Review: Parasite

Every once in a while, we’ll come across a legit publication horror story. Inevitably, these stories make us roll our eyes and gnash our teeth and reach for our bongo-drums of war. One notable author that immediately comes to mind is Ian Tregillis (EBR Archive) when his Milkweed Triptych got picked up by Tor. In that case, there was some egregious mishandling of his books.

I don’t necessarily know if Steve was gunning for top position of publication horror stories or not, but this single series of books has made the rounds with nearly a handful of different publication houses and a not-insignificant number of those actually went under. It would not surprise me in the least to find out that those who acquired his books in the latter part of the merry-go-round of exploding monkeys had actual conversations about his books being cursed.

Or hexed.

Or both.

It is this condition exactly that makes it such a terrible travesty that we’ve taken as long as we have to get this review up, but we’re ridiculously excited that he’s survived the gauntlet and these things are out in the wild.

Jack Bishop is special, but not in a makes-you-warm-and-fuzzy kind of way. He can see a type of spiritual residue that gets left around by monsters and murder victims. As a result, he’s gone through enough emotional trauma to keep a parade of hyperactive psychologists flush for the next decade. Add to that the fact that his father, Jack’s only living relative besides his Aunt Martha, has been taken away by some very bad people. The only good news in this entire Debby Downer of a story setup is the fact that Jack’s locked, loaded, and one the case to find his missing father.

Motivation, people! I love it.

Six months have passed since the devastating events in Jack’s hometown of Calm Waters. He and Alex have moved to Sacramento in the search to find Jack’s dad. Alex is in the middle of infiltrating the local servers of her father’s company, Helix, to try and find out what might be coming down the pipe toward them, while Jack is trying to break into the Whyte Genetics campus nearby. Unfortunately, Jack is absolutely failing in his attempts (though making subtle progress with his newfound talent of telekinesis), but Alex learns that not only is there another Project Sentinel experimentee living in the greater Sacramento area, Helix’s next major step in its long history of genetic manipulation is about to go live.

And if you thought the end of Residue was a hit to the sternum, just wait until you get a load of what’s coming up next.

Jack Bishop's troubles are multiplied and more is revealed about who he is and what Helix has done. Engaging, fun, and well worth a read.

There’s a lot going on in this book. From Jack’s efforts to evolve his own growing psychic powers, to Alex trying to figure out who she is as an individual. We’ve got Jack’s dreams about his grandfather and his history, and the next wave of attacks from Helix. From the word go, tensions are high and the two main characters are pushing progress in whichever direction they can see light. Jack and Alex feel a lot more like a team this time around. Their time together has benefited both of them. They play off of one another’s strengths. Sometimes finish each other’s sentences. Get mad at the other, when either one decides to go off-script. For the most part, their learned banter worked for me. At times, it got a little eye-rolly. Humor is hard though.

Secondary characters played a pretty significant roll, and I appreciated all of them. Cally, the new Sentinel girl. Jack’s aunt, Martha. She’s fabulous. The thing that Helix lets loose is kinda wild, and bonkers, and provides such a good addition to the progression of the plot. Crank that whammy bar to eleven and a half.

One of the things I most appreciated about the story was the ramp-up. It still has that relatively small feeling at the beginning, even though the location has moved from a small town to a large one, and quickly starts ramping up. It was nearly impossible to not expect that the climax would end up being something pretty big. And it was. Although, if there was anything about the book that didn’t quite hit for me, it was the ending, and I think that’s because from my understanding Jack’s perspective, it felt more like an intellectual punch instead of an emotional punch. And I missed that.

Still, it’s a pretty good punch. 🙂

So, no full stars from me again for a book of Steve’s. Totally enjoyed the read. Actually ended up going through it a few times (on top of the beta-read I gave him for the thing), as this was the first review that I wanted to get to when we got back to writing new content for EBR. And it would have been too, if I had finished it last week. Wanted to make sure we got the review for Beau’s book up for his release date, though. Priorities.

If you’ve already read this one and enjoyed it, leave a comment saying so. I’m sure Steve would crow to see some more love about his Jack Bishop series. If not, you should go out and grab it. Good reads for good times.