A frightening, evocative dive into classic Japanese bio-horror. Psychosexual terror and believability punctuate this approachable, though occasionally too-heady work.

I am in the science field and love a creepy sci-fi. It is extremely science heavy and not a lot of actual story but that does not bother me. I felt like I actually learned a lot. Most was not to far off but some inaccuracies.

The actual story was creepy and it kept me going. I really wanted to know what was going to happen!

The translation had a lot of hiccups and misspelling but easy to follow if you have a science brain.

I was not at all surprised to find out Hideaki Sena was, in fact, in the medical field because Parasite Eve really is something only someone in the know could write during the '90s when matters of DNA and science in general were left to creative speculations. Adding to that I would say it takes a Japanese writer to come up with the kind of crazy story we have here, though.

Even as we jump from multiple PoVs as the story unfolds our protagonist is firmly established as one as one doctor Toshiaki Nagishima, a biological science researcher spending too much time at work when he should be spending it with his lovely wife Kiyomi. Or rather he should had Kiyomi not just been in a fatal car accident and as it happens she signed up to be a donor upon death. In the middle of a controversy surrounding whether Japan looked at "brain dead" as truly DEAD dead back in the day we have Toshiaki's agenda to have her liver removed and preserved during the process that would extract his wife's kidneys so they can potentially help other people. For what reason? Well, he kinda loses it and decides to use Kiyomi's liver in experiments so he doesn't have to let go. In something I won't spoil these two organs have a role to play in a story too grand in scale to really be contained in a story like this, almost a footnote in what's at hand that have carefully guided everything from people to events to reach this specific outcome.

If there's one thing I got out of Parasite Eve it was the included refresher on biology; idea of mitochondria and organ transplants in particular get extensive coverage as they are vital to the story and multiple characters' professions. Like I mentioned in the opening the author really brings his A-game and goes all-in. Thankfully, there's a glossary provided at the end in case paragraphs' worth explanations and summaries fail to get the point across... which, shockingly enough, I had no issues with. Considering only cursory familiarity with these topics I required no double takes to understand what was being told. This is probably the most worthwhile achievement of the novel all things considered.

This is definitely a kind of story where your doctors/teaching assistants discuss matters at hand rather than go in guns blazing. Even in the finale they only dip their toes in action hero territory. Would I have preferred if these highly professional characters had more humanity to them? Sure, but that could just be different expectations speaking. That's not to say there's no pain over losing your wife or having your daughter be in danger, but don't expect cheap character theatrics to drive the plot here. After all, these are Japanese men from the '90s. Doctors, to boot.