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A review by songwind
Parasite by Mira Grant
3.0
Enjoyable, but not as good as I was expecting. Unlike most of McGuire's/Grant's other books, this one reads like the first installment of a longer story, rather than the first, complete in itself, book in a series.
The premise is interesting. Symbogen, a medical/genetics company, developed a custom parasite that lives in the body and bolsters its immune system without triggering allergies, autoimmune disorders, and other consequences of the sterilized modern lifestyle.
The main character is the ultimate expression of this when her parasite allows her to come back to consciousness after what should have been a fatal car accident and coma.
All isn't rosy, however. Sal suffers near-total amnesia from the brain damage, Symbogen pries into her private life, and her military epidemiologist father keeps a strict hold on her life. The only things she has that are really hers are her job taking care of animals in a no-kill shelter, and her boyfriend, a doctor and parasitologist.
When a strange illness starts affecting the people of the city, Sal's unique situation puts her right in the middle of everything.
The writing is good, and the characters are well developed. I enjoyed the story. As mentioned previously, this is the first book by her that didn't feel like it had a beginning and end of its own, which was a let down. The book ends with a cliffhanger and reveal, but the foreshadowing was very heavy-handed. I was certain of the fact that was revealed at the end by the end of the second chapter, meaning the book ended on an anticlimax.
I will be reading the follow up to see where the story goes, but as a standalone novel, this one ended up being a bit of a let down.
The premise is interesting. Symbogen, a medical/genetics company, developed a custom parasite that lives in the body and bolsters its immune system without triggering allergies, autoimmune disorders, and other consequences of the sterilized modern lifestyle.
The main character is the ultimate expression of this when her parasite allows her to come back to consciousness after what should have been a fatal car accident and coma.
All isn't rosy, however. Sal suffers near-total amnesia from the brain damage, Symbogen pries into her private life, and her military epidemiologist father keeps a strict hold on her life. The only things she has that are really hers are her job taking care of animals in a no-kill shelter, and her boyfriend, a doctor and parasitologist.
When a strange illness starts affecting the people of the city, Sal's unique situation puts her right in the middle of everything.
The writing is good, and the characters are well developed. I enjoyed the story. As mentioned previously, this is the first book by her that didn't feel like it had a beginning and end of its own, which was a let down. The book ends with a cliffhanger and reveal, but the foreshadowing was very heavy-handed. I was certain of the fact that was revealed at the end by the end of the second chapter, meaning the book ended on an anticlimax.
I will be reading the follow up to see where the story goes, but as a standalone novel, this one ended up being a bit of a let down.