Peeps

Peeps is about a vampire named Cal. Cal hunts down people with parasites called peeps. Cal is like a half vampire half human.

My favorite part of the book is when Cal is spying on Morghan. Morghan is a peep who gave Cal the parasite. Cal is spying on her and she catches him and he starts jumping from roof to roof.

This was one of my favorite vampire books. I recommend this book. If you like vampire adventure books you would love Peepes. Peeps goes into every detail when describing things. Peeps has opened my mind to more books.

Creepy in a true-science way, enjoyable first-person narrator, great twist on the vampire genre, tending more toward science fiction rather than fantasy, in a very positive direction. I mean, who needs sparkly vampires? I'm definitely reading more from Westerfeld.

"Pressing one ear to the icy glass, palming the other to mute the roar of the traffic, I listened. My heartbeat was ramped up with excitement, adrenaline making the parasite start to churn, my muscles tightening. Through the glass came the sound of a graphite-lubricated dead-bolt shooting free, and the door creaked open."

A peep, not vampires, peeps. They also prefer to be called parasite-positive. You may have heard of them before, sensitive to light, able to scale walls, super-hearing, smelling, seeing, and strength. Well these are vampires with a twist. Modern day parasite infected people that hunger for human flesh. Cal Thompson is one of them with the exception of the symptom of insanity. He is part of an organization call the Night Watch, hunting down and ridding New York of these psychotic killers and trying to stop more from becoming infected. This is his story.

I really enjoyed this book. The character Cal was easy to relate with and the story is full of action. This book being science fiction, stretches your imagination to the possibility that this could actually happen. It's believable because of all the science facts backing it up. I would recommend this book to guys though, because some of the science facts are really nasty.

I really enjoyed this book. It certainly is not your typical vampire story. It is the story of Cal, who was a college student from Texas that became a carrier of a virus which caused anyone he kisses (or more) to become a "Peep" (vampire). When the story opens Cal is in the process of rounding up his ex-girlfriends he infected before realizing he had the virus. Although some of the virus descriptions were rather disgusting ("ew, repeat") it was all very informative. I liked that the ending left it open so that you could just imagine what would happen next, but am also happy to learn that the sequel "End of Days" is available. I do have to say this book left me with a strong desire to see if my cats' eyes would show up red by the light of a flashlight.

This was...okay. Frankly, as a teenager (who also has read many classics) this was a disappointment. It's about Cal, a peep, or parasite positive, (aka vampire) who got the parasite when he lost his virginity during a one-night stand. However, he was lucky, and is not a full-blown, crazy peep. He hunts down those he has infected and is now looking to find the one who infected him. Along the way, he meets Lace.

Alright. A pretty normal plot. It's not. And I don't mean that in a good way. It's absurd, frankly, and I hope the conclusions to Westerfield's trilogys (both the trilogy that began with UGLIES, and THE MIDNIGHTERS trilogy) are better than this! The strange, convuluded plot was punctured by 'essays' about parasites which came off as though he were talking to third graders who find anything creepy or disgusting fascinating. Not that it wasn't interesting, per say, but it wasn't written well. Although some parts of Westerfield's vampires are better because they are a bit more 'scientific', or at least he explains some things and myths with science, most are just foolish.

Among the strangeness is the complete reversal of point of views: Cal goes from hunting peeps to advocating them, and in the end, joining them. This transition makes no sense and feels like it was stapled on because the author got lazt. Of course, like every other goddamned vampire novel, Lacy becomes a peep too. The two different types of peeps--those infected by rats, those by cats--...did I miss something?!? This made no sense. I mean, I understood it, but I wondered how a seemingly good author could write a novel comparable to Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak series: Shan's an alright author, but definitely not Margaret Mitchel.

The character development was off, and the ending left it open, although made no sense: worms are coming up to kill everything, and only the peeps can save humankind 'oh no'. Seeing as there wasn't even an allusion to this earlier, it is just ridiculous. It was tacked on.

