The zombie apocalypse will be televised, but it will not be the rising of the undead according to Mira Grant, author of Feed, Blackout & Deadline. In her latest book, Parasite, and the first of the new Parasitology trilogy, zombies are the result of a reasonable scientific explanation and not magic. The problem is the main character Sally Mitchell is never interesting enough to make the book worth finishing.
Suffering from amnesia, Sally is a cliché of the video game generation. Exposition abounds as the reader and Sally both get to learn about the numerous differences between the real world and that of the novel. It’s an unreasonable conceit for the payout, given that very early on the reader can see the third act twist coming. It also doesn’t help that the book is clearly written with a series in mind, ending on a cliffhanger without anything being resolved. Those that were in danger are still in danger, and the only time spent in a mall was to shop for bras.
Grant has approached zombies in manner that I’ve been seeking for quite some time. After all, conventional zombies don’t make much scientific sense. Her books are based on the hygiene hypothesis, that states humans have become too clean for their own good and are thus falling ill. A tapeworm, which in this case is designed to be a symbiotic parasite, provides the immune system boosts required to negate the hygiene hypothesis. And, as expected, is the cause of much of the drama in Grant’s book.
The cast of supporting characters is nothing to be surprised at. They’re all extremely convenient for the sake of the story. Sally Micthell’s family and boyfriend all work on parasites or epidemiology (the study of epidemics). Then there’s the mad scientist and the not-so-mad scientist who wants to get rich quick. In fact, all scientists in the book come across surprisingly incapable of dealing with an outbreak and implementing decent quarantine procedures, including the US military, which may leave the reader feeling like this book is aiming to hit all the clichés of a zombie movie.
There are only two characters of any note that Grant has written extremely well – Beverly the black Labrador and Tansy. Tansy is a special case that truly verges on the creepy, but even she struggles to be believable given her martial prowess without any previous training. And Beverly, well she’s a dog, so how hard can it be to get such a loveable and protective creature wrong.
The plot does not develop a great deal throughout the 500-some pages. Instead, Grant has Sally return time and again to the same locales where she is ineffectual in driving change. She is never the catalyst she needs to become, but rather an inert element surrounded by more volatile components. Everything from the cause of Sally’s amnesia, to the zombies and the machinations of various scientists is beyond Sally and she is simply caught up in the events. She neither tries to remedy them or remove herself from them, making the only relatable aspect of Sally her drive for independence.
The parasites in Grant’s book do make for a gruesome and thrilling read as the tapeworms are entities that are neither evil nor benign. The science to a greater extent is sound, which is a pleasure to read and it’s apparent that Grant has been thorough in her research, which is the only part of the book that kept my interest. Coming in at 500-some pages, too little happened to justify the length or the lack of an ending. Hopefully the second in the series will improve upon Parasite’s faults and keep pushing the boundaries of creepy that Grant has shown she’s extremely capable of.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
Review by: Gregory Pellechi
Speak Your Mind