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Parasite Eve
Filled with scientific acuity and existential challenges in the tradition of Ghost in the Shell and Frankenstein, this medical fantasmagoria is a disorienting look into the consciousness and will have you questioning the future of human evolution. New life begins at the cellular level, but when that cell contains restless mitochondria, it will aspire to be much more than just a speck in a petri dish. Parasite Eve was the basis of the hugely popular video game of the same name and has been cinematized in Japan, where the novel’s smashing success helped set off a horror boom that has only been intensifying ever since.
When Dr. Nagashima loses his wife in a mysterious car crash, he is overwhelmed with grief but also an eerie sense of purpose; he becomes obsessed with the idea that he must reincarnate his dead wife. Her donated kidney is transplanted into a young girl with a debilitating disorder, but the doctor also feels compelled to keep a small sample of her liver in his laboratory. When these cells start mutating rapidly, a consciousness bent on determining its own fate awakens from an eonic sleep.
When Dr. Nagashima loses his wife in a mysterious car crash, he is overwhelmed with grief but also an eerie sense of purpose; he becomes obsessed with the idea that he must reincarnate his dead wife. Her donated kidney is transplanted into a young girl with a debilitating disorder, but the doctor also feels compelled to keep a small sample of her liver in his laboratory. When these cells start mutating rapidly, a consciousness bent on determining its own fate awakens from an eonic sleep.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1994
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9447 people want to read
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March 29, 2014
My god, where do I even begin with this book.
Let's start at the top with this: This book is the WORST. Worse than Caliban Cove , which has now retroactively become a two star book. This book put me to sleep at least three times, though I had hoped my Australian girlfriend didn't notice. In fact, having someone you love read it to you with a cute Aussie accent is its one saving grace, and I can't imagine that's what Hideaki Sena had in mind so I refuse to give him credit for that. So what exactly is wrong with this book?
Figure 1.1 - It's boring.
Literally 319½ pages of its 320 page runtime are dedicated entirely to describing, in excruciating detail, the intricacies of advanced medical procedures. The remainder of the book is an eclectic mix of lectures on the history of mitochondrial evolution, and exhaustive commentaries on the colours of various things. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
And it just goes on like that. But that's far more exciting than the aforementioned medical terminology being vomited out for pages on end. Whether you like it or not, by the time you are finished reading Parasite Eve you are legally a practicing physician. You will surprise even yourself with how adeptly you perform unexpected kidney transplants.
There is a sequel to this book out there, but I will be staying far away and I recommend you do the same.
Kids, let me tell you about the time I performed an emergency tracheotomy on your aunt Robin.
Figure 1.2 - The translation.
I am convinced Tyran Grillo was given the job of translating Parasite Eve on a Monday, and told to have it done later that Monday. Spelling and grammar mistakes, repeated sentences, and an over-reliance on the few words in Grillo's vocabulary mar what could have been only a terrible book in the right hands. I'm very certain Hideaki Sena could have translated it into English himself with far better results. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
Figure 1.3 - It's not scary.
When you dive into a novel described to you as belonging to the horror genre, you may expect a few things. If not a total shattering of your psyche, then at the very least a general sense of unease. Parasite Eve delivers neither, and couldn't be farther from the mark in both respects. The only suspense is in waiting for something interesting to happen; the only horror Tyran Grillo's flippant disrespect for the English language. By the time something does happen that one may describe as trying to be scary, it's so bogged down by 300+ pages of nonsense that you can't be bothered to care. Hell, even the monsters wax lyrical about the growth rate of cells. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
It baffles me that someone would read this book and think "Yeah, this is just waiting to have a video game adaptation. And surprisingly, the video game turned out alright. It's far scarier than the book could ever hope to be, and just an all around great survival horror/RPG game in its own right.
Parasite Eve, copyright 1998 Squaresoft
Conclusion, and reflections
It was a long road. At some points during the book, I thought it would never be over. At others, I slept. But it's all behind me now. I forget a lot of things in my life, but with my luck Parasite Eve will not be one of them. I can't say it was a great book, but it was a great time with my baby.
+ I can now read All American Girl
+ My babe has a beautiful voice.
- Everything else.
Let's start at the top with this: This book is the WORST. Worse than Caliban Cove , which has now retroactively become a two star book. This book put me to sleep at least three times, though I had hoped my Australian girlfriend didn't notice. In fact, having someone you love read it to you with a cute Aussie accent is its one saving grace, and I can't imagine that's what Hideaki Sena had in mind so I refuse to give him credit for that. So what exactly is wrong with this book?
Figure 1.1 - It's boring.
Literally 319½ pages of its 320 page runtime are dedicated entirely to describing, in excruciating detail, the intricacies of advanced medical procedures. The remainder of the book is an eclectic mix of lectures on the history of mitochondrial evolution, and exhaustive commentaries on the colours of various things. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
Yoshimitsu stared at the wall. He stared at the white wall absentmindedly. It was white. He stared at it. He pondered its whiteness. It was not white exactly, but it was a kind of white. Not quite Ivory, but closer to it than it was to Eggshell. It reminded him of white things he had seen before. Milk. Paper. Snow. Its whiteness evoked a sense of emptiness. Suddenly a pain struck Yoshimitsu in his abdomen. He imagined a white ball of healing light. Not unlike the white wall...
And it just goes on like that. But that's far more exciting than the aforementioned medical terminology being vomited out for pages on end. Whether you like it or not, by the time you are finished reading Parasite Eve you are legally a practicing physician. You will surprise even yourself with how adeptly you perform unexpected kidney transplants.
There is a sequel to this book out there, but I will be staying far away and I recommend you do the same.
Kids, let me tell you about the time I performed an emergency tracheotomy on your aunt Robin.
Figure 1.2 - The translation.
I am convinced Tyran Grillo was given the job of translating Parasite Eve on a Monday, and told to have it done later that Monday. Spelling and grammar mistakes, repeated sentences, and an over-reliance on the few words in Grillo's vocabulary mar what could have been only a terrible book in the right hands. I'm very certain Hideaki Sena could have translated it into English himself with far better results. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
Toshiaki absentmindedly clenched his abdomen. He urinated at the site of the thing. He could bearly move. He clenched his abdomen. The gentle curve of the monster's pubic mound aroused him. He ran absentmindedly to the cultivation room...
Figure 1.3 - It's not scary.
When you dive into a novel described to you as belonging to the horror genre, you may expect a few things. If not a total shattering of your psyche, then at the very least a general sense of unease. Parasite Eve delivers neither, and couldn't be farther from the mark in both respects. The only suspense is in waiting for something interesting to happen; the only horror Tyran Grillo's flippant disrespect for the English language. By the time something does happen that one may describe as trying to be scary, it's so bogged down by 300+ pages of nonsense that you can't be bothered to care. Hell, even the monsters wax lyrical about the growth rate of cells. An excerpt, from the pages of Parasite Eve:
The monster snarled at Toshiaki. "Tooooshhhhiiiiaaaakkkiiii" it bellowed.
"What?" Toshiaki answered absentmindedly.
"In order to grow in size, cells must fuse new lipid vesicles with the cell membrane", the monster growled. "The vesicles are transported to sites of fusion on actin cables". Toshiaki screamed.
It baffles me that someone would read this book and think "Yeah, this is just waiting to have a video game adaptation. And surprisingly, the video game turned out alright. It's far scarier than the book could ever hope to be, and just an all around great survival horror/RPG game in its own right.
Parasite Eve, copyright 1998 Squaresoft
Conclusion, and reflections
It was a long road. At some points during the book, I thought it would never be over. At others, I slept. But it's all behind me now. I forget a lot of things in my life, but with my luck Parasite Eve will not be one of them. I can't say it was a great book, but it was a great time with my baby.