If you want a good vampire novel, read FEED by M.T. Anderson. Or INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice (if you're a bit older, and don't mind that the chronicles are all downhill from there). But not this. It will insult your intelligence. The only reason I read this was because, despite the condescending, retarded tone of the essays, it was slightly interesting to learn about parasites.

This book's great--suitable for adults as well as teenagers--really excellent science stuff, it's an ongoing gripe of mine that not enough fiction-writers really care about science. The book's got a good first-person voice, engaging characters and a compelling story: well worth a read, whether or not you're fond of vampire fiction.

Wow. Peeps was an awesome book. Though it is about Cal Thompson who was infected by vampirism AKA "a disease" that is passed by kissing, It is full of many facts that have at least one thing to do with the story. I would definately recomend Peeps to any age.

I loved the use of alternating chapters showcasing interesting/gross parasites taken from the book PARASITE REX. Also loved how the parasite stories were integrated into the main narrative. Vampirism caused by a parasite. Makes perfect sense.

Peeps is another great "Young Adult" book from Scott Westerfeld, that like So Yesterday, is better than most adult fiction books out there.

He re-tells the Vampire-myth in modern terms. He uses the science of parasites to explain how it could be transmitted and how it could transform the infected into Vampire-like-people.

Scott is the master of the info-dump. Every second chapter tells the story of a different parasite. But it's done so well, it doesnt't feel like a lecture, just more interesting reading. And it allows him to refer back to the previously described parasites during the plot eaisly.

I really enjoyed reading Peeps. I think its well suited to the Buffy-generation. I look forward to another book in this universe, which I believe is in the works..

I found this book when I was digging around Ollie's for 4 bucks thinking "Oh, another vampire book, why not?" But when I read it, I was amazed and couldn't stop reading it.

Westerfeld started out with a good creative take on vampirism. Then he added action, lust, and fear, and interesting(?) parasite triva. Also, even though the story is placed in a sci-fi pre-apocalyptic world, the characters were real. When it all mixed together he popped out a great book.

Although this book has some...creepy moments I really liked reading Peeps. Almost every other chapter you learned of some new parasite. I started to enjoy science more. Scott Westerfield is one of my favorite authors and this, one of my favorite books.

I was first introduced to Scott Westerfeld when I read The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds which had some really intriguing ideas. Now I've read Peeps. Its fresh angle on vampires sparked the same initial interest, but in the end I felt the same disappointment.

In the Peeps world, vampirism is caused by a parasite. Full blown cases ("peeps") exhibit all the vampire symptoms we've come to expect, but you can also be just a carrier and have superhuman powers, which is what our hero Cal is and has. It's a sexually transmitted disease, so Cal has resolved to live chastely. (He lived very unchastely before, catching it from a girl he picked up in a bar, and passing it to his girlfriend and several others). Unfortunately, though, the disease makes his sexual desires even stronger. He now works for the Night Watch, an underground organization that helps study and track the disease and catch vampires. He meets and is very attracted to a girl named Lace whose apartment building is the scene of a peeps infestation.

The twist is that it turns out that Cal is a carrier of a new strain of the disease which is good, not bad (well, actually, it's a very old strain...the new, bad strain is blamed on the Inquisition, I kid you not). It's good because the superhuman powers it gives you are now needed to fight ancient worm-beasts getting ready to invade the earth via the subway stations. So what is needed is to give everyone superhuman powers as fast as possible...and it's a sexually transmitted disease...what fun!

This flawed understanding of the nature of human sexual relations is at the heart of Westerfeld's vision in Peeps. Rather than the love of two persons bringing about the creation of a third, sex is strongly associated with death and disease. Its marvelous procreative powers are not part of the picture. In fact, this inverted view of sex positively portrayed as a means to spreading a disease rather than as a means to creating new life is what is truly creepy about Peeps.

