Mira Grant

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 Intestinal Bodyguard worm 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. ParasitologyParasiteSymbiont Chimera For more from Mira Grant, check out: Newsflesh FeedDeadlineBlackout Newsflesh Short Fiction (e-only novellas)Apocalypse Scenario #683: The BoxCountdownSan Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California BrowncoatsHow Green This Land, How Blue This SeaThe Day the Dead Came to Show and TellPlease Do Not Taunt the Octopus

Parasite

There exists a future where the medical community has managed to convince people to install custom tapeworms/parasites to manage their heath needs.

Pros: medical costs way down. Access easier for people across economic spectrums. Low side effects.

Cons: only one company makes them. Testing was sus. That company seems evil empire-ish (nooooo. What?)

The twists aren’t all that twisty. They seemed like, very obvious. But I will say that’s not a reason not to read this. We know Frodo is gonna make it to the mountain, right? Like it’s a neat story it’s just not a thriller. There are no gasps. It’s sci-fi. Creepy, wormy, sci-fi. It was enjoyable. I’ll ready the rest of the series. I like to be a bit grossed out and any book that can make me question if I might be rooting for worms in any future wars is worth at least 3 stars. I hadn’t considered that may be an option. Touché. 

Apiecalypse Jen

There exists a future where the medical community has managed to convince people to install custom tapeworms/parasites to manage their heath needs.

Pros: medical costs way down. Access easier for people across economic spectrums. Low side effects.

Cons: only one company makes them. Testing was sus. That company seems evil empire-ish (nooooo. What?)

The twists aren’t all that twisty. They seemed like, very obvious. But I will say that’s not a reason not to read this. We know Frodo is gonna make it to the mountain, right? Like it’s a neat story it’s just not a thriller. There are no gasps. It’s sci-fi. Creepy, wormy, sci-fi. It was enjoyable. I’ll ready the rest of the series. I like to be a bit grossed out and any book that can make me question if I might be rooting for worms in any future wars is worth at least 3 stars. I hadn’t considered that may be an option. Touché. 

Nessa Luna

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way.

I chose to read this book, because first of all the cover looked nice. And then I read the summary, and thought it might be a nice book to read. The only problem was that I would either have to read it on my computer, or my phone (because I don't own a Kindle, but I do have the app on my phone, or Adobe Digital Editions on my laptop). Eventually, I chose to read it on my phone, because that would mean that I could read it while I was traveling, and lying in bed, without having my heavy laptop with me.

The book starts off with a piece of text from somewhere in the middle of the book, which is something I sometimes like, and sometimes don’t. In this case, I liked it, though it made me think the book would be kinda action packed (or well, at least as thrilling as that piece was). It wasn’t really that action packed in my opinion, but it was still interesting.

The first half, we’re introduced to the main characters; Sal/Sally Mitchell, who miraculously survives a massive car-crash. Her family, mum, dad, and sister Joyce. Sal’s boyfriend Nathan Kim; the people Sal works with at the animal shelter, the people at the hospital where Nathan works, the people from SymboGen. Nothing much happens, except for some cases of ‘sleepwalking sickness’ as they call it.

Every chapter starts with either a quote from a book, an unpublished autobiography or an interview, which I liked at first, but I started to get a bit annoyed with it in the end, and though the information in those pieces would probably be of importance for the next chapter, I just quickly skimmed through it so I could read the story again. The passages from the book were all so alike, that I had the feeling I was reading the same part over and over again.

The whole tapeworm situation made me think of the Torchwood book ‘Slow Decay’, in which people take diet pills, which actually have a little alien inside; that alien eats everything the person eats, making the person able to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. But of course, the alien starts asking for more, and eventually the people start eating so much, that they even start eating animals, people, and themselves. That book made me feel very nauseous, because I just really do not like cannibalism.

In this book, the only part that actually made me feel sick was Tansy talking about blowing other people’s kneecaps off.

I had kind off predicted how the book would end somewhere in the middle of the story, but that didn’t keep me from getting surprised at some points, and I literally said ‘WHAT’ out loud a couple of times while reading. The many medical terms and hard words that were used made me confused sometimes, because even though some of them were explained the first time they were used, by the time I read the word a second time, I would have forgotten the meaning completely. But that’s just because I don’t remember words like that easily.

Out of all the characters, I think I liked Sal, Nathan, and Tansy (though sometimes she could be really violent), the most. I liked the relationship that Sal and Nathan have, and I just LOVED Beverly. Though I am not very fond of big dogs, I would have liked to have a Beverly at my side in a situation like this. Or just any other animal, but I would rather have a Beverly.

I really enjoyed this book, a lot, and I am certainly going to read the next one. Not just because this book kinda ends in a cliff-hanger (or well, it just ends with a ‘to be continued…’ which I really do not like), I just really liked the story! It was well written; no mistakes and no hard words that weren’t explained (as far as I remember). I am going to give a try to the other books the writer has written, though they are (also) about zombies (I don’t really call the sleepwalkers zombies though, but some people might). I am not overly fond of zombies, but I might just give it a try!

Sasha Mann

Our MC Sally was in an accident that for a while had left her clinically brain dead and then she suddenly wakes up, having no idea who she was and even now refuses to fit in the mold of who everyone said she had been. She in a sense is a completely new person. She was more or less saved thanks to a sort of tapeworm/parasite that resides within her. It see to be the norm in this day and age for everyone to have this parasite. It is referred to as an Intestinal Bodyguard.
The chapters are broken up with a quick bit of information such as an article,news bulletin, etc in between. Things that give us some fun information in between the chapters of the story.
We learn that something seems to be happening to people, seemingly random. A sort of almost strange firm of sleepwalking seemsnto be taking over them all of a sudden. And it has the possibility to turn sinister as one such person afflicted by this sickness attacks our MC Sal. This sickness, as we come to learn is in fact a parasitic infection of some kind and I find myself wondering what caused it
Midway through the novel we get a bit of a twist thrown at us, but honestly it was relatively easy to figure out. Doesn't detract from enjoying the story.
Things are really starting to ramp up as more and more people become infected by this parasitic infection taking over. There was some more shocking twists toward the very end of this book and I must say I am invested in the story enough to continue reading the series.

Kayla Smith

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book? I may change my rating. I think I enjoyed most of it. There were definitely moments where I was holding my breath, on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen next. But there were other moments where it was just a bit too....weird? I usually like weird, but I guess this wasn't my type of weird. However, I still enjoyed the horror aspects and I may pick up the second book at some point.

Anastaciya

lololol, could this be any more obvious? ahh... I'm just not sure I have the patience for this story to read two more books about this.

Ben Nathan

Everything about this was fun, but you can tell that she has become a much better writer since then. I gave it 3 stars because I knew exactly what was going to happen beat for beat once I was around the halfway point. It was a fun journey, but entirely too predictable.

Anyaconda

I had such high hopes for this. I loved Rolling Deep by Mira Grant and went out and bought the whole Parasitology series, which was on sale. I still regret buying the whole thing as I am 3/4 through the book and I just DNFed it and will get rid of all three books. 
Hopefully somebody else will enjoy this more than I did.

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 Intestinal Bodyguard worm 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.

Riley Rose

Katie Bell

Nicholas Barnard

Veronica Reitmeier

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.

Parasite

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