Sunday, December 20, 2009

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

Cal is a carrier for the parasite that turns people into vampire-like creatures, called peeps. He contracted the parasite one night and now works for the Night Watch, an organization that hunts down and captures peeps. Cal's responsible for finding the people he infected, Sarah being his latest peep to find. Then he needs to find the person who infected him.

Cal finally figures out where he was infected, and meets Lace in the process. Lace lives on the same floor as Morgan, the woman who infected Cal. Cal discovers a lair in the basement, and some very interesting phenomenon...and drags Lace into the situation on accident. While trying to deal with that mistake, Cal realizes he was only told half of the story from the Night Watch. He then finds Morgan, who attempts to explain why she's going around and infecting as many people as possible. And Lace is in danger of being infected herself. But that's not the worst thing they'll be facing..

Cal tells this story with humor and fear combined. There are many instances where creepy is a definite factor, but suspense is built well and steadily. The references to parasites from around the world stops the story from getting too tense. A great twist on vampire lore.

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