In Parasite, most people live with genetically engineered tapeworms implanted in their bodies that regulate their health. That makes the book perfect for the Creepy Crawlies square, especially since the tapeworms are no longer content with serving the humans and are beginning to do something about it.

If "Parasite" had been 300 pages, I would have been on the edge of my seat. It was 504 pages and I was waiting for it to end.

Actually, it didn't end. It just stopped on a big reveal that fell flat because I'd worked it out 400 pages earlier. "Parasite" is the first book of a trilogy. It's not really a stand-alone novel. It's more an extended pilot for the series. If reading the first five hundred pages piques your interest then you have the opportunity to find out how things work out by reading the next two books (1,100 pages between them).

I'll be stopping here. I'm all parasited out.

I really liked the idea that the novel was built on. It's original, disturbing and has been made to sound as if it's based on plausible science. It does a good job at looking at how corporate greed and personal ego can over-ride public safety, how history changes depending on who writes it, how weak the US government can be when confronting serious money and how much personal identity depends on memory.

There were some interesting characters: one narcissist scientist, one so-obsessed-she'll-do-ANYTHING-for-the science scientist and one Army Colonel who has no idea what a control freak he is. My favourite character was Tansy, a remarkable creation: scary, unpredictable, often funny, sometimes even intentionally, always at least two cards short of a full deck. She is also the most honest, grounded and well-informed character in the book.

Sadly, the book isn't about Tansy, it's about Sally or Sal.

I was interested in Sal at first. Although she's in her twenties, she can only remember the six years of her life since the car accident that left her in a vegetative state, from which, at the start of the book, she recovers from just in time to stop her life support being switched off and her organs donated.

The longer I spent with Sal, the less interested I became. She seemed weak, erratic, unable to put the big picture together despite having all the data. I kept wanting to shout at her to stop feeling sorry for herself and work it out already. Well before the last page of the book, with its big reveal that would have been a shock to nobody except the stubbornly obtuse Sal, I lost all sympathy with her.

I think the book would have benefited from editing. Each scene was fine but not every scene was necessary. Cutting a few out would have improved the pace and increased the tension. Some of the text was also lazy or redundant. The worst example was this description from Sal:

"...my hair was a matted mass of tangles and knots that gave way with an audible ripping sound"

Can you imagine a ripping sound that isn't audible?

Maybe I didn't get enough sleep or maybe it's the slightly too slow pace of this tale (I'm fairly sure I know what's going on and I'm close to screaming at the main character for not having figured it out yet) but I've just pulled off my headphones in annoyance at this description:

"...my hair was a matted mass of tangles and knots that gave way with an audible ripping sound"

 

Can you imagine a ripping sound that isn't audible?

This irritates me because I take it as a sign of poor editing. With a little more editing, this book would be going faster and I'd be enjoying it more.

I think this stuff becomes more obvious when I listen to an audiobook where my eyes can't simply edit the text for me as I go, letting me skim without losing either data or tone.

Sigh...

Maybe I really didn't get enough sleep.

Anyway, time to get back to the this-is-bound-to-get-scary-soon-isn't-it? story, about a parasite pandemic wiping out humanity.

This is a LONG book - seventeen hours - but I was impressed by Mira Grants' "Into The Drowning Deep" so I decided to try one of her books for Halloween Bingo. It fits the creepy crawlie square because it's about a disaster associated with the introduction of genetically modified tapeworms - how could that go wrong?

It's off to a good start with lots of hints about a big bad, filtered through a personal experience. I think this one will whiz by.

I'm going to start with other - WITCHES! I love them in every flavor - the old wise crone, the maiden that just discovered she is a witch, the kitchen witch that adds a little magic in each thing she bakes, the forest nymph/guardian (#TeamMaleficent), the storm witch, the water witch - even Disney's Pixies was fun for me to watch for the kids over and over again.

The other that I loved is Vikings with magical powers - aka the Call of Crows series by Shelly Laurenston.

I have an issue with stories about vampires - basically consent and the lack thereof. There is only one series I enjoyed that involved vampires and the premise of the world building pretty much flipped the script on vampire lore. I may do a re-reading of one of the books in the series Midnight Breeds by Lara Adrian for the bingo. I like my vampire stories that take place only at night because it adds atmosphere and no sparkling vamps.

Werewolves and Other Shifters - these are more my speed than vamps. And I really like the fact that other animal shifters are being added to the subgenre. I have Shelly Laurenston's Hot and Badgered waiting to be read for bingo - honey badger shifter, OH HELL YES. If interested in other shifters, Eve Langlais has different series that goes wild with animal shifters.

I may get into zombies a bit more since a lot of BL'ers dig the White Trash Zombie books. There is a movie adaption of the book Warm Bodies that is a fun twist on the zombie lore, along with seasonal favorite movie Shaun of the Dead. I read the first book in Mira Grant's Parasitology trilogy and that had a future/sci-fi element to the zombie storyline.