Publishers Weekly
09/28/2015
The intense final volume of Grant’s Parasitology trilogy (after Symbiont) explores the outer limits and devastating effects of pharmaceuticals. The SymboGen Corporation creates tapeworms that are embedded in human bodies to enhance physical capabilities. After years of dormancy, the tapeworms are waking up in their host bodies, wanting to assume their own identities. While some humans are left as zombie-like sleepwalkers, others become chimera, their tapeworms fully integrated with their host bodies. Such is the case with Sally Mitchell, whose tapeworm, assuming her identity, wrestles with questions of humanness and loyalty while attempting to stop her brother, Sherman, from claiming the rest of humanity for his own. Grant’s plot is a zombie apocalypse writ large; her prose is invigorating, and the world she creates is brutal and unforgiving. Her narrative style, with the tapeworm as the central character, is original and enjoyable. This mid-apocalyptic breath of fresh air keeps the reader engaged while undertaking a meaningful exploration of some deep, dark questions. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"A riveting near-future medical thriller that reads like the genetically-engineered love child of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton."—John Joseph Adam on Parasite
"Readers with strong stomachs will welcome this unusual take on the future."—Kirkus Reviews on Parasite
"Fans of [the Newsflesh] series will definitely want to check this new book out. But fans of Michael Crichton-style technothrillers will be equally enthralled: as wild as Grant's premise is, the novel is firmly anchored in real-world science and technology."—Booklist on Parasite
"Grant extends the zombie theme of her Newsflesh trilogy to incorporate thoughtful reflections on biomedical issues that are both ominously challenging and eerily plausible. Sally is a complex, compassionate character, well suited to this exploration of trust, uncertainty, and the price of progress."—Publishers Weekly on Parasite
"It's a well-grounded medical wariness that gets at the heart of the what the Parasitology series will be asking: What happens when the cure is worse than the disease?"—NPR Books on Parasite
"An exceptionally creepy medical-horror thriller that's the perfect spine-tingling read for Halloween...[a] roller coaster ride."—RT Book Reviews on Parasite (4 1/2 stars)
"Deft cultural touches, intriguing science, and amped-up action will delight Grant's numerous fans."—Publishers Weekly on Deadline
"The zombie novel Robert A. Heinlein might have written."—Sci-Fi Magazine on Feed
"A masterpiece of suspense."—Publishers Weekly on Feed (Starred Review)
Library Journal
10/15/2015
The parasite known as Sal is fighting for her life and her family as the outbreak spreads in this final volume of Grant's trilogy (Parasite; Symbiont) in which tapeworms meant to be a medical miracle have turned their human hosts into zombie-like abominations.—MM
Kirkus Reviews
2015-09-03
Grant's tapeworm trilogy concludes with an all-out war. In the two previous books (Parasite, 2013; Symbiont, 2014), readers were introduced to Sally Mitchell, a woman rendered brain dead in an accident and brought back to life by a sentient tapeworm created by Dr. Shanti Cale. A global company distributed the tapeworms as personal medical devices, designed to control insulin, blood pressure, and other health issues. But instead of simply acting as a control, the worms burrowed into the skulls of their hosts and took them over. Sal, the tapeworm, took over the body of Col. Mitchell's daughter Sally, and now the colonel is fighting the tapeworms while his other daughter, Joyce, is also brain dead. Sal hopes to save Joyce but also wants to get back to her fiance, Nathan, Dr. Cale's son, a normal human who knows the woman he loves is a chimera. When Dr. Mitchell has Sal relocated to a quarantine unit in Pleasanton, she and another woman, Carrie, escape and find their way back to Dr. Cale's lab, where Sal is reunited with the Mitchell family and Carrie is imprisoned. Eventually an evil chimera comes for them, and Dr. Cale's faction works to find a way to defeat him and make the world safe for tapeworms masquerading as people. This third volume comes in much too long and contains page upon page of mundanely written internal monologue as Sal whines about her situation, justifies her existence, and explains the twisted science that went into making her. Sal is legions away from a sympathetic heroine, and the constant self-reflection acts as filler for a wafer-thin story. Readers will feel brain-dead themselves after slogging through this deadly dull saga.
