set the story, to give us all the crumbs before going on. And once her stories really get going, shit is going to hit the fan. I can't wait to see how Parasitology continues, I have the feeling she has plenty of tricks up her sleeve.

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Parasite was a really surprising -- and interesting -- read for me. And I mean that in two ways. It was surprising and interesting plot-wise, filled with twists and characters that kept me engaged from the beginning. But it was also a surprising and interesting reading experience. Because the more I read of this book, the more I was convinced that it was not something that I usually enjoy -- and the more I realized that I was loving it in spite of my usual taste in books.

First off, for some strange reason, I thought Parasite was supposed to be YA -- it's not. But there was very little in it that would be "strange" to see in YA -- except that the characters are in their mid-twenties, with jobs and careers, instead of being teenagers. So this book would probably appeal to people who stick primarily to YA -- as long as they're okay with the rather stomach-churning main plot point -- parasites. *shudders*

Yeah, it's a gross thing to be dwelling on for the entirety of the book, and I'll admit to a few moments of, "Ew, why am I reading this??" But this was part of my surprising reading experience. Medical thrillers (which this often felt like, despite the sci-fi nature of its overarching premise) really do not interest me when they're in book-form. I'll occasionally cave and watch one on TV, but as books they just don't interest me. But once I was invested in these characters -- the main character, Sal, especially -- I couldn't not keep reading to find out what happened, and I was totally caught up in the story.

Sal (full name Sally, but she prefers Sal) is a young woman who survived a near-fatal car crash. She ended up in a coma for some time, but just before her family decided to pull the plug, she miraculously woke up -- with no memory of her life before the crash. As her doctors explained, her brain-damage-induced amnesia was so acute that not only did she not remember her life, but she actually couldn't form words for some time, and had no knowledge of the social norms that are so second-nature to most people. When the book picks up, it's 6 years after the car crash, and Sal is, essentially, only 6 years old; that is, her life experience is only what she's had since she woke up from her coma. Some colloquialisms are still beyond her, and she still makes some social faux pas because of her amnesia, but this made her all the more charming to me. She's incredibly honest, direct, and strong, considering all she's gone through, and she's the real reason I enjoyed Parasite so much.

The doctors said that she owed her miraculous recovery to her SymboGen implant -- aka, the tube worm that most of the world's population at this time now has living in their bodies. This symbiotic parasite somehow keeps people healthy -- no allergies, automatic distribution of medication (don't ask me how), etc. While I'll admit the pseudo-science behind the parasite still totally baffles me, that didn't really impact my view of the book. It probably could've been "explained" more fully, but ehh. I don't mind. Sal was the real star, for me, so I can deal with some vague hand-waving where the science/sci-fi stuff is concerned.

The main plot of Parasite revolves around a strange "sleeping sickness", which affects certain people who have the SymboGen implant (granted, this is most of the human population, soooooo yeah). Sal and her boyfriend Nathan, a parasitologist who incidentally does not have the SymboGen implant (YAY, someone who thinks they're as creepy as I do, lol), end up getting mixed up in quite a few of these strange incidents, the people around them seeming to go to sleep and then waking up only to attack those around them while "sleepwalking". Sal and Nathan start to realize that SymboGen isn't being quite as truthful as they should be (surprise, surprise), and things... escalate from there.

Parasite is told mostly from Sal's point of view, but between each chapter are short interviews, news-clippings, and excerpts from biographies of certain scientists involved with SymboGen. I thought I'd find these between-chapter excerpts boring, but throughout the book they actually grew on me, and added a sense of foreboding, while giving the book a grounding in (albeit fake) news and magazines that made it seem even more creepily founded in reality.

In conclusion...

Parasite is filled with tons of twists and turns, some that surprised me and one major one that didn't, but all of which kept me glued to the page to see how Sal and Nathan would deal with what was being thrown at them. Despite being a sci-fi medical thriller, Parasite is more solidly character-driven than I usually expect from a book like this. The medical/thriller aspects were a main focus, but one of my favorite things about the book, especially the latter half, is the strength the characters show, and especially how we get to see more of Sal and Nathan's relationship. The two of them are fantastic together, each knowing the other's strengths and weakness, and supporting each other realistically and unselfishly. Had the character development not been so strong, I probably wouldn't be dying for the sequel to come out. As I said, when it comes to medical thrillers, plot usually isn't enough to keep my attention. But since Parasite's characters were so great, I am anxiously awaiting the sequel -- I can't wait to see more of Sal and Nathan.