+ I can now read All American Girl
+ My babe has a beautiful voice.
- Everything else.
May 8, 2012
There are two things you will learn from reading Parasite Eve
1. How to do a kidney transplant. In fact, by the time you finished reading, you will likely be able to perform one on yourself. Wouldn't recommend you try it though.
2. Everything about mitochondria. I didn't know what mitochondria was. I looked it up. The information in the novel seems very accurate in the science department, although I suspect there is a lot of speculation about the evolution of both Mitochondria and human cells. But this is essentially a horror novel so you know something going to go haywire. In Hideaki Sena's hands, mitochondria turns out to be nasty buggers but I won't say how. Suffice to say, by the end, you will be more than a little uncomfortable that these tiny MFers are inside you.
Parasite Eve starts a bit slow but builds nicely. There is a lot of medical and genetic details that may slow some down. However when this novel revs into gear it moves at the speed of sound. Whether it is novels or movies, the Japanese are leading the pack in innovative horror. Parasite Eve is a must-read for anyone exploring the state of science fiction and/or horror in Japan.
1. How to do a kidney transplant. In fact, by the time you finished reading, you will likely be able to perform one on yourself. Wouldn't recommend you try it though.
2. Everything about mitochondria. I didn't know what mitochondria was. I looked it up. The information in the novel seems very accurate in the science department, although I suspect there is a lot of speculation about the evolution of both Mitochondria and human cells. But this is essentially a horror novel so you know something going to go haywire. In Hideaki Sena's hands, mitochondria turns out to be nasty buggers but I won't say how. Suffice to say, by the end, you will be more than a little uncomfortable that these tiny MFers are inside you.
Parasite Eve starts a bit slow but builds nicely. There is a lot of medical and genetic details that may slow some down. However when this novel revs into gear it moves at the speed of sound. Whether it is novels or movies, the Japanese are leading the pack in innovative horror. Parasite Eve is a must-read for anyone exploring the state of science fiction and/or horror in Japan.
August 27, 2019
The original Playstation game based on this book is one of my all-time favorite games. I did not realize that there was a book until perhaps a year ago. The game was written as a sequel to the book, which was a first-time novel by a then-graduate student. The insider scientist perspective is obvious; the text is highly accurate in its description of biological sciences (cellular biology in particular), graduate school and academic structure, and organ transplantation. For this last, I am curious whether the author had a transplant himself, or someone close to him, or if he worked with others in the transplant field, because both the practice of kidney transplantation, medical and surgical, as well as Japanese attitudes towards organ transplant, are perfectly accurate to life.
This accuracy is excessive at times; in many places, I don't think the specifics of the lab procedures, reagents and experimental methods were necessary or added anything to the narrative. It would have fine to skim off many of these details and keep only those directly relevant to the story.
The tale and the horror build nicely for the first two thirds of the book, then explode in the last section of the book. The narrative slips back into the past experiences of the main characters to reveal more information about the titular Parasite Eve's history and why the characters behave as they do.
It was a fun book, reportedly game-changing for Japanese horror at the time of publication (mid-1990's), but aside from the notable factual use of science and transplantation to build the story, it doesn't carry so much impact at this time. I recommend it to horror fans looking to expand their reading into output from non-Western countries.
This accuracy is excessive at times; in many places, I don't think the specifics of the lab procedures, reagents and experimental methods were necessary or added anything to the narrative. It would have fine to skim off many of these details and keep only those directly relevant to the story.
The tale and the horror build nicely for the first two thirds of the book, then explode in the last section of the book. The narrative slips back into the past experiences of the main characters to reveal more information about the titular Parasite Eve's history and why the characters behave as they do.
It was a fun book, reportedly game-changing for Japanese horror at the time of publication (mid-1990's), but aside from the notable factual use of science and transplantation to build the story, it doesn't carry so much impact at this time. I recommend it to horror fans looking to expand their reading into output from non-Western countries.
November 29, 2024
If you're looking for a book featuring a fire-summoning, cum-hungry mitochondria she-monster, I've got good news for you.
Do I even bother with a summary? Dr. Nagashima's wife dies. She's a kidney donor. He allows for her kidneys to be donated but asks for her liver in exchange (very normal reaction). He starts experimenting and making a mitochondria colony thing and.................... ta-da, we get a fire-summoning, sperm-hungry mitochondria she-monster.
I loved the book up until the 75% mark. It is very heavy on info dumping and cell formation stuff (mitochondria, ribosomal RNA, cytoplasm, words, words, words, I know words). The book is mostly a sci-fi-horror novel that's hunting, with the cells talking and doing creepy shit, like hunting people. And then... this mitochondrial monster creature (?) that wants to be the queen of the world and kill everything... turns into a female mitochondrial monster that hunts men for semen. Yeah. (I cannot believe I am writing these words)
...the analysis of mitochondrial DNA was called Mitochondrial "Eve" and not "Adam."
Mitochondria were female.
And I had sex with that female.
Toshiaki broke down. He slammed his head on the table, cursing himself for his own foolishness. He had ejaculated.
The mitochondria merely wanted his sperm.
I know. I KNOW. I did this to myself. I bought this in 2021 and had not picked it up because it's a Japanese book and we know how Japanese men write. But I had hopes. HOPES.
2 stars and not 1 star because besides the fire-summoning, cum-hungry mitochondria she-monster (I cannot believe I'm writing these words), there's a POV with a girl who's got a kidney transplanted infected by 'parasite Eve' and the cultural aspect on transplants was interesting to read.
Edit: I just wanted to share this one quote I forgot to add earlier: "Eve 1’s child screamed in sexually dimorphous anguish." Sexually dimorphous anguish. Wow.
Do I even bother with a summary? Dr. Nagashima's wife dies. She's a kidney donor. He allows for her kidneys to be donated but asks for her liver in exchange (very normal reaction). He starts experimenting and making a mitochondria colony thing and.................... ta-da, we get a fire-summoning, sperm-hungry mitochondria she-monster.
I loved the book up until the 75% mark. It is very heavy on info dumping and cell formation stuff (mitochondria, ribosomal RNA, cytoplasm, words, words, words, I know words). The book is mostly a sci-fi-horror novel that's hunting, with the cells talking and doing creepy shit, like hunting people. And then... this mitochondrial monster creature (?) that wants to be the queen of the world and kill everything... turns into a female mitochondrial monster that hunts men for semen. Yeah. (I cannot believe I am writing these words)
...the analysis of mitochondrial DNA was called Mitochondrial "Eve" and not "Adam."
Mitochondria were female.
And I had sex with that female.
Toshiaki broke down. He slammed his head on the table, cursing himself for his own foolishness. He had ejaculated.
The mitochondria merely wanted his sperm.
I know. I KNOW. I did this to myself. I bought this in 2021 and had not picked it up because it's a Japanese book and we know how Japanese men write. But I had hopes. HOPES.
2 stars and not 1 star because besides the fire-summoning, cum-hungry mitochondria she-monster (I cannot believe I'm writing these words), there's a POV with a girl who's got a kidney transplanted infected by 'parasite Eve' and the cultural aspect on transplants was interesting to read.
Edit: I just wanted to share this one quote I forgot to add earlier: "Eve 1’s child screamed in sexually dimorphous anguish." Sexually dimorphous anguish. Wow.
January 28, 2025
Many people have complained over the years to the fact that movies and games that are taken from books almost never turn out to be as good as the original source. Happily, there are some gems that are hidden in the crowd of mediocrity. Parasite Eve is an older Playstation game that was actually the sequel to a popular Japanese horror novel of the same title. The book and game are tied tightly together, and they demonstrate that one really can have an extremely well done game based from literature.
