A man with OCD and parasite loving highschool girl meet fall in love and sort out their issues. However its not all sunshine and rainbows. Parasite In love is a truly heartwrenching story between two individuals that suffer from mental illnesses and their struggle to cope with them. This novel was honestly an emotional roller coaster. It starts with a prologue that ties you down right away with a little look at what youre in for fastforwarding to a short excerpt found in the following chapters. It illustrates a conversation between the MC Kengo Kousaka and his apparent first love as they discuss parasites. Needless to say in normal circumstances that would be pretty boring but the way they correlated the parasites characteristics with love alongside the way the writer prefaces this conversation made for a heartwarming introduction to an otherwise melancholic story. As the story progresses you follow Kousaka in his endeavours alongside Sanagi to rid himself of his ailments. At an almost daily basis Sanagi would visit Kousaka and spend time with him and slowly open up to him. As both characters suffer from mental illnesses they seemed to find common ground with each other which led to both characters slowly developing trust and eventually becoming reliant on one another to soothe the demons inside their heads. During this part of the story the writer does astonishingly at conveying Kousaka and Sanagis emotions and dynamic. Portraying something as complex as social anxiety and depression isnt easy but the way in which he painted it helps readers understand and connect more with the characters. Full disclosure though I have never been formally diagnosed with depression and my words might not carry much weight but as the story progressed you can feel the underlying sadness in both Kousaka and Sanagi alongside the flicker of hope that gradually develops. Sanagi painted the colours Kousaka left unpainted and Kousaka painted the colours Sanagi left unpainted completing each others worlds. By doing this the world stood out more clearly. Parasite In Love Chapter 5. The way the writer paints the story is nothing short of mesmerising. He mostly uses a thirdperson limited point of view which allows the reader to experience the characters emotions from an outside perspective. Often one might look to using the firstperson point of view to create greater intimacy between the reader and the characters. However because the characters have mental illnesses the firstperson point of view will only distort the story as the reader will then only see the world from the MCs twisted perspective. There are also times when he switches to a firstperson point of view providing insight as to how the characters feel from their perspective. The instances at which he chooses to do this is honestly perfect and I wouldnt have had it any other way. The writer has also clearly done a lot of research into parasites and how they behave sprinkling a dash of science into a fictitious story. You might be right But its a mistake to think youre the one who knows yourself best. There are things that you overlook about yourself. Sometimes what other people see might be closer to the truth. Kengo Kousaka . Something that might concern readers is the age gap between Kousaka and Sanagi. With Sanagi being a highschool student and underage in most countries including Japan for the most part some might consider this relationship to be bordering on paedophilia. The writer however does a marvellous job at handling this as he refrains from writing anything sexual making the romantic aspect of this novel quite wholesome. Upon reaching the climax and subsequent ending of the story readers will be pleased to see that this isnt just another romance novel. The twist that the writer planted within the narrative is like a slap to the face and the openended ending invites readers imaginations to run rampant. All in all Parasite in Love is a very praiseworthy novel. Bringing forth a heavy topic alongside a heartwrenching romance in a 200page book isnt easy even more so when you consider the fact that in those two hundred pages you are able to connect and sympathize with the characters standing as a testament to how wellwritten this is. For anyone looking for a heartwrenching romantic story this will undoubtedly receive a strong recommendation.