Review: Parasite - Mira Grant

Parasite (Parasitology, #1) by Mira Grant

Publication Date: October 29th, 2013

Pages: 504

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Netgalley

Synopsis

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

I've had this book on my to-read list for AGES and honestly I regret not having read it sooner! It started out a bit slow for me because there was a lot of information that was being given. In the beginning I felt a little confused by the excerpts of certain character's biographies or interviews but eventually I got used to it and it didn't feel like such a break in the plot.

So, the story follows Sally, or Sal as she prefers now to be called who was the first and, so far, the only person to recover from being brain dead thanks to her SymbioGen implant. It has been now 6 years and she has had to learn how to walk, talk and just how society works but one thing that never came back was her memory from before the accident.

Like I said before, I felt the pacing might have been a little weird since at first it moves very slowly and then everything seems to start happening at once, but then again, that could have been done on purpose.

One of the things I was most fascinated by was the little snippets of the children's book Don't Go Out Alone (which, sadly, doesn't actually exist...a complete shame since I REALLY wanted to read it). It was interesting and mysterious but it still had that very creepy nursery rhyme feel to it. 

Also, I felt like the author was able to create a believable world and as the story progresses I felt myself getting more and more drawn to it. It was a really interesting read and it's full of twists and turns. One of them I figured out quite early on, but I'm sure that was the point.

All in all, I quite liked the book and I'm glad there's at least two more in the series!

Find it at The Book Depository!