A review by mdpenguin
Parasite Life by Victoria Dalpe

5.0

I got this as part of a Story Bundle and finally got around to picking it up without really knowing what it was. I thought that this was an effective meditation on predation and codependency. I found myself wondering about whether or not Dalpe really intended it for young audiences -- I found it pretty dark, intense, and full of some pretty complex emotional and moral situations that I'm not sure I would have fully grasped as a teenager. I found an interview where she said that she wrote it in response to the romanticization of really unhealthy relationships that she was finding in other YA vampire novels. Overall, I really liked it.

Reading it so soon after my mother's death was a bit difficult for me: my mother and I didn't have the best of relationships and, while I tend to blame her for it, I can't deny that I have some role and it was already hard for me not to wonder how much of a monster I may really be without realizing it but the first part of this novel really amped those feelings of guilt up to 11. I very nearly had to put it down. I had been reading it rather slowly and decided to sit down and read most of it in one sitting to get through it because I really don't like the idea of putting down a novel just because it's making me think about my life and feel strongly. I mean, isn't that what a good novel should do? Anyway, I'm glad I stuck with it because it was engaging and well written. If I have one complaint it's that she didn't end with Jane's suicide. I doubt it would have have been picked up, particularly as a YA novel, but I think it would have been the most appropriate ending, if not the most satisfying.