Parasite Eve, the novel, by Hideaki Sena is a Japanese horror novel with many science fiction elements. It was originally published in 1996, but people who couldn't read in Japanese had to wait to read it until 2005 when it was finally translated into English. The story is heavily based on science, including biology and genetics. The book is so technical that it is often confusing to follow, unless the reader has a thorough background in biology. That's what makes it such good science fiction, though. It takes real science and twists it a bit to make a fast-paced story.
The story follows Toshiaki Nagishima, a biology and pharmaceutical researcher. His wife, Kiyomi, has been declared brain dead after a horrible car accident. However, there is more going on than meets the eye. The novel presumes that the mitochondria in a human's cells have been evolving since the days of primordial sludge. The mitochondria have formed a new life form, called "Eve," which has now reached a peak in her evolutionary process. Kiyomi's body just happens to have the right conditions for Eve to begin to take control. In fact, Eve is the one responsible for Kiyomi's car accident in order to be transplanted into others. Throughout the novel, Eve manipulates the people around her on a cellular level. Her ultimate goal is to give birth to a child that will be able to chance its genetic code on a whim and there be the perfect life form that will replace humans as the dominate life on earth.
Though the novel sounds scientific and dry, it is actually first and foremost a horror story. The reader gets suspense, creepy, and downright scary all rolled into one novel. The science just adds to the realism of the novel. Since the novel is based in science, the reader gets to wonder: What if this really could happen? Don't we have mitochondria in all of our cells? What if someone's body was taken over at the cellular level? These questions and more make up some of the thematic elements of the story. It allows the reader to question whether we really know everything about the human body. Are we even in control of our bodies? It's a creepy thought and is one of many that this novel brings to the table.
Parasite Eve, the novel, by Hideaki Sena is a Japanese horror novel with many science fiction elements. It was originally published in 1996, but people who couldn't read in Japanese had to wait to read it until 2005 when it was finally translated into English. The story is heavily based on science, including biology and genetics. The book is so technical that it is often confusing to follow, unless the reader has a thorough background in biology. That's what makes it such good science fiction, though. It takes real science and twists it a bit to make a fast-paced story.
The story follows Toshiaki Nagishima, a biology and pharmaceutical researcher. His wife, Kiyomi, has been declared brain dead after a horrible car accident. However, there is more going on than meets the eye. The novel presumes that the mitochondria in a human's cells have been evolving since the days of primordial sludge. The mitochondria have formed a new life form, called "Eve," which has now reached a peak in her evolutionary process. Kiyomi's body just happens to have the right conditions for Eve to begin to take control. In fact, Eve is the one responsible for Kiyomi's car accident in order to be transplanted into others. Throughout the novel, Eve manipulates the people around her on a cellular level. Her ultimate goal is to give birth to a child that will be able to chance its genetic code on a whim and there be the perfect life form that will replace humans as the dominate life on earth.
Though the novel sounds scientific and dry, it is actually first and foremost a horror story. The reader gets suspense, creepy, and downright scary all rolled into one novel. The science just adds to the realism of the novel. Since the novel is based in science, the reader gets to wonder: What if this really could happen? Don't we have mitochondria in all of our cells? What if someone's body was taken over at the cellular level? These questions and more make up some of the thematic elements of the story. It allows the reader to question whether we really know everything about the human body. Are we even in control of our bodies? It's a creepy thought and is one of many that this novel brings to the table.
September 13, 2017
Parasite Eve begins with the death of Kiyomi Nagashima. While driving, she suddenly blacks out and has the same dream she had previously only had on her birthday, a dream in which she is a worm-like being swimming through fluid. She recovers from her dream just in time to hit a telephone pole.
Toshiaki Nagashima, Kiyomi’s husband, is a researcher specializing in mitochondria. When he hears about Kiyomi’s accident, he drops everything and rushes to the hospital. Unfortunately, Kiyomi is brain dead. Toshiaki and Kiyomi’s parents agree to honor Kiyomi’s desire to be a kidney donor, but Toshiaki has one secret request of his own: he would like a sample of Kiyomi’s liver.
Kiyomi’s kidneys go to an unnamed man and a 14-year-old girl named Mariko Anzai, and Toshiaki gets the liver cells he so badly wanted. While Mariko struggles with guilt and fear over her latest transplant, Toshiaki is happily convinced that since Kiyomi’s liver cells are still alive and thriving, she isn’t actually dead. What no one realizes is that there is a monster hiding inside Kiyomi’s cells, and it’s slowly becoming strong enough to take the next step in its evolution.
I’m going to start by saying that I’ve never played the game of the same title and I have no idea how its events compare to those in this book. According to Wikipedia it’s a sequel, so my only hope is that it left Mariko and Asakura alone.
I don’t know what I was expecting from Parasite Eve, but it left me feeling so underwhelmed and disgusted that I’m glad it was a library checkout rather than a purchase. I’m a horror wimp, and even I wasn’t scared by this book. It was more gross and ridiculous than anything.
It started off okay. I was intrigued by the mystery of Kiyomi’s cells. I wanted to see how things would play out with Toshiaki’s creepy liver cell project and Mariko’s transplant. It was clear that Mariko had a lot of issues where transplants, her transplant surgeon, and her father were concerned, so I also wanted to know what had happened with her first transplant - the kidney she received from Kiyomi was actually her second kidney transplant. The author’s medical- and science-related descriptions were sometimes more detailed than I would have preferred, but I did learn a few interesting things about transplants, particularly how they were viewed in Japan at the time the book was written. I hope attitudes have improved since then.
I became more and more impatient as the story progressed and nothing much happened. Kiyomi’s cells continued to grow, the being in Kiyomi’s cells wriggled happily whenever she thought about Toshiaki (the being was female), and Mariko became increasingly closed off. I was wishing for Kiyomi’s cells to do something long before they actually did.
For a book in which femaleness played such an important role, the female characters were incredibly disappointing. Asakura, Toshiaki’s assistant, was simply a way for readers to see how odd Toshiaki was acting. Mariko became little more than a host and incubator for Kiyomi’s monster. I enjoyed the scenes of Kiyomi’s childhood, but it wasn’t long before the flashbacks revealed that her life had been taken from her long before she slammed into that telephone pole. It was depressing.
Even the being in Kiyomi’s cells was disappointing. Even though she was millions of years old, Toshiaki, a man whose life should have been barely a blip in her existence, was suddenly her sole focus. When sheThe being’s hyper-focus on Toshiaki did turn out to have a point beyond “Toshiaki understands me best,” but it was off-putting all the same.
I was glad when the action finally began to pick up in the last third of the book, but I came to regret my decision to continue reading when the monster rape scenes happened. There were two,
The final showdown was just ridiculous. In my mind I pictured it with cheap special effects and bad acting, like something out of a B-movie. All in all, I don't recommend this book.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Toshiaki Nagashima, Kiyomi’s husband, is a researcher specializing in mitochondria. When he hears about Kiyomi’s accident, he drops everything and rushes to the hospital. Unfortunately, Kiyomi is brain dead. Toshiaki and Kiyomi’s parents agree to honor Kiyomi’s desire to be a kidney donor, but Toshiaki has one secret request of his own: he would like a sample of Kiyomi’s liver.
Kiyomi’s kidneys go to an unnamed man and a 14-year-old girl named Mariko Anzai, and Toshiaki gets the liver cells he so badly wanted. While Mariko struggles with guilt and fear over her latest transplant, Toshiaki is happily convinced that since Kiyomi’s liver cells are still alive and thriving, she isn’t actually dead. What no one realizes is that there is a monster hiding inside Kiyomi’s cells, and it’s slowly becoming strong enough to take the next step in its evolution.
I’m going to start by saying that I’ve never played the game of the same title and I have no idea how its events compare to those in this book. According to Wikipedia it’s a sequel, so my only hope is that it left Mariko and Asakura alone.
