Parasite by Mira Grant
I was browsing the shelves of Moreland Library when I came across this book and the blurb on the back cover sounded interesting.
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.
It is a big book at 504 pages but reads well and did not take long to finish. Spiced with pseudo-scientific explanations that make the concept plausible, the plot twists and turns and the end is quite unpredictable (although I figured out certain elements of the end game along the way). But it finishes with a definite "to be continued" feel that made me go and check - it is indeed book 1 of a 3 part series - Parasite (2013), Symbiont (2014) and Chimera (2015).
Once I read a bit more about Mira Grant, I found out she had also written a zombie trilogy called the Newsflesh Trilogy which kicked off with “Feed” in 2010. But I am not particularly interested in reading zombie books so I will restrict any further reads to the other two books in the Parasitology series.
I also found out that Mira Grant is the pseudonym of American author Seanan McGuire. Wow, that was unexpected!
