Yikes, a vampire book! Vampires are usually not at all my thing, but I’ve heard good things about Westerfeld from teens and YA librarians, so I decided to give this one a try. It’s the story of Cal, a Texas transplant to New York who happens to be a parasite-positive, or peep – basically, he’s a vampire without any negative symptoms and all the enhancements – better vision, super strength, et cetera. Turns out that the vampire parasite is a sexually transmitted disease, it’s spreading throughout New York, and it’s Cal’s job to track down other peeps before they cause utter destruction and mayhem. Every other chapter is a break from the story into a gory description of various nightmarish parasites – I could see some teens really getting into these chapters, and others wanting to just skip them to get back to the story. I can’t decide if they were too much of a distraction or if they worked for me (Also, I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares about some of the nasties Westerfeld describes). I’m also not quite sure about the bizarre twist the plot takes towards the end. I was just settling in to buying the existence of peeps and the underground Night Watch, and then I was all, “Wait, what? Giant worms? So confused…” Anyway, overall it gets a thumbs up from me.
