EDIT 7/11/14 - The Kindle version is on sale for $1.99. WELL worth the money.

I wasn't sure I'd like this one, but Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) delivered yet again. Whether horror, dystopian or straight fantasy, I'm putting her firmly in my 'buy-everything-this-woman-writes' category. ( )

Ok, first of all – it’s all good and everything where it should be. If you find that first third is boring and think of dropping it – you probably should not. The story will get more. The character will move and do more. There is no point in spoilers as many of the overall story turns is not that surprising, this book is not about 180 degree turns and blowing up in the face of the reader. It’s a very good book with solid plan and solid execution. Which brings me to the interesting point...

...This book was definitely made to look like it was written decades ago. The world looks almost retro future. The whole book is made to look like a utopia written in the times of Stanislaw Lem (not that it is anything close to him, mind you) - slow, very picky in what details to show and what to conceal and all that done through the eyes and mind of the main heroine that made to be a guest there. Which at some point is really makes you think why and how she sees what she sees. And the book plays really good on duality between what she sees and what reader wants to see.

Of course there is something lacking here. Probably novelty. In the end it’s just another very solidly written book on chosen theme. ( )

I was a bit intimidated by the length of this book because I thought I might not be able to follow all the science terms and explanations I was expecting, but that wasn't a problem at all. Once I got into the book, I became fascinated by the science and couldn't put the book down! The character development was solid and the detailed descriptions were fascinating to me. I look forward to continuing with the series.

5/5 stars. ( )

I'll write a more coherent review of this wonderful book at a later time. For now all I have to say is...

I ´͈ ᵕ `͈ ♡ LOVE (｡♥‿♥｡) NATHAN ♡(˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ ) KIM ( ´͈ ॢꇴ `͈ॢ)･*♡ ( )

*sigh*

Ok, so... I've been hyped about this book for a few years now, while gradually becoming a huge Mira Grant fan. It's the only thing I hadn't read of hers, so I'd been "saving it" because I feel like if I don't get my monthly dose of Mira Grant, somehow I'm just not going to be a happy person. And while you could say that this is the definition of having high expectations and setting it up to fail me, let me tell you that I've yet to rate a Mira Grant book with five stars.

I love a LOT of things about her writing, and her as a person, but I tend to be somewhat strict about things, literature, crafting worlds and cteating people with words. What I want to get down to is that while I may be a fan of Grant it's not like I was anticipating to read high-brow, literary fiction of some sort. I like her for what she writes. Exciting action-adventures with lot's of nerdy, well researched, sci-fi tidbits, independent female protagonists, a diverse cast of characters and sometimes, beautiful, gooey, bloody, gore.

So, even though I most definitely feel like I am the perfect target audience for her particular brand of literature, it's not like I'm suddenly expecting to read "the best thing ever", but more like "the best thing in this particular niche category" [cateGORY, get it? -shuddup brain-]

And let me just say, this one sucked.
I was bored out of my mind, and kept dragging on this poor book for so many days, just because I don't know when to give up. It had all the best parts of Grant's writing but there was so much fluff, so many needless pages of everyday dialogue, of characters explaining everything to each other and to the reader. I feel like if it had an austere editor who told her "No, you said it was going to be a duology, just cut the needless points out and rewrite it" this could have been one of my favorites.

Up until 47% of the book, nothing happened. For the first 40% of this book [thank kindle for percentages] you're just getting acquainted with the world and how things work. In the most painful, excruciatingly slow, boring and mundane way possible. Whole chapters would have been mere sentences in the hands of other writers, and nothing of the plot or our connection to the characters would have been compromised.

I'm almost angry, which is because I read this book in a very particular sort of way. Each night my boyfriend and I would take turns reading each other a chapter of it. [We've done this with many other books and Mira Grant is our favorite option thus far.] So I had to literally pronounce every needless little repetition and explanation. Every little thing that offered absolutely nothing. Every character smirking, or saying a quirky thing, explaining in minute detail something that was already explained, making a needlessly long and out-of-character joke, everything, I read it all out loud. So excuse me if I sound a bit bitter.

