A review by cathepsut
Parasite by Mira Grant

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Early on this reminded me a little of Lock In by Scalzi. Although this is not about a pandemic, but about a society that willingly infects itself with a parasite. And that tapeworm prevents people from getting sick, prevents allergies, maybe even helps them with hangovers. 

Sally nearly dies in a car accidents, falls into a coma and eventually is diagnosed as brain dead. Just when her physician tries to convince her family to turn of the machines keeping her alive, she wakes up. But she‘s not Sally anymore. She has lost all of her memories, she can‘t talk or read and has to relearn her mother tongue. Sal makes her way back into a life controlled by her parents and SymboGen, the company that had developed the tapeworm. All seems more or less fine, until people start to sleepwalk…

It was pretty obvious for me what the reason for there sleepwalking was and also the meaning of Sal‘s dreams. Parasite was a fun novel, but very predictable, with a willfully ignorant main character. 🪱🪱🪱🪱 

I might pick up the next one in the series…

Good audio narration.