I don’t know what I was expecting from Parasite Eve, but it left me feeling so underwhelmed and disgusted that I’m glad it was a library checkout rather than a purchase. I’m a horror wimp, and even I wasn’t scared by this book. It was more gross and ridiculous than anything.
It started off okay. I was intrigued by the mystery of Kiyomi’s cells. I wanted to see how things would play out with Toshiaki’s creepy liver cell project and Mariko’s transplant. It was clear that Mariko had a lot of issues where transplants, her transplant surgeon, and her father were concerned, so I also wanted to know what had happened with her first transplant - the kidney she received from Kiyomi was actually her second kidney transplant. The author’s medical- and science-related descriptions were sometimes more detailed than I would have preferred, but I did learn a few interesting things about transplants, particularly how they were viewed in Japan at the time the book was written. I hope attitudes have improved since then.
I became more and more impatient as the story progressed and nothing much happened. Kiyomi’s cells continued to grow, the being in Kiyomi’s cells wriggled happily whenever she thought about Toshiaki (the being was female), and Mariko became increasingly closed off. I was wishing for Kiyomi’s cells to do something long before they actually did.
For a book in which femaleness played such an important role, the female characters were incredibly disappointing. Asakura, Toshiaki’s assistant, was simply a way for readers to see how odd Toshiaki was acting. Mariko became little more than a host and incubator for Kiyomi’s monster. I enjoyed the scenes of Kiyomi’s childhood, but it wasn’t long before the flashbacks revealed that her life had been taken from her long before she slammed into that telephone pole. It was depressing.
Even the being in Kiyomi’s cells was disappointing. Even though she was millions of years old, Toshiaki, a man whose life should have been barely a blip in her existence, was suddenly her sole focus. When sheThe being’s hyper-focus on Toshiaki did turn out to have a point beyond “Toshiaki understands me best,” but it was off-putting all the same.
I was glad when the action finally began to pick up in the last third of the book, but I came to regret my decision to continue reading when the monster rape scenes happened. There were two,
The final showdown was just ridiculous. In my mind I pictured it with cheap special effects and bad acting, like something out of a B-movie. All in all, I don't recommend this book.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Want to read
April 13, 2016
June 19, 2014
Mitochondri-Aaaaaaaahhh!!
I still kinda see this as the guide for optimum blend of hard science with fiction and suspense.
"Yes, there is a story to be told, but if I find a kidney transplant fascinating enough to describe to you in depth then I'm bloody well gonna do it!"
I still kinda see this as the guide for optimum blend of hard science with fiction and suspense.
"Yes, there is a story to be told, but if I find a kidney transplant fascinating enough to describe to you in depth then I'm bloody well gonna do it!"
July 9, 2013
‘Parasite Eve’ is to Kidney Transplants as ‘Moby Dick’ is to whaling.
This book was my first foray into Japanese written horror, and overall it was an interesting one. You can definitely see the differences between Western and Eastern horror within this book as the action moves along and slowly builds. The author knows his stuff, being a member of the scientific field he decided to write about, so the details within this book are above and beyond anything you would see in a standard horror novel in the West. (the book even includes an extensive bibliography to boot!)
The sheer amount of details contained in this book are both its blessing, and its curse. They are a blessing because it helps to build the believability and move the storyline along. Most of the horror itself in the intro to the book come from graphic descriptions of kidney transplants. This actually had me setting the book down a couple times as I started to get queasy from just how in depth the level of imagery went. But much like ‘Moby Dick’ however, it is easy to get bogged down in the sheer amount that the reader is presented. You learn every little detail you can about the subject, and much like listening to an expert in their field talk about their passion, one quickly finds themselves bored.
‘Parasite Eve’ was a very long winded book for what you got out of it. The horror takes a long while to build up, and some of the shock/scare moments are wonderfully done. But these great moments are reduced by some of the other moments in the book that simply come across as over the top, or too reminiscent of the anime culture and movies such as ‘Akira’. But then again, that’s part of the cultural nature and much like our Western devices make their way into our horror, so too does the same happen to the Japanese.
The last thing that bothered me was the end of the book. I actually found a spot where I believed the book could have ended and the story would have been fine. But instead, the story continued onwards for pages as it described various things that happened after the climax. This seemed to drag the book on longer than it should have. Though somewhat interesting, especially in having to explain in detail what actually happened during the climax, it also just too long to get through.
In the end, ‘Parasite Eve’ was an interesting read, and one that I did enjoy. It showed me a few differences in horror between Eastern and Western cultures, and I found those differences to be fascinating to read. The book itself was fairly well paced, and despite all the details, was a fairly good and enjoyable read. If you are looking for a lot of action, this may not be the book for you. However, if Japanese horror has ever appealed to you, and you are willing to read through some pretty descriptive scenes of transplant surgery, this might be the book for you. Lastly, if you are a horror writer, then I would suggest this if only to observe how another culture handles the topic of horror.
This book made the author an instant star, and I can see the how and why of it. Some of the concepts he presents are truly horrific, and anyone whose fears fall along the theme of loss of control due to something within our bodies will find this book truly terrifying.
This book was my first foray into Japanese written horror, and overall it was an interesting one. You can definitely see the differences between Western and Eastern horror within this book as the action moves along and slowly builds. The author knows his stuff, being a member of the scientific field he decided to write about, so the details within this book are above and beyond anything you would see in a standard horror novel in the West. (the book even includes an extensive bibliography to boot!)
The sheer amount of details contained in this book are both its blessing, and its curse. They are a blessing because it helps to build the believability and move the storyline along. Most of the horror itself in the intro to the book come from graphic descriptions of kidney transplants. This actually had me setting the book down a couple times as I started to get queasy from just how in depth the level of imagery went. But much like ‘Moby Dick’ however, it is easy to get bogged down in the sheer amount that the reader is presented. You learn every little detail you can about the subject, and much like listening to an expert in their field talk about their passion, one quickly finds themselves bored.
‘Parasite Eve’ was a very long winded book for what you got out of it. The horror takes a long while to build up, and some of the shock/scare moments are wonderfully done. But these great moments are reduced by some of the other moments in the book that simply come across as over the top, or too reminiscent of the anime culture and movies such as ‘Akira’. But then again, that’s part of the cultural nature and much like our Western devices make their way into our horror, so too does the same happen to the Japanese.
The last thing that bothered me was the end of the book. I actually found a spot where I believed the book could have ended and the story would have been fine. But instead, the story continued onwards for pages as it described various things that happened after the climax. This seemed to drag the book on longer than it should have. Though somewhat interesting, especially in having to explain in detail what actually happened during the climax, it also just too long to get through.
In the end, ‘Parasite Eve’ was an interesting read, and one that I did enjoy. It showed me a few differences in horror between Eastern and Western cultures, and I found those differences to be fascinating to read. The book itself was fairly well paced, and despite all the details, was a fairly good and enjoyable read. If you are looking for a lot of action, this may not be the book for you. However, if Japanese horror has ever appealed to you, and you are willing to read through some pretty descriptive scenes of transplant surgery, this might be the book for you. Lastly, if you are a horror writer, then I would suggest this if only to observe how another culture handles the topic of horror.
This book made the author an instant star, and I can see the how and why of it. Some of the concepts he presents are truly horrific, and anyone whose fears fall along the theme of loss of control due to something within our bodies will find this book truly terrifying.
January 12, 2019
Wow. Just no. I'm not even going to bother mentioning my affection for J-horror, because this book does not deserve it. It takes a killer premise, that our symbiotic relationship with mitochondria could also be our species' downfall, and stomps on it with all the fury of an enraged bull elephant.
Avert your eyes from the next two paragraphs if you care about spoilers.
