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.
So anyway, I was on a Mira Grant kick. While reading her Feed trilogy, I decided to parallel read her Parasite trilogy. This is another one where she CLEARLY did her research into parasitology and how society would respond and it shows!
If Feed was zombie apocalypse via virus, Parasite is zombie apocalypse via parasite, with the added question of what makes something sentient and worthy of life over another.
It’s a fascinating question and I enjoyed watching it play out amidst a fast paced and sometimes scary zombie novel. There’s an end of novel cliffhanger twist I suspect most of the readers figured out after Chapter 2, but it doesn’t ruin the fun.
Reading this side by side with Feed was a fun exercise in watching two separate apocalypses play out in different ways for different reasons. Grant/McGuire is very good at making these plots engaging while still fitting in the research she’s clearly done.
