Peeps

Book: Peeps
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: kiss the wrong person, get a vampire parasite

And now for something completely different: from a cute pink pig to the bloodsucking dangers of unsafe sex. But hey, at least this isn't a sequel!

During his first week in New York, Cal had a one-night stand, and now he's infected with the parasite that causes vampirism. A parasite? Who knew? The parasite's victims are known as parasite-positives, or peeps, to those in the know. Peeps quickly develop a voracious appetite for meat, including human, and grow to hate the things they once loved. That might be as general as sunlight (which doesn't kill them, they just hate it), or as specific as Elvis or potato salad. Cal is a rare variety of peep. He's a carrier, which means he has some of the advantages like increased strength and heightened senses, but without the insanity and desire to eat his neighbors. Under the direction of a secret vamp-tracking organization called the Night Watch, he's managed to track down all the girls he'd slept with (or even just kissed) before he realized what had happened to him, and now he must find his progenitor: Morgan, the mysterious girl who infected him. Her trail leads Cal underground to a world of abandoned tunnels, infected rats, and something dark and ancient awakening deep Underneath.

I've got a weakness for teen vampire novels, and I love everything Scott Westerfeld writes, so this one was kind of a no-brainer for me. Westerfeld does something interesting here: odd-numbered chapters contain the actual story, and even-numbered chapters are about parasites. Not the fictional vamp-asites from the story; just a collection of real parasites and how they survive. Disgustingly fascinating. Some theme or idea usually ties the parasite chapters to the surrounding story. The Peeps approach to the vampire legend gives too much credit to the almighty world-controlling power of biology, IMHO. I believe there's more to life than the carbon we're made of, or simple stimulus-response and survival. But the book is still a great read, and I really enjoyed it. Westerfeld has a great ear for cool that serves to give him a distictive, readable style without him resorting to just an orgy of product name-dropping. (Look, kids! I said "iPod!" Am I hip yet?) In other words, I think his books will still read cool in 10 years.

For a much more succinct teaser, here's an excerpt from Scott Westerfeld's website:
"I came up with the four important features that any vampire novel (of mine) had to include:
natural selection,
sexual attraction,
parasitic infection,
and Elvis memorabilia."

Or if you prefer a more graphic blurb (as in graphic novel), try the Unshelved Book Club's take on Peeps. I love those guys. Imagine a sitcom set in a public library and you've got Unshelved.