Those mitochondria, the maternal ones y'see, have hatched a plan to enslave their host organism, but due to an error in judgment and an inability to resist the evolutionary dominance of paternal mitochondria when cross-species breeding is concerned, that plan falls apart. Basically, those devious female mitochondria fail in their quest for world domination because they're female. No, really. From page 291: "They did not give sufficient consideration to it [the world domination plan] because they were female."
That's it. The big plan, BILLIONS OF YEARS in the making and hinging on SCIENTIST SPERM, fails because FEMALE LOGIC. Ooops. Let's not even inquire into why or how the mitochondria would be either male or female, and why they would even have any notions of gender or gender politics.
Not that everything leading up to that was particularly horrific, clever or well-written. It was mostly just laughable in its eagerness to shock, and pathetic in its inability to deliver on the strength of the premise.
I want the two afternoons I spent on this claptrap back. The game, which borrowed only the premise, is vastly superior.
Avert your eyes from the next two paragraphs if you care about spoilers.
Those mitochondria, the maternal ones y'see, have hatched a plan to enslave their host organism, but due to an error in judgment and an inability to resist the evolutionary dominance of paternal mitochondria when cross-species breeding is concerned, that plan falls apart. Basically, those devious female mitochondria fail in their quest for world domination because they're female. No, really. From page 291: "They did not give sufficient consideration to it [the world domination plan] because they were female."
That's it. The big plan, BILLIONS OF YEARS in the making and hinging on SCIENTIST SPERM, fails because FEMALE LOGIC. Ooops. Let's not even inquire into why or how the mitochondria would be either male or female, and why they would even have any notions of gender or gender politics.
Not that everything leading up to that was particularly horrific, clever or well-written. It was mostly just laughable in its eagerness to shock, and pathetic in its inability to deliver on the strength of the premise.
I want the two afternoons I spent on this claptrap back. The game, which borrowed only the premise, is vastly superior.
October 3, 2013
When I had read enough of this book to know that I wanted to write a review of it, I had planned on opening said review with the line: Contains one of the ickiest rape scenes I have ever read, and having read The Bighead, I've been exposed to etc etc. However, I wish to rescind that as my opening and start with this new line:
This book contains two of the ickiest rape scenes I have ever read, etc etc.
Those who assume I am being facetious for some humorous purpose are incorrect in their assumptions. In fact, what is fascinating about this book is that you could a fashion at least a fair lecture about its general statements on gender relations, and tendency towards sexual failings in all senses of the word "sexual". Let's start with a little set up, first.
Dr. Toshiaki Nagishima's lovely but neglected wife, Kiyomi, suffers brain death after a car accident. She has signed up on an organ donor list, and with some [presented in the book as a Japanese cultural one] reluctance about the organ donation and letting his wife go, Nagishima finally agrees to the procedure. He just has one odd request: he wants a piece of her liver. He has been working with cell replication and can, through extending her life in a petri dish, keep her technically alive [for very wide definitions of "her", "alive", and "really weird"]. Helping him is his lovely [ish? the book seems a little unsure on how pretty to make her] student, Sachiko Asakura, who is getting ready to publish some of her findings has her own work slightly derailed by Nagishima's mysterious EVE 1 project [dramatic irony, for all you Freshman lit students].
On the other main story branch, we have Mariko Anzai, a teenage girl in need of an organ transplant. The book probably achieves its zenith of human psychology when it dissects the complicated reaction a teenager might have to to receiving a now dead person's organ, after already have physically rejected her father's kidney earlier when some kids called her a Frankenstein monster and she stopped taking the immunosuppressant pills. Also on this branch we have her father (whose name escapes me, so we'll just call him Mr. Anzai) and the transplant doctor, the closest thing the book has to an unfettered "good guy", Dr. Takashi Yoshizumi. The final character is Eve herself, who, with something like spoilers but not too much, is a parasite. See what I did there? Good.
At the core of the book, and so much so that it probably has more of a life than any of the characters, is the question about Nucleic DNA versus Mitochondrial DNA, and whether mitochondria could have its own plans for life. As you might guess, the answer here is "yes", and it's kind of puzzling since such competition is not really set up at all except for "just because". It at least makes a fun What-If style story. It is complete with lots of endnotes/citations at the end, and though it suffers from occasionally swinging too technologically dense, it is at least interesting to hear the jargon spoken as though we should be able to understand [and if you don't understand, there is an unannounced glossary to help you out, so find it first]. In fact, the very cold way it handles the transplant early on - presenting the body as a series of little machines right near falling apart at any given time - is one of its best and most chilling moments. It dissects, to use a pun, the very notion of human exceptionalism and paints us as organs and blood pressure. Very well done.
But here is where we get to my opening statements. We have three primary male characters: PROFESSOR, DOCTOR, FATHER. All three are failures as husbands, one is a failure of a father. Two, at least, are brilliant at what they do, but sacrifice much of their personal life to achieve it. We are told that one of them has weird sperm and was judged by his wife for it. We then have three female characters: WIFE, DAUGHTER, STUDENT. One of which dies at the very beginning of the book. Another who is treated as rebellious for being complicated about big issues. The final one who is basically robbed of her own actions except for a couple of brief, fairly redeeming scenes. In basically all three cases, the females suffer because the males neglect their "basic" duties, as men, to protect them and foster proper behavior in them [proper being something like rebellious, interestingly]. It then gets even weirder when you find out that the females, all three of which are touched by Eve in some way, are manipulated to be more feminine, though what this means is fairly different in each of their cases. The men largely fail to fight back against the uber-female being, and only by succumbing to the male-female relative role is anything like a resolution offered.
And then there's the rape scenes. The first of which is something like reversal of genders for generic tentacle porn, with the man held down by the icky "vagina and uterus start on the outside but get sucked up and then tentacles come down as it sort of melts its genitals on you" monster. The second follows another trope, the transgender-at-will female authority, and is reminiscent of a scene from the Bad Sex Awards winner, with tightnesses and extendings and so forth wrought in quite surgical detail.
This brings me to my conclusion. This book is give or take about 300 pages. The first 100 are basically just a build up towards the organ transplant and the cultivation. The next 100 are the in-lab and in-hospital aftermath of those two things, with some weird/horror elements but mostly just background as we are introduced to the late Kiyomi by way of flashbacks showing how much of her life was decided for her. The final 100+ are where the horror elements are actually located, and some of them are pretty cool, if utterly far fetched. Then, towards the end we get a brief coda that recasts it all in a calm, medical light, and some endnotes, etc. The first 100 pages are going to be only appropriate to those who like their horror more mental and melodic, the second 100 are for those who like long-winded medical/scientific discussions, and the last 100 are a bit gory and violent and feature scenes of people being mutilated, burned alive from the inside out, and crushed mixed with scenes of biological freak outs. To whom do you sell such a book? Well, I liked it, and am glad to have read it, but couldn't 100% back it as a pure recommendation. Mostly I say read it if you have interest in (1) medical thrillers with a weird bent, (2) J-horror in general an all the translation/prose glitches that this comes with, AND (3) books with really debatable gender relations.
This book contains two of the ickiest rape scenes I have ever read, etc etc.
Those who assume I am being facetious for some humorous purpose are incorrect in their assumptions. In fact, what is fascinating about this book is that you could a fashion at least a fair lecture about its general statements on gender relations, and tendency towards sexual failings in all senses of the word "sexual". Let's start with a little set up, first.
Dr. Toshiaki Nagishima's lovely but neglected wife, Kiyomi, suffers brain death after a car accident. She has signed up on an organ donor list, and with some [presented in the book as a Japanese cultural one] reluctance about the organ donation and letting his wife go, Nagishima finally agrees to the procedure. He just has one odd request: he wants a piece of her liver. He has been working with cell replication and can, through extending her life in a petri dish, keep her technically alive [for very wide definitions of "her", "alive", and "really weird"]. Helping him is his lovely [ish? the book seems a little unsure on how pretty to make her] student, Sachiko Asakura, who is getting ready to publish some of her findings has her own work slightly derailed by Nagishima's mysterious EVE 1 project [dramatic irony, for all you Freshman lit students].
