Wither's Rain

I just read this absolutely fabulous book called Wither's Rain. It's the sequel to Wither, by John Passarella. I never read the first one: as a matter of fact, I never even really intended to read the second one. I just happened to be passing through the Strand and it was on sale for 48 cents, so I bought it. One of the best investments of the spring, I'll tell you that.

While it was an incredible book, it left me wondering something. Why is it, in every sci-fi/fantasy/horror novel that has a body snatching beast, does the person whose body is snatched have to be killed in order to defeat the monster? It hardly seems fair. Nobody asked the black slime creature to climb up into their nose or in their eye sockets and other facial orifices and take over their every thought, motion, their entire being. Yet there's hardly a story where the snatched recovers her body and moves on with her life. She's just trapped in her body, unable to take control...to move, to breathe, to even think in some cases. Kinda sucks, right?

But you know what? It's almost better than if you were the heroine. You know what I mean. If you're the one whose body is taken over, or possessed if you will, you don't have to fight. No one around you gets hurt or killed because they care about you. And even if they do, you don't know. It doesn't matter. You've ceased to exist, while the heroine crawls into a corner to cry over her losses. She's left putting back together the pieces of her shattered life and you are...nothing.

Plus evil always has the sexy boyfriend.