Parasite (2013)
By Mira Grant
Genres : science fiction, horror, thriller
410 pages (Kindle Digital Edition)
Rating 4/5 🤪🤪
I am making this note having finished half of the book. The twist that is thrown at me 50 percent into the book has left me completely speechless. I shuddered and stared off into space with unblinking eyes trying to make sense of the implications of what is just disclosed. I have been under the assumption that this is a very predictably overrated book since I started reading. I have only been paying it little attention and drifting off occasionally into random musings on other things. But I am knocked out of my stupor by what I have just read!!
Upon finishing the book : I have read some good reviews about the book but also some very strongly negative reviews on goodreads. I quizzed myself if I should actually pick this up based on the poor reviews and ratings. But to be honest, having just finished, I would say I enjoyed it very much! It kept me hooked till the very end. It turned to be an easy read despite there being many technical terms - they are highly simplified to make one understand the flow of the plot. The tapeworm humans are a novelty which is impressive and quite shocking to digest for a while.
Coming into the story. It is a future date and SymboGen(an organization led by Dr.Steven Banks) touts its product(pills carrying eggs of tapeworms) as the cure for all diseases and as the solution that removes need for taking any kind of health correcting/improving medication ever. It is some sort of an utopian dream vision heavily publicized and sold to the world. Their claim goes that those who have taken this pill need not take any other medicine for say diabetes, birth control, cold, fever etc ever again because the tapeworm lodged through the pill in their intestines would take care of all their medical needs. The main character Sally after her brain dies in a car crash wakes up in the hospital having been a host to this worm. She becomes the poster child for SymboGen to show and prove the efficacy of the pill. Six years after her accident, as she is still learning the ways of humans and accumulating new experiences, skills .. a set of unrelated events where people are going into a violent,autopilot mode (called the sleeping sickness) start cropping up from different corners of the world. Though no one links them to the tapeworm and SymboGen, some can't stand back and take them at a face value. Some of the people who recognize this early are Sally and her boyfriend Nathan. As the twists and turns mold the progressing story, we learn the plot of some tapeworm humans - humans who are completely taken over by the tapeworm - why or how the tapeworm which is a harmless introduction into the human body is turning them into violent empty heads? Why would SymboGen introduce this malignant agent into production without conducting all human trials thoroughly? Who worked on this project and why are they interested in finding a solution to the crisis that is spinning out of control? Can the society thrive as one where humans become mere containers for actual tapeworm controllers?
Reading this book is an sit on the edge of the seat kind of experience for me. Strongly recommend it to all science thrillers!
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