It’s not every day that I’m all excited about a tapeworm zombie apocalypse, but I’ve been looking forward to Mira Grant’s book Symbiont for a year, and when a copy landed on my front porch I did quite a dance of joy. This book did not meet all of my lofty expectations, but it was still exciting. It’s not a romance, but I’m reviewing it here because we have many Mira Grant fans (she also writes urban fantasy under the name Seanan McGuire).

Symbiont is the sequel to Parasite (which was reviewed by both RedHeadedGirl and me). I started this book with high expectations and great excitement, because I love Mira Grant’s other books (Parasite and the Newsflesh trilogy). I also started this book with a bit of a pissy attitude, because originally Symbiont was going to be the conclusion of the series but it’s become the middle book in a trilogy. I only knew this because I (forgive me) peeked at the end. So there’s a big cliffhanger and I’m all irritated because I had been so looking forward to NOT having a big cliffhanger.

This is not a romance series, obviously. It has a romance in it, but the couple is an established, secure couple. Sal and Nathan are together before the first book starts so there’s no “will they/won’t they.” Nathan’s entire personality can be summed up as “supportive and loyal.”

In Parasite, a company named SymboGen created a species of tapeworm that, when ingested (in a pill, very tidy and innocuous) keeps their host healthy. For a while, this works out great. Humans are happy because they no longer have colds or diabetes or cancer or allergies. SymboGen is happy because they make a gazillion dollars. Presumably the tapeworms are happy because they have lovely hosts who feed them constantly.

Of course, where there is science, there is mad science, and so the scientists at SymboGen keep messing with the tapeworms, adding more human DNA and basically running around cackling evil science laughs until the tapeworms start attacking their hosts. Basically, a whole ton of people are turned into zombies (in this series, they are called sleepwalkers). Our heroine, Sal, who has a complicated past that I don’t want to spoil, has to help her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s mad scientist mother figure out what’s happening, try to stop it, and save some friends from other mad scientists.

The first book, Parasite, was interesting because it was set in a very near future, in San Francisco, and readers were able to see the very beginnings of the epidemic unfold. Yes, we were watching Sal run around and deal with stuff, but we also got to see a bigger picture through her eyes.

In Symbiont, Sal spends the entire book either in hiding (in a converted candy factory that I assume is based on the Jelly Belly Factory) or a prisoner. So the apocalypse happens and we miss the whole thing. The entire book consists of this, in various combinations:

1. Sal being tortured.
2. Sal escaping from various people in various ways.
3. Everyone arguing about what to do.
4. Everyone running through the streets of San Francisco – but only at the beginning and the end of the book.
5. Occasionally, for the sake of variety, someone else gets tortured, which turns out to be just as unpleasant as Sal being tortured.

Frankly, this gets pretty tedious. It reminded me of the Harry Potter Book in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on the worst camping trip ever. It’s limiting because all of these things are repetitive, unpleasant, and leave the reader missing out on the entire context. It’s also limiting because all the reader is given to think about is what a special snowflake Sal is. It’s told from her first-person point of view. Sal is an engaging heroine but she’s not so special that I want to spend two (and apparently three) books reading about nothing but how special she is. In the Newsflesh trilogy and its spin-off novellas, Mira Grant showed how she could use the activities of characters to build a complex world. I missed that here.

Sal spends most of the book in a fairly helpless state. She’s constantly either fainting or being drugged into unconsciousness. Even when she does something proactive, like attempt an escape, she can only succeed if she can convince someone to help her. Sal also likes to explain EVERYTHING. When she has a sudden wild thought about how cute her boyfriend is and giggles during a moment of great peril, she helpfully explains that it’s a reaction to the intense stress. Yes, we know. We can tell. When someone makes a comment that subtly reveals his view of Sal as a tool, she helpfully points this out in case we missed it. We didn’t miss it, Sal. We can do subtle.

If it sounds like I hated the book, I didn’t. Just because the book isn’t as ambitious as Grant’s other work doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting. Yes, it’s a little repetitive, but I still tore through it in a day and half. I loved Sal’s reaction to an unwanted and unflattering haircut. I loved the fact that one of her allies has disassociated due to trauma and believes that he is in a video game. I somewhat perversely loved the fact that when Nathan had to leave his home, probably forever, and he packed to leave, he brought a first aid kit and a terrarium of carnivorous plants (Sal is quick to state that they would drop the plants at the first sign of trouble, but I’m not so sure). I liked the fact that Sal consistently referred to a person who is essentially transgender by their preferred pronoun, and I loved seeing the consequences of that small but significant act. Above all, I wanted to know What Happens Next.

This is not a stand-alone read. It picks up right where Parasite left off, so you’ll want to read Parasite ( A | K | AB | Au )first. Symbiont is not as good as the Newsflesh trilogy and frankly I don’t even think it’s as good as Parasite. But it’s still pretty good.