In Washington, D.C., a brain-controlling parasite isn't a public health crisis—it's a public relations opportunity.
It began with water.

One day, people are normal. The next, they are behaving with terrifying, synchronized intimacy, losing their personal space, and obsessively whispering about "spiritual thirst."

The newly sworn-in President of the United States, Tad P. Lurmond, isn’t about to let a literal biological apocalypse ruin his post-election high. To Tad, a waterborne hive-mind invasion is simply an "unauthorized efficiency glitch." When hospitals begin quietly overflowing with patients whose internal organs fail, the administration does what it does best: launches a tactical missile strike on South America to change the news cycle, and deploys the military to "protect" municipal water plants from the pesky citizens trying to drink from them.

Meanwhile, the internet is doing its part. As agonizing physical cramps spread nationwide, wellness influencers lead the country into further chaos.

Beneath the insanity, the parasite is multiplying. The real threat isn't just the worm-like creatures writhing inside the population. The hive mind is rapidly studying Washington's sheer, unadulterated incompetence. And it is learning.

The only people standing in the way are:
Dr. Bethera Rawner, an exhausted Chief Medical Officer who really just wanted to retire to Hawaii but is now forced to perform highly illegal, secret surgeries to catch a live worm before the government buries the evidence.
Mama Ruth, a fiercely protective, unlicensed RN who rules a muddy creek-bed unhoused encampment with a battered notebook of real names, a donated scalpel, and a complete, clinical disdain for the conspicuous government SUVs currently tailing her.
The Widows, six fiercely independent, church-going seniors who are far too busy dodging handsy church deacons and Earl Jenkins's oxygen tank to let a global extinction event ruin their Sunday brunch pie ritual at the Sunrise Diner.

Brutal, unsettling, and savagely funny, The Host blends biological horror, psychological terror, and razor-sharp political satire. It’s a survival thriller that proves humanity might not survive the parasite—but we will certainly find a way to monetize it first.