Tagged: peeps
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz, and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it? Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.
(Summary courtesy of Goodreads.)
Meh. I don’t know what I was really expecting, but I guess I hoped that The Last Days would follow the end of the world more closely. With all the suspense built up at the end of Peeps, I wanted to learn more about the coming worm apocalypse by seeing it through the eyes of someone in the Night Watch on the front lines. However, the group of people we follow in The Last Days knows nothing of peeps or the apocalypse happening around them until the very end, so it was kind of disappointing. This is more my fault than Scott Westerfeld’s because of my preconceived notions, but I definitely would have liked to hear more of how humanity fought the worms rather than just reading a past tense version of it in an epilogue.
Despite the fact it wasn’t what I expected, The Last Days wasn’t a bad book. It took a more serious tone than the first book, but it suited the gritty background very well. The characters were interesting and not exactly what you would expect in a YA novel, so there’s that. Alana Ray was my personal favourite, but I can see where many people would identify with Pearl or Moz. I would have liked the chapters to be a bit longer because at times it felt like head-hopping as each chapter had a different point of view than the previous one. However, that’s more of a personal preference because I like continuity.
In The Last Days I just didn’t feel the same energy or enthusiasm as there was in Peeps. There were some really slow parts where the book dragged on, but other parts were way too fast. My disappointment is partly my own fault for starting to read it with lots of expectations, but I can’t help but feel it didn’t live up to its full potential.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
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.