Review: Parasite

Parasite by Darcy Coates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

On the wall, written crudely in dark-brown blood, was the phrase, “They take our skin.”  

Parasite was a scifi horror that was light on worldbuilding but incredibly readable in its cotton candy creepy and chilling psychological and physical danger. Each section is about different station, Stations 331-333 were short stories. 331 introduces the Parasite, 332 shows that it is attacking, and 333 shows how big the problem is and that it is growing. At first I didn't mind the lack of worldbuilding as I thought it worked to place the reader in the station occupants' shoes and help the isolated and danger feeling at each station. By 333 though, I wanted to know more about Central and the structure of the world these characters were living in that I was reading about. 

Stations 334 and 335 were novellas and the longer page count allowed the author to expand characters and the world. 334 ended up being my favorite and it's because the characters were more flushed out. It centers more on Maren, a woman working at the station but the crew surrounding her get more details added to them too. This felt more like a story and less like a quick pop of scary. 335 switched it up a bit and starts off placed on a planet before moving out to a station again. Starting off on the planet gave a little bit of the worldbuilding I was missing, we get to see more of civilization and descriptions of the hows and whys of the space stations. The characters, though, were stereotypes/caricatures and mere sketches of them at that. 

There were times that I struggled with if some of these scenes were actually creepy or if I was supplying more than my fair share of atmosphere and setting, taking from all the scifi horror movies I've watched. I breezed through this book but a reason for that was because of the cotton candy lack of worldbuilding and depth to characters. Still, this was a diverting afternoon read. 

With this ending line: The war had only just begun, but at least now humanity had a chance. and with characters that we left surviving, there is definitely room to continue the series and I would pick up the next book. 

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70%

 

This section was all about Station 334 and I appreciated how the bigger page count allowed for us to get to know the characters more. It focuses on Maren, a mechanic who always wanted to be more of a fighter and has managed to get assigned to the same station as her hero/crush from her teens. 

Now messages are very sporadically getting through to Central (the main hub for the space stations, I'm guessing) and from what the reader has read about the other stations, it's obvious the Parasites have spread far and wide. 

From listening to messages that have come through from other stations, they know there is a big problem. Station 334 has another problem though, their commander is going crazy, so there's immediate danger and creeping on the edges danger. 

A rogue Central worker put out a message, saying she named the aliens Cymic Parasites and gives as much info as she can. It seems Central didn't want to cause a panic and thought less info would be better. :/

This ended with some survivors (I think, I mean Saul didn't eat the fruit, so maybe???)

I really wish there was more worldbuilding, I don't really grasp Central that well. I feel like I'm personally supplying the atmosphere and setting with images I've gotten from watching scifi horror movies. So is this standing on its own or am I giving a generous helping? I think I'm giving it some help but its still cotton candy fun scifi horror for me.

30%

 

That was one of their jobs on Station 331: keep the moon clean of hostile beings that came off comets or space debris 

This starts off with the action right away and while it works to pull me in and the sense of forbiding is super high, I miss some worldbuilding. I don't know if that is being purposely left out to give the reader even more of a stark lost feeling to match the mood of these three people alone on a station on some planets moon. 

 Jen couldn’t take her eyes off Carly as the woman leaned against one of the walls, panting and shivering. It seemed incredible that she could have made it back. More than incredible, actually. Impossible. 

DO NOT LET HER IN! 

Ok, so this book looks to be comprised of three short stories followed by two novellas. Each story focuses on a different Station and it's occupants. The first station, 331, was a quick intro to the Parasite first attacking. 

On the wall, written crudely in dark-brown blood, was the phrase, “They take our skin.” 

We're now at Station 332 and holy crap was this line creepy. This station is reading like a great Scifi movie scene, with darkness, bodies, and that on edge feeling as this crew is answering a distress call and searching a station. 

Charles stared at Robin, her mouth open but incapable of making a noise. Robin’s face was splitting in half. A crack had started over her nose and spread up to her hairline and down to her neck. The crazed smile slid farther and farther around her cheeks as the centre of her face opened like a book.

So what a great eek way to give the reader more info on how the Parasite is taking over humans. 

“You shot my sisters,” Ellan hissed. Charles felt her breath freeze in her chest as she watched the bullet holes in the other woman knit together. Skin fused to skin, leaving Ellan’s face smooth and blemish-free. 

Clearly bullets don't work on these things but also, guns with bullets is the technology??? I feel like in scifi, especially this one where wormholes are used and seems incredibly far in the future, the technology would be better? 

"Want to know what its biggest flaw is?” Stanos asked. He had his arms folded over his chest, and a spark of something fierce and exultant shone in his eyes. Kala nodded. “It can’t learn on its own. It can absorb knowledge and memories perfectly and replicate its host, as you said, but it has no way of using that knowledge to increase its own intelligence. It can’t learn; it can only assimilate.” 

Now onto Station 333 and while the first station was about introducing, the second station was about showing how the Parasites are attacking and spreading. Station 333 slows for a moment to show a bit of how the Parasite thinks and has in interacting with a human. The danger starts up again but this short story ends a bit differently with, what I think, are two survivors. Maybe setting up humans fighting back? 

So far this has been a fun creepy story, worldbuilding has been discarded in favor of danger and scary thrills but I'm wondering if the next station up, with it being a novella, will color in some details.

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Reading this for

 Halloween Bingo square,

 

while dipping chips in