When Cal's first girlfriend Sarah has healed (vampirism seems to be just a phase rather than permanent with the new strain, but they also need to take a drug), nothing is said about them getting back together. What if Sarah wanted to get back together with Cal? What if Cal and Lace want to have a monogamous relationship rather than spending their time having sex with strangers so they can save the world?

There are also Gnostic overtones in that only certain people have knowledge of the true nature of the disease. The "good vampires" seem to have no concept of the inherent dignity of individual human beings; the parasite carriers who wish to build an army of worm-fighters by seducing them do not inform them (informed consent, anyone?). They purposely plan not to give the pills to those they infect (p. 272; Cal steals Sarah's pills to give to Lace). And it is most likely that the newly infected, unless they are just carriers like Cal, will undergo a phase of vampirism during which they will be preying on their fellow human beings. Hey, but it's all for a good cause, right? "Chaos is a fair trade for our protection," says one of the insiders (p. 292). The end justifies the means.

I felt similarly ambushed when I read The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds. In that case, I had bought into the initial premise that the "compound mind" that was trying to take over a planet with the help of the Rix, an the store lesbian race that mutilate themselves in order to achieve superhuman powers, was evil. I never really bought into the twist that resulted in the hero and heroine, a military commander and a senator, respectively, to join them.

As an aside, one plot problem is that the vampires are much scarier than the worms. It's not clear whether the worms are malevolent or only animals (or why we're supposed to root for the humans over the worms--species sympathy?), but vampires with superhuman powers who live in the apartment next door and who want to eat you would have me hiding in a worm-infested subway any day.

Cal the main character is infected by a girl named Sarah, with an unusual STD, this STD turns its victims into "peeps." Cal is now a carrier. Peeps are "vampires" with night vision, unusual strength, and an affinity with rats. He then infects others. He needs to find all the girls he has infected. Later, Cal meets a girl named Lacey, and they investigate the apartment where Cal had gotten the disease. Lacy ends up getting the same disease as Cal and they end up falling in love. Lacy and Cal join Morgan's army and stay in New York to fight the worms. (another parasite).
The story is a little bit exciting, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I was going too. There were some parts that I liked, like when Cal would talk about all the different parasites. But that is what I thought was the most interesting. It's not a story that is believable.
The characters can be realistic in some ways, like falling in love, living in New York, going into tunnels, being infected by a disease. But the unrealistic things about the story that I think is getting infected with a disease where you go around infecting people who can finally see night vision, and have a connection with rats. I got a clear idea of what the characters look like, I have my own imagination what they would look like in real life.
Yes I do think that the science content is fictitious. Because people aren't like that in life. I would like to learn more about the different parasites that they talked about in the book because they all have different characteristics on what each of them do.
The book was an interesting one. I thought I would have liked it more because I liked to read the Twilight series, but I didn't it was just an odd type of style. I would recommend the book to people who like to read about parasites, and vampires, even if you like to read love stories.
I think girl, teenagers especially would like to read this book, I can't see an older women, men or young teenage boys reading the book. I overall would give this book a 2 or 3 just because of learning about different parasites they come up with and the love story at the end.

I bought Peeps because I really enjoyed the Uglies series. This is not near as good as the Uglies. I really would not recommend this book for young teens! I was really surprised at some of the content of this book seeing as it is recommended for young teens and won children's book awards. Don't let that fool you. I don't think its appropriate for anyone under the age of 17.

Peeps was a sci-fi novel mostly about parasites and evolution. You shouldn't read this book if you don't believe in evolution, I had that mistake. Scott Westerfeld sets the story with parasites that have adapted to the environment and Peeps are humans infected with the parasite, with vampire/cannibalism type traits. It's pretty addicting with all the conspiracies and living organism traits. I think Scott Westerfeld gets carried away with evolution though, it's only a theory, and he uses the book to share his opinion about it very annoyingly.