On the other main story branch, we have Mariko Anzai, a teenage girl in need of an organ transplant. The book probably achieves its zenith of human psychology when it dissects the complicated reaction a teenager might have to to receiving a now dead person's organ, after already have physically rejected her father's kidney earlier when some kids called her a Frankenstein monster and she stopped taking the immunosuppressant pills. Also on this branch we have her father (whose name escapes me, so we'll just call him Mr. Anzai) and the transplant doctor, the closest thing the book has to an unfettered "good guy", Dr. Takashi Yoshizumi. The final character is Eve herself, who, with something like spoilers but not too much, is a parasite. See what I did there? Good.
At the core of the book, and so much so that it probably has more of a life than any of the characters, is the question about Nucleic DNA versus Mitochondrial DNA, and whether mitochondria could have its own plans for life. As you might guess, the answer here is "yes", and it's kind of puzzling since such competition is not really set up at all except for "just because". It at least makes a fun What-If style story. It is complete with lots of endnotes/citations at the end, and though it suffers from occasionally swinging too technologically dense, it is at least interesting to hear the jargon spoken as though we should be able to understand [and if you don't understand, there is an unannounced glossary to help you out, so find it first]. In fact, the very cold way it handles the transplant early on - presenting the body as a series of little machines right near falling apart at any given time - is one of its best and most chilling moments. It dissects, to use a pun, the very notion of human exceptionalism and paints us as organs and blood pressure. Very well done.
But here is where we get to my opening statements. We have three primary male characters: PROFESSOR, DOCTOR, FATHER. All three are failures as husbands, one is a failure of a father. Two, at least, are brilliant at what they do, but sacrifice much of their personal life to achieve it. We are told that one of them has weird sperm and was judged by his wife for it. We then have three female characters: WIFE, DAUGHTER, STUDENT. One of which dies at the very beginning of the book. Another who is treated as rebellious for being complicated about big issues. The final one who is basically robbed of her own actions except for a couple of brief, fairly redeeming scenes. In basically all three cases, the females suffer because the males neglect their "basic" duties, as men, to protect them and foster proper behavior in them [proper being something like rebellious, interestingly]. It then gets even weirder when you find out that the females, all three of which are touched by Eve in some way, are manipulated to be more feminine, though what this means is fairly different in each of their cases. The men largely fail to fight back against the uber-female being, and only by succumbing to the male-female relative role is anything like a resolution offered.
And then there's the rape scenes. The first of which is something like reversal of genders for generic tentacle porn, with the man held down by the icky "vagina and uterus start on the outside but get sucked up and then tentacles come down as it sort of melts its genitals on you" monster. The second follows another trope, the transgender-at-will female authority, and is reminiscent of a scene from the Bad Sex Awards winner, with tightnesses and extendings and so forth wrought in quite surgical detail.
This brings me to my conclusion. This book is give or take about 300 pages. The first 100 are basically just a build up towards the organ transplant and the cultivation. The next 100 are the in-lab and in-hospital aftermath of those two things, with some weird/horror elements but mostly just background as we are introduced to the late Kiyomi by way of flashbacks showing how much of her life was decided for her. The final 100+ are where the horror elements are actually located, and some of them are pretty cool, if utterly far fetched. Then, towards the end we get a brief coda that recasts it all in a calm, medical light, and some endnotes, etc. The first 100 pages are going to be only appropriate to those who like their horror more mental and melodic, the second 100 are for those who like long-winded medical/scientific discussions, and the last 100 are a bit gory and violent and feature scenes of people being mutilated, burned alive from the inside out, and crushed mixed with scenes of biological freak outs. To whom do you sell such a book? Well, I liked it, and am glad to have read it, but couldn't 100% back it as a pure recommendation. Mostly I say read it if you have interest in (1) medical thrillers with a weird bent, (2) J-horror in general an all the translation/prose glitches that this comes with, AND (3) books with really debatable gender relations.
March 25, 2024
The extraordinary presentation of science in the guise of a mediocre story makes this book a highly recommended book.
March 13, 2025
I picked up "Parasite Eve" expecting a thriller, but what I got was a scientific horror novel that delved deep into the world of mitochondrial DNA. As a science student, I found the concept intriguing, but also a bit unnecessary, as the idea of mitochondria becoming a parasite that manipulates humans is far-fetched.
The book's focus on scientific terms and explanations made it feel more like a textbook than a novel. The constant repetition of DNA-related terms became tedious, and I found myself struggling to stay engaged. The story itself took a backseat to the scientific explanations, making it feel like a chore to finish.
Despite my criticisms, I do appreciate the author's unique take on the mitochondria-DNA relationship. It's an interesting thought experiment, and I did learn some new scientific terms along the way.
Overall, I'd give it 2 stars. While it's not a bad book, it's not particularly engaging either. If you're a science enthusiast, you might find it interesting, but for others, it might be a slog to get through.
*Rating:* 2/5 stars
*Recommendation:* For fans of scientific horror and those with a strong background in biology and genetics.
The book's focus on scientific terms and explanations made it feel more like a textbook than a novel. The constant repetition of DNA-related terms became tedious, and I found myself struggling to stay engaged. The story itself took a backseat to the scientific explanations, making it feel like a chore to finish.
Despite my criticisms, I do appreciate the author's unique take on the mitochondria-DNA relationship. It's an interesting thought experiment, and I did learn some new scientific terms along the way.
Overall, I'd give it 2 stars. While it's not a bad book, it's not particularly engaging either. If you're a science enthusiast, you might find it interesting, but for others, it might be a slog to get through.
*Rating:* 2/5 stars
*Recommendation:* For fans of scientific horror and those with a strong background in biology and genetics.
October 2, 2010
Parasite Eve is a different kettle of fish than I'm used to reading. It is a horror novel, though pretty tame, and in my opinion more of a thriller. It starts off very slow; indeed, a key criticism of the novel would be how 70% of it is devoid of action, and centres instead on fairly technical scientific dialogue. That said, Eve eventually picks up the action, the premise is unique and fascinating, and I learned a fair bit about bio-chemistry and molecular biology just by reading this puppy. Moreover, it includes explanations for some technical terms and phrases, and an extensive bibliography to prove how the science described, in addition to being written by an actual scientist, is real and possible to imagine. It also has an erotic flavour, and a bit of that crazy Japanese hentai business going on. Too bloody slow, but a decent read overall.
October 27, 2012
Si tuviera que calificar la pura historia tal vez si le hubiera dado cinco estrellas; sea por mi afición al género del terror ó porque simplemente me gustó (¿me aterró?) la premisa del libro.
Lo malo es que el ritmo, para mi gusto, está un poco fuera de balance. El principio es bastante lento y las descripciones médicas a veces detalladas en exceso. Por allá del 75% comienza lo interesante. Otra cosa que en lo personal me desagrada un poco es que abusen de las regresiones; está bien ir descubriendo más sobre los personajes a manera de flashback, pero hay ocasiones en las que la línea de tiempo salta tantas veces que puedes llegar a perderte, si no es que a frustrarte. Del cambio de punto de vista no me quejo tanto porque creo que si abordaba a los personajes importantes.
Es un buen libro; interesante; entretenido, pero podrían haberle cortado algunas páginas.
