Westerfeld, Scott - Peeps

I learned more about parasites than I probably ever wanted to know. But it was definitely fascinating!

Lest you be mistaken, this is actually a sci-fi/fantasy YA novel -- fantasy because it is a modern-day vampire book, sci-fi because of how Westerfeld deals with vampirism. It actually reminds me a great deal of Ultraviolet, a six-episode long miniseries that had the same scientific approach to vampires.

Peeps one-ups it on the explanations, though. Peeps, or parasite-positives, are people who have been infected with a parasite that causes them to want to bite/eat other people in order to spread the parasite (think rabies with an additional side of cannibalism). It's evolved over the years to change people's brain chemistry so that they shy away from sunlight and from anything familiar, so that they are less easy to capture and thus increasing the parasite's chances of infecting other people. This, of course, resulted in rampant cruciphobia back when people were more religious, and now leads to Elvis-phobia. I like this muchly.

Cal Thompson is one of the few people who happens to be naturally immune to the parasite, leaving him to experience most of the postive benefits (better night vision, faster reflexes, etc.) without the anathema effect (dislike of sunlight and other familiar things). So he's part of the Night Watch, a secret government organization who deals with peeps, and while trying to track down all the people he's infected unknowingly as a carrier and trying to track down his progenitor, he stumbles on many mysteries of the peep world.

The book is split up into plot chapters and informative chapters on all sorts of parasites, and while the parasite chapters are creepy, they're also absolutely fascinating (and true, although I wonder how simplified they were).

I am very easily hooked by science-y explanation things that I like, and this book provides them by the boatload. Also, the big mystery of the book and the climax fit in with all the other world-building, and I loved the symmetry of it all.

Cal's got a nice narrative voice (book is all in first-person POV), and the Designated Love Interest, Lace, is thankfully not at all stupid, clever, and tough in an appealing, non-spunky way.

Also, there are lots of rats. Granted, they are creepy rats (they even scared me), but still! I felt I should mention it.

I had much fun reading it and am now eagerly looking forward to all the other Westerfeld books that rachelmanija has sicced on me.

Links:
- minnow1212's review
- coffeeandink's review

In which rachelmanija encounters The Beast

The Beast has been hanging on my lamp by the couch since I got him (I understand that this makes no sense unless you've seen the picture). When yuneicorn came over for one of the first times, she sat nicely down on the couch for a while, and I figured I'd show off all my stuffies (Bob the Armadillo now has an honored spot on top of her head). So I very nicely said, "Hey, check out the Beast!" and sort of motioned in the direction of the Beast, whose very large and very red jaws were pointed at about face level.

yuneicorn obediently turned to the Beast and promptly jumped, startled.

"You do that on purpose to scare your guests!" she accused me (nicely, since she is nice).

"Ehm. No I don't!" said I. Upon second thought, "But that's a great thought! We must try this on K.!" (K. is yuneicorn's roommate.) This was generally agreed upon to be a Good Plan.

The next time K. was over, we sat her down nicely on the couch and politely introduced her to the Beast, eagerly awaiting a jump of some kind. K. very complacently reached over and patted the Beast on his furry yet ferocious head, nodded, and said, "Oh how nice."

Disappoinment all around!

I had totally forgotten about the Beast and my grand but rather doomed plan to introduce him to other people until rachlemanija came over for the second time and was sitting there. (And really, I only remembered because I was introducing her to Mervin the Frog and Bob the Armadillo at the same time).

The Beast (as can be seen in photo linked above) sort of clings to the lamp via his large jaws, but since the center of balance is a little off, over time, he migrates so that his head is pointed at the ceiling. I like to pretend that he is secretly hunting spiders or something.

Anyhow, that's how he was when Rachel was there, and probably looked somewhat like a large, furry, white blob attached to a lamp at eye level.

"Check out the Beast!" I told Rachel, with fannishly standing by the side in anticipation.

"Eh?" said Rachel. "Oh, huh, a rabbit on your lamp!" she said, looking rather puzzled as to why a furry white rabbit on my lamp was noteworthy of comment.

fannishly and I looked at each other, disappointed.

Rachel continued to examine the Beast, slowly turning him around the lamp with her finger in his mouth.

"Inters....GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" said Rachel, as she jumped about three feet in the air. "He has jaws! My finger was in his mouth!!!!!!!"

"He's the Monty Python rabbit!" I explained in delight. well, I attempted to, since mostly both me and Angela were doubled over with laughter, and I was having a hard time getting two words out of my mouth because I was laughing so hard.