Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

I initially heard of Scott Westerfeld because of his highly popular "Uglies" series. I read all of that series last year. It was a decent dystopian YA, fun but not super impressive. It was good enough that I've been idly keeping an eye out for more of his books. That's how I found Peeps, browsing through the BookNook.

Peeps blew me away. I have to admit, when I read the back cover and it mentioned vampires, I groaned a bit on the inside. I actually like vampire stories, but Twilight deeply scarred me on YA vampires and I just haven't recovered yet. However, Peeps is nothing like Twilight. In fact, there are almost no supernatural elements at all. This is straight up science fiction.

What if all the legends about vampires and werewolves and what not all had a common source. That source would be something like a disease or a parasite that not only changed the victim's physiology but also their cognitive functions. In Peeps, a parasite causes what people think of as vampirism. These victims gradually go insane and shun everything they used to love. They have insatiable hunger and crave meat including the meat of other humans.

However, 1 out of every 100 humans has the capacity to become a carrier. These carriers get several of the perks of the parasite (acute senses, super strength, increased life span, and a diminished capacity for fear) but never get the rest of the symptoms or go insane. These carriers track down the rest of the parasite positives - or peeps - and get them treated.

Enter Cal. Cal's a carrier and 19. He starts the novel in the process of hunting down all the people he accidentally infected before he knew he was a carrier. Once he achieves that, he has to track down the one who infected him, his progenitor. During the search he finds a building with a mysterious iron door sealing a pit into the depths of the city and infested with parasite infested rats.

I really enjoyed this. The story kept me enthralled but I really liked the way Westerfeld structured the book. The odd numbered chapters carry the story, but the even numbered chapters are these little two or three page micro-essays on various topics concerning parasites. They are delivered in Cal's voice and are, as far as I can tell, factually correct. The risk with structure is that it detracts from the story, but the topics are inserted in such a way that they reflect on events happening in the story. It's a fun contrast. Even though parasites are kind of yucky to read about, I wouldn't dream of skipping them. The narrative wouldn't be as strong without them.