Lo malo es que el ritmo, para mi gusto, está un poco fuera de balance. El principio es bastante lento y las descripciones médicas a veces detalladas en exceso. Por allá del 75% comienza lo interesante. Otra cosa que en lo personal me desagrada un poco es que abusen de las regresiones; está bien ir descubriendo más sobre los personajes a manera de flashback, pero hay ocasiones en las que la línea de tiempo salta tantas veces que puedes llegar a perderte, si no es que a frustrarte. Del cambio de punto de vista no me quejo tanto porque creo que si abordaba a los personajes importantes.
Es un buen libro; interesante; entretenido, pero podrían haberle cortado algunas páginas.
November 7, 2017
As far as horror novels go, this was adequate. A scientific background may be required to truly appreciate how scary mitochondria can be... I wasn't particularly inspired by this plot, but my doctor friend gasped when I explained the story to her, and said that was terrifying. So there's that.
Also I learned enough about surgery, chemistry, and mitochondria that I am now intimately familiar with how some medical procedures are performed, so that was fun to learn. However, this was a slow read.
Also I learned enough about surgery, chemistry, and mitochondria that I am now intimately familiar with how some medical procedures are performed, so that was fun to learn. However, this was a slow read.
November 13, 2015
the author is a Japanese pharmacologist, professor and novelist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideaki...
the novel is the collaboration of the thriller and science fiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideaki...
the novel is the collaboration of the thriller and science fiction.
January 5, 2021
Was Hideaki Sena on hard drugs? Let's discuss.
October 2, 2025
AWESOME
January 5, 2023
What led me wanting to read this famous Japanese sci-fi / horror novel was a video game of the same name released in 1998. I played the game many years ago (back in the days when I was younger and spent much of my time playing video games; a season of my life that is now gone). At the time I really enjoyed the game and its story, although I remember it being very frustrating to play due to its clunky controls and difficult combat system. I believe the game's flaws were due in part to poor game design and limited technological capabilities at the time of its release. I don't think I even completed the game.
Much like the game, this book was very frustrating and difficult to read at times. The author, Hideaki Sena, is not only a renowned author, but a pharmacologist intent on flexing his scientific knowledge in his stories. Now, I understand why he writes the way that he does. The fine details in this novel really add to the sense of realism, and in turn, making the horror aspect all the more horrifying. For the layman such as myself, however, much of the talk of mitochondria and symbiosis and culture cells and all this other stuff passes beyond my understanding. And the very plot of this novel is founded upon these fine details of mitochondria and evolution.
As frustrating as it was at times, (mostly in the beginning, where there is like a 50-page scene of a detailed kidney transplant), the pace really picks up at around page 200, and my attention was immovable from then on. There were some pretty gross and crazy scenes that I was not expecting, and there's plenty of action in the third act to make up for the lack of it in the first. However, by the end, I did find myself wondering how this novel is labeled as a classic or a masterpiece and would go on to spawn video game and movie adaptations.
It does have an intriguing story, yes, and Sena expertly - perhaps all too well - weaves realistic science and biochemistry into a nightmarish scenario - but it's bogged down in too much of the former for the casual reader to enjoy or understand. It was almost so for me - and I don't even consider myself a casual reader.
Overall this was a decent sci-fi/horror novel with some interesting stuff, violent scenes, but ultimately lacking in its execution. I fail to see why this is such a highly applauded book, but I don't think it's completely without merit, either.
I haven't really described the what the actual plot or story is because, well, it's a bit tough to describe. But if you don't mind wading through nitty gritty scientific details to get to a , maybe give this one a try.
I give it a solid 3 / 5.
I'm glad I read it but I'll probably never read it again.
Much like the game, this book was very frustrating and difficult to read at times. The author, Hideaki Sena, is not only a renowned author, but a pharmacologist intent on flexing his scientific knowledge in his stories. Now, I understand why he writes the way that he does. The fine details in this novel really add to the sense of realism, and in turn, making the horror aspect all the more horrifying. For the layman such as myself, however, much of the talk of mitochondria and symbiosis and culture cells and all this other stuff passes beyond my understanding. And the very plot of this novel is founded upon these fine details of mitochondria and evolution.
As frustrating as it was at times, (mostly in the beginning, where there is like a 50-page scene of a detailed kidney transplant), the pace really picks up at around page 200, and my attention was immovable from then on. There were some pretty gross and crazy scenes that I was not expecting, and there's plenty of action in the third act to make up for the lack of it in the first. However, by the end, I did find myself wondering how this novel is labeled as a classic or a masterpiece and would go on to spawn video game and movie adaptations.
It does have an intriguing story, yes, and Sena expertly - perhaps all too well - weaves realistic science and biochemistry into a nightmarish scenario - but it's bogged down in too much of the former for the casual reader to enjoy or understand. It was almost so for me - and I don't even consider myself a casual reader.
Overall this was a decent sci-fi/horror novel with some interesting stuff, violent scenes, but ultimately lacking in its execution. I fail to see why this is such a highly applauded book, but I don't think it's completely without merit, either.
I haven't really described the what the actual plot or story is because, well, it's a bit tough to describe. But if you don't mind wading through nitty gritty scientific details to get to a , maybe give this one a try.
I give it a solid 3 / 5.
I'm glad I read it but I'll probably never read it again.
October 1, 2019
What if the monsters are within us? A mitochondrial researcher and his wife are about to find out.
Kind of like the movie Species, only with zero aliens. I had mixed feelings on this book. There are two over-the-top rape scenes, one committed against an adult man and another against an underage teen girl. The prose is as wooden as Pinocchio. The ending makes zero sense, and only is explained after the fact, and poorly at that. Sexist? There are females in your cellllllls, maaaaan, in all your cellllllllls!
But. The author gives such great details about all the science, and it's so readable and believable, that it sells the rest of the book.
At the rape scenes are logical necessities, if delved into with excruciating detail.
If you're not a huge nerd, avoid this book; it'll be offensive, clunky, and dry. If you're a huge nerd, recommended (but watch out for the rape scenes).
Kind of like the movie Species, only with zero aliens. I had mixed feelings on this book. There are two over-the-top rape scenes, one committed against an adult man and another against an underage teen girl. The prose is as wooden as Pinocchio. The ending makes zero sense, and only is explained after the fact, and poorly at that. Sexist? There are females in your cellllllls, maaaaan, in all your cellllllllls!
But. The author gives such great details about all the science, and it's so readable and believable, that it sells the rest of the book.
At the rape scenes are logical necessities, if delved into with excruciating detail.
If you're not a huge nerd, avoid this book; it'll be offensive, clunky, and dry. If you're a huge nerd, recommended (but watch out for the rape scenes).
Read
November 16, 2024(reverentially, fearfully) the mighty mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
I think, if Sadako and Kayako got a crossover, than Eve and Tomie should get to fight it out too
Wanna visit the parallel universe where this was the franchise that brought jhorror to America instead of the Ring
I think, if Sadako and Kayako got a crossover, than Eve and Tomie should get to fight it out too
Wanna visit the parallel universe where this was the franchise that brought jhorror to America instead of the Ring
December 14, 2024
Emotionally this is a 5 star, but objectively this is a 3 star. It took too damn long for anything to happen, the small reveals within the first 70 percent were not enough to keep the pace to get to the insane last 30%
January 2, 2026
horrendously bad
Boring with excessive medical jargon and processes and then offensively horrific especially in the treatment of a minor and SA. Disgusting and I’m mad someone put this on my tbr to make me read it before the end of the year.
Boring with excessive medical jargon and processes and then offensively horrific especially in the treatment of a minor and SA. Disgusting and I’m mad someone put this on my tbr to make me read it before the end of the year.
July 31, 2015
How to best describe this book? It was terrifyingly gross and pretty darn awesome.
Usually books that start heavy on the medical/biological aspect tend to bore me, and Parasite Eve starts a bit like that: Slow, full of details about biology (and further on, medical transplants) that you end up wondering if there was any need to read about at all, or if they were just there to either drag the story or prove the author could indeed write about it. Despite that I endured, because the writing style was interesting, and well, perhaps for once there'd be a point to all that biological detailed-ness.
