Parasite by Mira Grant
Oct. 2nd, 2014 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Your health is important.
Choose Symbogen.
A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite. The Intestinal Bodyguard protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. Now, almost everyone has a SymboGen parasite living within them.
But these creatures are getting restless. They want their own lives – and will do anything to get them.
It’s July 2027. Over the last 12 years people have increasingly chosen to have a SymboGen parasite inserted into them to help monitor and control their health. SymboGen’s genetically engineered parasite can boost the immune system, be used to control drug delivery into the body and even result in bodily improvements. Sally Mitchell was one of SymboGen’s early success cases – 6 years ago they inserted a parasite into her after a serious car crash left her close to death with serious head and bodily injuries. It gave her a new life but the price was to bind her to SymboGen for their research. She has to submit to psychological and physiological tests to assess how the parasite is working and due to the severity of her injuries, her parents have legal guardianship over her affairs, controlling what she can and cannot do. Her only solace is in her boyfriend, Nathan, a doctor at the local hospital who supports her attempts at independence.
Then people suddenly start coming down with what’s termed sleepwalking sickness. They lose control of their bodies, wandering off and even attacking other people. Sally and Nathan become convinced that there’s a link to SymboGen’s parasites but their investigation leads to a shadowy conspiracy and a truth that’s more shocking than they could possibly imagine …
Having really enjoyed Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I was looking forward to reading the first of a new horror trilogy that riffs on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Grant has clearly done her research on parasites and creates a plausible scenario where people would willingly agree to implantation but this is a curiously flat piece with a lot of set-up and not a lot of tension. The main problem is in Sally herself – an unconfident woman who’s effectively learning to live again – she’s incredibly slow to pick up on things that the reader has already guessed and spends a lot of time running around asking obvious questions and being a target for others. I didn’t care about her relationship with Nathan (who’s too good to be true) and the conspiracy elements are ham-fisted. SymboGen also comes across as a generic evil corporation – so much so that I really didn’t believe it and it’s not helped by the fact that Steven Banks is a two-dimensional character. Ultimately the end result simply didn’t excite me and I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel.
The Verdict:
Having really enjoyed Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I was looking forward to reading the first of a new horror trilogy that riffs on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Grant has clearly done her research on parasites and creates a plausible scenario where people would willingly agree to implantation but this is a curiously flat piece with a lot of set-up and not a lot of tension. The main problem is in Sally herself – an unconfident woman who’s effectively learning to live again – she’s incredibly slow to pick up on things that the reader has already guessed and spends a lot of time running around asking obvious questions and being a target for others. I didn’t care about her relationship with Nathan (who’s too good to be true) and the conspiracy elements are ham-fisted. SymboGen also comes across as a generic evil corporation – so much so that I really didn’t believe it and it’s not helped by the fact that Steven Banks is a two-dimensional character. Ultimately the end result simply didn’t excite me and I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel.
Choose Symbogen.
“Every so often, some conspiracy nut starts in with “what they aren’t telling you” and “the things they don’t want you to know”, and you know what? Not one has produced verifiable scientific evidence that the Intestinal Bodyguard is harmful in humans.”
- Dr Steven Banks, co-founder of SymboGen.
A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite. The Intestinal Bodyguard protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. Now, almost everyone has a SymboGen parasite living within them.
But these creatures are getting restless. They want their own lives – and will do anything to get them.
It’s July 2027. Over the last 12 years people have increasingly chosen to have a SymboGen parasite inserted into them to help monitor and control their health. SymboGen’s genetically engineered parasite can boost the immune system, be used to control drug delivery into the body and even result in bodily improvements. Sally Mitchell was one of SymboGen’s early success cases – 6 years ago they inserted a parasite into her after a serious car crash left her close to death with serious head and bodily injuries. It gave her a new life but the price was to bind her to SymboGen for their research. She has to submit to psychological and physiological tests to assess how the parasite is working and due to the severity of her injuries, her parents have legal guardianship over her affairs, controlling what she can and cannot do. Her only solace is in her boyfriend, Nathan, a doctor at the local hospital who supports her attempts at independence.
Then people suddenly start coming down with what’s termed sleepwalking sickness. They lose control of their bodies, wandering off and even attacking other people. Sally and Nathan become convinced that there’s a link to SymboGen’s parasites but their investigation leads to a shadowy conspiracy and a truth that’s more shocking than they could possibly imagine …
Having really enjoyed Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I was looking forward to reading the first of a new horror trilogy that riffs on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Grant has clearly done her research on parasites and creates a plausible scenario where people would willingly agree to implantation but this is a curiously flat piece with a lot of set-up and not a lot of tension. The main problem is in Sally herself – an unconfident woman who’s effectively learning to live again – she’s incredibly slow to pick up on things that the reader has already guessed and spends a lot of time running around asking obvious questions and being a target for others. I didn’t care about her relationship with Nathan (who’s too good to be true) and the conspiracy elements are ham-fisted. SymboGen also comes across as a generic evil corporation – so much so that I really didn’t believe it and it’s not helped by the fact that Steven Banks is a two-dimensional character. Ultimately the end result simply didn’t excite me and I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel.
The Verdict:
Having really enjoyed Mira Grant’s NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I was looking forward to reading the first of a new horror trilogy that riffs on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Grant has clearly done her research on parasites and creates a plausible scenario where people would willingly agree to implantation but this is a curiously flat piece with a lot of set-up and not a lot of tension. The main problem is in Sally herself – an unconfident woman who’s effectively learning to live again – she’s incredibly slow to pick up on things that the reader has already guessed and spends a lot of time running around asking obvious questions and being a target for others. I didn’t care about her relationship with Nathan (who’s too good to be true) and the conspiracy elements are ham-fisted. SymboGen also comes across as a generic evil corporation – so much so that I really didn’t believe it and it’s not helped by the fact that Steven Banks is a two-dimensional character. Ultimately the end result simply didn’t excite me and I’m not sure I’ll read the sequel.
