I’ve read a few of his books before — the Uglies trilogy, which I reviewed here, here, and here. I wasn’t perhaps as impressed with them as other people, partially because I was a bit worried about the disconnect between books that say that everyone looking and acting entirely the same is a problem, but then constantly rewarding the heroine . . . Well, in any case, that’s THOSE books. Mr. Westerfeld is married to Justine Larbalestier, and they split their time between Australia (her home country) and America (his), spending summer in both places. Usually here I mention that if I were to do that, I’d spend winter in both places, but I know I’m a little nuts.

Peeps is his vampire novel. It’s not particularly a YA book, but older YAs could certainly handle it. The main character, Cal, was infected with a parasite (he’s ‘parasite-positive’, a peep); the symptoms include light-shunning, cannibalism, and super strength and senses. Fortunately, he’s only what’s called a ‘carrier’ — he has most of the benefits but none of the bad symptoms, like insanity. After he caught the parasite, apparently an underground organization found him, and hired him as (basically) a vampire hunter. His first job? To find all his ex-girlfriends and, rather than informing them that they should be tested, he gets to catch them and contain them . . .

This is a really disgusting book. I say that with a surprising amount of glee. Every other chapter — well, practically every chapter — has some wonderfully disgusting information about parasites, from hookworms to parasite wasps to various kinds of flukes. While I wouldn’t exactly recommend eating while you’re reading this book (certainly not red meat), I thought it was great, especially with that same part of my brain that loves bodily function jokes and ice hockey. (Yes, I’m guessing that’s the twelve-year-old boy part of my brain.) It’s obvious that a good deal of this information was basically regurgitated (hah) from a handful of books — as a matter of fact, Westerfeld gives us the names of the books he used. Somehow, though, it didn’t annoy me one bit. I’m still confused as to how he did this.

Now, it’s definitely a stereotypical ‘guy’ book, in a lot of ways. There’s disgusting stuff involved (actually a really gross thing towards the beginning), parasites, and Cal in the guise of the narrator really enjoys describing a lot of the icky stuff. There’s also a lot of Telling People Stuff. Not only does Cal, as the narrator, get to explain everything (in that particular guy way of explaining complicated football plays, especially to hapless females) that’s happening in the story, but he gets to tell his entire story to at least one character. There’s very little romance in the book, but there is definitely sex. It’s definitely going to appeal strongly to males, even with the presence of primarily female characters, and a lot of cats. Females, I think, will enjoy it too, but in a different way.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of sly humor in the book. I can’t point to any specific examples of wordplay (other than some amusement about Cal’s cat-ownership status), but my overall impression of the book — and its world teetering on the edge of something — is actually not that dark at all. Mr. Westerfeld both gives us hope and enough amusement that even though we’re in a world with parasites and rats, everything seems to balance itself out and in the end, we believe that we’re all going to be okay. Generally speaking, though, I very much enjoyed the book, and I’d recommend it to guys, science-minded people, those who want their vampires with a little less romance, and those who are a little gross-minded. If you watch surgeries on TLC with glee, this is the book for you. 4.5/5 stars.