Tagged: parasites
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
(Cover picture courtesy of In The Next Room.)
Okay, let’s clear up some myths about vampires. First of all, you won’t see me using the v-word much. In the Night Watch, we prefer the term parasite positives or peeps for short.
The main thing to remember is that there’s no magic involved. No flying. No transforming into bats or rats either. We’re talking about a disease.
After a chance encounter with a mysterious woman one night, Cal Thompson’s life is changed forever. He’s been infected with an insidious parasite. The good news: he’s only a carrier—still sane, without the worst of the symptoms. The bad news: he’s infected all his former girlfriends—and now they’ve turned into what Cal calls peeps. The rest of us call them vampires. And it’s Cal’s job to hunt them down before they create even more of their kind.
I don’t consider myself a person who’s easily grossed out, but congratulations must go to Scott Westerfeld for managing to do just that! He goes into incredible detail not just for the peeps parasite, but for many other parasites. You see, every other chapter he describes a kind of parasite that is either good or bad and ties it into the story very well in the end. That’s a lot of parasites to gross you out. And the parasites are nothing in comparison to some of the disgusting situations Cal gets into.
In other words: Don’t read this while you’re eating. Or before you go to sleep, like I did.
Scott Westerfeld’s sense of humour shines through more in Peeps than in his Uglies series because Cal is just that kind of character. He’s snarky and sarcastic, but also wracked with guilt over spreading the peeps disease to all of his ex-girlfriends, making them insane. Not only is the parasite spread through sexual contact, it can be spread by bodily fluids like saliva. So you can imagine how scared he is when he meets Lace, who seems determined to interfere in his life and may even be falling in love with him.
The plot is quite fast-paced and Peeps has lots of twists and turns I never saw coming. The best part is that it’s not your typical vampire story, so it’s pretty hard to get bored with the premise. And the cliffhanger at the ending will make you want to read the next book, The Last Days because of the huge plot twist in the end. I can’t wait for the next book!
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Tighe Chemidlin.)
In the future, in a place called Satellite City, Cosmo Hill enters the world, unwanted by his parents. He’s sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Freight class.
Here, the boys are put to work by the state, testing highly dangerous products. Cosmo realizes that he must get away, and escapes with the help of the Supernaturalists, a group of kids who have the same special abilities as Cosmo—they can see the supernatural Parasites, creatures that feed on the life force of humans. The Supernaturalists patrols the city at night, hunting the Parasites in hopes of saving what is left of humanity in Satellite City. But soon they find themselves caught in a web far more complicated than they’d imagined, and they discover a horrifying secret that will force them to question everything they believe in.
As a book reviewer, I hate to use clichés, but there really is only one word to describe The Supernaturalist: unique. Eoin Colfer’s more famous Artemis Fowl series and even his stand-alone novel, The Wish List have overshadowed his brilliant science fiction novel. Written with the humour and imagination I have come to expect from him, The Supernaturalist is absolutely brilliant.
Cosmo is pretty much your stereotypical protagonist in the beginning, but as the story progresses, he develops at a very natural pace. And as he slowly finds out the truth about the Parasites, we really do see an interesting side of him: the brave, more daring side. His struggle to fit in with the Supernaturalists, who have a group dynamic similar to that of The Thief Lord, also makes him identifiable with pretty much every adolescent in the world.
Eoin Colfer inserts so many plot twists and turns in The Supernaturalist that I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be able to guess the ending, which is a huge surprise. The surprise ending is a whopper, but it’s also incredibly satisfying and brings some closure to this novel. For once, I have nothing to criticize about a book’s ending because Eoin Colfer was able to finish it in a pinch.
I give this book 5/5 stars.