Review: Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (2005)

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Publication: Allyn & Bacon (2008), Paperback, 336 pages / ISBN 1595140832
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Teen
Rating: 3/5
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I previously read Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy and liked it enough to try out some of his other books. Peeps is about a guy named Cal who’s been infected with a parasite: vampirism. Unfortunately, he’s also infected some of his girlfriends, and he must now hunt them down and bring them back to the Night Watch– a secret organization dedicated to keeping the lid on this nasty Peep problem– for rehabilitation. But there’s something else going in New York besides vampires. There’s something living deep underground, beneath the subway and the sewers, and it’s waking up.

I thought Peeps had an interesting premise, but it wasn’t put together as well as the Uglies series was. There were some plot points that popped out of nowhere and seemed to go nowhere, or at least weren’t gone into any deeper than a few pages. Some of them, like the thing underground, I expect are further expanded in the sequel, but it would have been nicer if there was more explanation in this book. I think that Peeps could have actually used a few more chapters, which would have given it a bit more room to grow. The characters aren’t as vibrant or likable as they could have been; even Cal suffered a bit from (my) lack of empathic connection to him. (I also just didn’t really like him.) The writing itself wasn’t so bad, however, and I liked the connection between chapters about (non-vampire) parasites and the actual plot.

If you like books with a different take on vampires than the norm, I’d recommend checking Peeps out. It’s not spectacular, but it’s not bad either. I certainly plan on reading more of Westerfeld’s books.