Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: busy
  • Music: The theme from Pokemon X.

PARASITE open thread!

To (somewhat belatedly) celebrate the release of Parasite, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.)

You can also start a book discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun!
Tags: mira grant, pandemic time, parasite
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  • 97 comments

shanejayell

November 11 2013, 19:28:19 UTC 3 years ago

Yeah, was also not surprised by Sal's revelations. In fact I was occassionally annoyed SHE hadn't clued in yet. Ha.

I like how, in the book, we get different views of events from different people and it's not necessarily SAID who's telling the truth. Is Banks lying? Is Sherman? Is the Doc? We'll have to wait & see how things play out.

Larry Osterman

November 11 2013, 19:58:26 UTC 3 years ago Edited:  November 11 2013, 20:07:04 UTC

Actually I think that was one of the things I liked most about the story - that she DIDN'T figure it out until the end. I kept shouting "Why don't you get it?" but I think I understand why Seanan/Mira kept her in the dark.

At some level, discovering that Sal's identity is actually that of a nascent parasite would be world shattering. Even though she's been given lots of clues about it (her negative reactions to anti-parasitic drugs for example), she's going to reject any ideas that might lead her to the fact that her identity is really tied to the worm living in her stomach and not the body in which she lives. So denial is absolutely the right reaction for Sal until she's presented with incontrovertible evidence that she's really a worm in a person's body.

dragonsong

November 12 2013, 00:20:32 UTC 3 years ago

I feel like Sal has been in such a fragile state for 6 years, trying to learn who she is, how she fits in, and all of that, that of COURSE she's trying to stay blind to the truth for as long as possible. On some level, she knows, but admitting it is going to screw everything to hell.

kay_gmd

November 12 2013, 19:31:48 UTC 3 years ago

I thought it really made sense.

I liked that she started to think about it when she met Adam, but got it shot down from Dr. Cale.

It was fun seeing people hope she didn't figure it out.