We later theorized that what made this world-setup so boring was the fact that it didn't differ so much from our own reality, not in any significant, palpable every-day life kind of way. In [b:Feed|7094569|Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy, #1)|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408500437s/7094569.jpg|7351419] we had a whole different world to get to know. Everything was new, and the communities she created felt like an exciting sociological experiment. In [b:Into the Drowning Deep|34523174|Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep, #1)|Mira Grant|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489176444s/34523174.jpg|55657440] there was a looming climate disaster affecting the planet and we had to get to know many different characters and understand their specific scientific sectors. In Parasite we have a woman trying to learn how to... "people" again, after a severe case of amnesia, but instead of following her first days after waking up from her coma, we time-skip to six years after that. So what we end up getting is a person that is already acquainted with the world. And the only thing that's different is this new popural treatment using parasites, which is always only briefly explained because it's a major plot point and therefore cannot be fully explored in fear of giving away too much. So we are left wondering in a familiar world, with a somewhat naive woman, going about her everyday life. Thrilling.

And then the plot starts. And you, being an avid horror and sci-fi fan, have already understood the big reveal and you're waiting for the characters to figure it out so we can get this worm train going baby. And you're waiting. And you're waiting. And you begin to wonder whether Mira Grant even cares about this *thing* you've figured out since the fourth chapter and OH MY GOD IT'S LITERALLY REVEALED IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE BOOK ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS NOW? This was the big reveal? Have I been reading a book for toddlers? Are you the same woman who wrote about political conspiracies? Did you seriously thought this was even a reveal? Do you feel like I'm yelling? 'Cause you can bet your ass I am.

Let me back up a bit. I understand that *the thing* which is being revealed, could be thought of as common knowledge for the reader, and the actual reveal being not that it's confirmed to us, but to the character we follow. Maybe the reveal is that finally SHE gets to know, and we get to be there watching her. The payoff to that would be witnessing her emotional, mental reaction to this. See how it affects her, changes her world view, maybe puts in perspective some of her behaviors and relationships. Maybe it makes her re-evaluate even herself, changes her in some way. This would be very interesting, but is not what happens. The book just ends there. We, and her, learn *the thing* and then curtain roll. So this theory, gets scrapped easily.

The second way a reveal like this could work in favor of the story, is when it changes everything, and makes you want to revisit the story from the beginning, trying to spot out all the hints at what was really going on. For this to happen and have the intended effect, you need to have your *thing* not be transparent for the better part of the book, with more than four characters constantly alluding to it. So again, point not relevant.

The third way a reveal at the end of a story can be beneficial to it, is when it makes you hungry for more. When it excites you about what's to come. When you can't really imagine where it would all go from there, how the characters will react, how their relationships will change, what their world will be after this. Here, this too is irrelevant. Mostly because most characters already are aware of *the thing* and have accepted it. Even the protagonist is semi-aware of it, but denial stops her from fully accepting it. So it's not really that of a huge shock either. Sure, it will be interesting to see how she'll take it, but not much will change around her, since everybody already knew. And seeing how she never seemed too much averse to *the thing* it's not like I'm that curious to find out how she'll cope with it. So again, there's nothing to anticipate with excitement, nothing to look forward to with joy. Just a mild interest of "huh, I wouldn't mind finding out how that girl is going to rationalize this". And "wouldn't mind to find out" is not a good reaction to the big reveal at the end of your book.

Which brings me to another thing that bugged me out. Literally, the final words of the final chapter are: " to be continued". Like who the fuck does that? And don't tell me that many people do, I know, I've read it before, and I'm judging them as hard too. But seriously. Who does that. Why. I've read so many pages of NOTHING. Of nothing happening, of nothing being revealed, of characters that feel like rehashed versions of that other character from that other horror sci-fi series from this writer. And you tell me that it's going to be continued? Well, gosh! Paint me green and call me a pickle! It's not like I thought that "Parasitology #1" meant that it's the best book about parasitology, Mira. We already knew it wasn't going to be a stand alone novel. You should have known that something wasn't right when you felt the need to explain to your readers that there was going to be more. Aaaarg. In the words of Kevin Sorbo:



*louder sigh*

If I wanted to be like a proper reviewer I'd probably talk of the structure and characters and plot holes. Of the believability. Of the diversity. Of the possible analogies between the main character having such a strong connection to animals and her condition, on the representation of PTSD and queer people. Of things that sound critical, and calm and collected and analytical

But I'm not. I'm just a girl who got mad because her favorite author wrote a book that bored her. ( )