There was, sort of. I'm of the belief the story could have done without the 'hard' science part, but having it ultimately didn't take away from what was essentially a horribly gross and terrifying story and did provide some background.
With that out of the way, yes, the first half of the book is slow, and then on the last half everything happens. And I do mean, everything. All the action is contained within the last half or 1/3 of the book, and advances incredibly fast. It's this action that makes it terrifying, and your imagination which makes it appropriately gross through the detailed descriptions the author provides, and that sense of ultimate ewww that made me rate it 4 stars.
The characters weren't overly likable , but they carried the story well enough; a story that was sufficiently interesting as well, as I'm lately finding I rather like certain types of medical/biological-horror novels a bit more than I thought, after all.
Usually books that start heavy on the medical/biological aspect tend to bore me, and Parasite Eve starts a bit like that: Slow, full of details about biology (and further on, medical transplants) that you end up wondering if there was any need to read about at all, or if they were just there to either drag the story or prove the author could indeed write about it. Despite that I endured, because the writing style was interesting, and well, perhaps for once there'd be a point to all that biological detailed-ness.
There was, sort of. I'm of the belief the story could have done without the 'hard' science part, but having it ultimately didn't take away from what was essentially a horribly gross and terrifying story and did provide some background.
With that out of the way, yes, the first half of the book is slow, and then on the last half everything happens. And I do mean, everything. All the action is contained within the last half or 1/3 of the book, and advances incredibly fast. It's this action that makes it terrifying, and your imagination which makes it appropriately gross through the detailed descriptions the author provides, and that sense of ultimate ewww that made me rate it 4 stars.
The characters weren't overly likable , but they carried the story well enough; a story that was sufficiently interesting as well, as I'm lately finding I rather like certain types of medical/biological-horror novels a bit more than I thought, after all.
November 10, 2025
The premise of this book explores the relationship between mitochondria and the host cell. Specially, it supposes not only a symbiotic relationship but specific consciousness in the mitochondria. It's a horror story, so you'll find these mitochondria aren't interested in being friends with mankind.
The author was in pharmaceutical school at the time he wrote this. Accordingly, he incorporates a myriad of information, not only regarding academic research and campus life, but also about cells, mitochondria, and organ transplants. This last is described in such detail that you'll almost know how to perform one yourself. One could argue he took this a little too far as it slows down the story, but I had no problem with it. Being so deeply immersed in scientific detail took me more fully into the world. The story doesn't really get going until the halfway point, but I was never bored going through the lead up.
The translation was good overall. I read a physical copy. I noticed one typo, but that's not unusual. More importantly, I noticed the Japanese style of prose shined through the translation. While some people might not like that or mistake it for poor translating, I prefer it. After all, Japanese is not English, and the slightly different meanings in the word choices often reflect a different culture and way of thinking.
Overall, it was an excellent and thought-provoking novel.
4.5/5
The author was in pharmaceutical school at the time he wrote this. Accordingly, he incorporates a myriad of information, not only regarding academic research and campus life, but also about cells, mitochondria, and organ transplants. This last is described in such detail that you'll almost know how to perform one yourself. One could argue he took this a little too far as it slows down the story, but I had no problem with it. Being so deeply immersed in scientific detail took me more fully into the world. The story doesn't really get going until the halfway point, but I was never bored going through the lead up.
The translation was good overall. I read a physical copy. I noticed one typo, but that's not unusual. More importantly, I noticed the Japanese style of prose shined through the translation. While some people might not like that or mistake it for poor translating, I prefer it. After all, Japanese is not English, and the slightly different meanings in the word choices often reflect a different culture and way of thinking.
Overall, it was an excellent and thought-provoking novel.
4.5/5
December 27, 2020
It's a weird one guys.
Read
March 25, 2024that was definitely something
September 22, 2019
When Kiyomi Nagashima is declared brain dead after a serious car accident, her husband’s world is changed forever. Shocked and upset, Dr. Toshiaki Nagashima is suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to keep his wife alive. Rather than keeping her alive through his memories of her, he decides to start experimenting with her liver cells in his lab. Toshiaki is so enthralled by the progress he’s making that he doesn’t see that there is something very wrong with this experiment, especially when Kiyomi begins to seemingly speak to him through the harvested cells. Unfortunately for him, he only realizes the grave mistake he’s made when his experiment takes on a life of its own.
My younger brother recommended this book to me because he thought it’d be up my alley. He’s played the video games that are sequels to this book with the same title, but he’s never picked up the book himself. I decided to check out the book since it did sound like something that I would be interested in.
Unfortunately, much of the book is detailed scientific and medical information. Eve, or She as she calls herself, is mitochondria so there does need to be at least some scientific information to make the story work. However, most of it reads as a textbook rather than a science fiction novel. I think it would’ve read much better if the scientific and medical information was scaled back a bit. Getting blow by blow details of kidney transplants and a lot of science was a bit much, even for a science fiction novel. I might’ve been more interested in the attention to detail if I was really into mitochondria and lab experiments.
In the middle of all that technical information, we follow a group of rotating narrators throughout the story. Toshiaki is our primary narrator and he seemed to be a bit off from the start. Unfortunately for him, he comes to his senses when it’s too late because Eve/She is out of control and on the loose. Sachiko Asakura, my favorite character, is a student working under Toshiaki and she notices something is wrong right away but she doesn’t know what, exactly, is going on until she’s targeted. Mariko is a teenager who receives one of Kiyomi’s kidneys and finds herself targeted by Eve/She. I wish that Mariko was better developed because she was a great character. We also follow a few other characters including Kiyomi through a series of flashbacks, but the most startling perspective is Eve/Her.
I think the premise was interesting. The idea of something that has existed since before any life forms on Earth has been lurking within us and biding their time is very scary. However, the execution makes it far less scary because we’re caught up in so much technical detail that the story doesn’t start going anywhere until halfway through the book. There are also two rapes that occur in the book and both should’ve never happened and ultimately seal the fate on this book as one big miss.
My younger brother recommended this book to me because he thought it’d be up my alley. He’s played the video games that are sequels to this book with the same title, but he’s never picked up the book himself. I decided to check out the book since it did sound like something that I would be interested in.
Unfortunately, much of the book is detailed scientific and medical information. Eve, or She as she calls herself, is mitochondria so there does need to be at least some scientific information to make the story work. However, most of it reads as a textbook rather than a science fiction novel. I think it would’ve read much better if the scientific and medical information was scaled back a bit. Getting blow by blow details of kidney transplants and a lot of science was a bit much, even for a science fiction novel. I might’ve been more interested in the attention to detail if I was really into mitochondria and lab experiments.
In the middle of all that technical information, we follow a group of rotating narrators throughout the story. Toshiaki is our primary narrator and he seemed to be a bit off from the start. Unfortunately for him, he comes to his senses when it’s too late because Eve/She is out of control and on the loose. Sachiko Asakura, my favorite character, is a student working under Toshiaki and she notices something is wrong right away but she doesn’t know what, exactly, is going on until she’s targeted. Mariko is a teenager who receives one of Kiyomi’s kidneys and finds herself targeted by Eve/She. I wish that Mariko was better developed because she was a great character. We also follow a few other characters including Kiyomi through a series of flashbacks, but the most startling perspective is Eve/Her.
I think the premise was interesting. The idea of something that has existed since before any life forms on Earth has been lurking within us and biding their time is very scary. However, the execution makes it far less scary because we’re caught up in so much technical detail that the story doesn’t start going anywhere until halfway through the book. There are also two rapes that occur in the book and both should’ve never happened and ultimately seal the fate on this book as one big miss.
November 17, 2021
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.
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.
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